NY plant fined $12.5M for pollution

Associated Press

BUFFALO, N.Y.

An industrial plant that knowingly released hundreds of tons of the carcinogen benzene into the air over a five-year span and improperly handled hazardous sludge on the ground was fined $12.5 million Wednesday, and a manager was sentenced to a year in jail.

Tonawanda Coke Corp. and its former environmental manager, Mark Kamholz, were convicted of federal environmental crimes last year in a case that began with do-it-yourself air testing by neighbors of the plant.

The plant, along the Niagara River, burns coal to produce coke, used in steelmaking.