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ALLIED ENVIRONMENTAL CONVICTED OF CONSPIRACY TO DUMP WASTEWATER

Release Date: 10/20/99
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1999
WWW.USDOJ.GOVTDD

WASHINGTON, D.C. - A federal jury today convicted Allied Environmental Services, Inc. and its president with conspiracy to dump more than 300,000 gallons of wastewater contaminated with petroleum into underground wells - an activity that can pollute drinking water. The jury in Tulsa, Okla., also convicted the owner of Overholt Trucking, which transported the wastewater to Oklahoma.
The jury found that both Allied Environmental and its president, Koteswara Attaluri, conspired to violate federal clean water and hazardous waste laws and committed fraud. Federal prosecutors identified Attaluri as the leader of an illegal scheme to dump the wastewater into injection wells in Oklahoma. The jury also convicted Overholt Trucking owner Mac DeWayne Overholt for the same conspiracy and fraud charges, as well as criminal charges under the Clean Water Act and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.
"We are pleased with today's verdict," said Lois J. Schiffer, Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division. "We will continue to vigorously prosecute cases involving threats to our nation's drinking water."
To protect underground drinking water sources, the Safe Drinking Water Act prohibits the unauthorized use of injection wells that are associated with oil and gas production. As part of its environmental consulting business, Overland Park, Kan.-based Allied was involved in the removal of underground storage tanks and petroleum-tainted wastewater from military facilities in Kansas and Missouri.
"Protecting drinking water is vital to the health of the American people," said EPA Assistant Administrator Steve Herman. "Criminal disregard for public health and the environment will not be tolerated. Today's action should serve as notice that clean water and hazardous waste laws will be enforced and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
The government charged that Allied and Attaluri arranged with Overholt to transport the wastewater to Oklahoma and inject it into wells in Cushing, Beggs, and Lincoln County without a permit issued by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission.
The scheme occurred over a 15-month period during 1994 and 1995 and involved the disposal of more than 310,000 gallons of petroleum-contaminated wastewater into injection wells.
The defendants will be sentenced on January 31, 1999 in U.S. District Court in Tulsa. They were immediately jailed following the verdicts today. The remaining defendant who was charged in the case, Allied employee Gary Bicknell, was acquitted today.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Criminal Investigation Divsion; the Department of Defense, Criminal Investigative Services; and the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality. It was prosecuted by United States Attorney Stephen Lewis of the Northern District of Oklahoma and Senior Trial Attorney Andrew Goldsmith of Environment and Natural Resources Division of the Justice Department.

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