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MARYLAND TRASH COMPANIES AND COMPANY OFFICIAL SENTENCED
Release Date: 10/07/99
Contact Information:
- United States Communications, Education,
Environmental Protection And Media Relations
Agency (1703)
Press Advisory
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FOR RELEASE: THURSDAY, OCT. 7, 1999
MARYLAND TRASH COMPANIES AND
COMPANY OFFICIAL SENTENCED
COMPANY OFFICIAL SENTENCED
A.W. Stevens and Sons Waste Disposal Systems Inc.(A.W. Stevens), of Prince George’s County, Md.; St. Mary’s Disposal Systems, Inc., of St. Mary’s County, Md.; and Michael W. Stevens, Vice President of A.W. Stevens; were all sentenced on Sept. 24, in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt for federal crimes from the operation of an illegal solid waste disposal operation. A.W. Stevens and St. Mary’s Disposal were sentenced
to pay a total of $1.3 million for false claims, false statements, and Clean Water Act violations. Michael W. Stevens, who previously pleaded guilty to one count of filing false claims against the United States Navy, was sentenced to five months imprisonment followed by five months home confinement, and was ordered to pay a $30,000 fine. The defendants operated illegal solid waste transfer stations in Prince George’s and St. Mary’s counties. These stations did not have permits to operate, and were used to ship solid waste from the Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Indian Head Naval Ordinance Station and the U.S. Naval Academy in Anapolis to Virginia. The companies’ contracts with the Navy called for the waste to be disposed of at facilities in the District of Columbia and Maryland which had higher landfill tipping fees than the Virginia facilities. The defendants submitted false papers to the Navy that claimed the waste was disposed of in Maryland and the District of Columbia, and then billed the government for its higher cost of disposal. As a result, the Navy was overcharged by approximately $800,000. The companies also washed trucks at the illegal transfer stations, causing pollution to run into a tributary of the Potomac River. In addition to the criminal fine the companies will pay a $2 million federal civil penalty, and a separate civil action in state court will result in $80,000 in fines being paid to both Prince George’s and St. Mary’s counties. The case was investigated by EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the FBI, the Maryland Department of the Environment, the St. Mary’s County Planning and Zoning Administration and the Prince George’s County Environmental Crimes Task Force and was prosecuted by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Maryland Attorney General’s Office.
R-122 ###
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