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Oilfield waste polluter Ben Lupo enters federal prison
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Lupo
AYER, Mass.
Ben Lupo has arrived at a Massachusetts medical facility to begin serving his 28-month federal prison term for ordering oilfield waste to be illegally dumped down a storm drain and into a Mahoning River tributary in Youngstown.
The oily mess necessitated a $3.1 million cleanup lasting more than a month.
Lupo, who pleaded guilty to violating the Clean Water Act, self-reported Tuesday to Federal Medical Center Devens, a U.S. Bureau of Prisons spokesman confirmed.
U.S. District Court Judge Donald C. Nugent in Cleveland imposed the prison term and a $25,000 fine on Lupo on Aug. 5.
Lupo, 64, of Springfield Township, is an “infirm,” diabetic kidney-transplant and knee-replacement recipient who undergoes daily kidney dialysis, according to testimony from his physician, Dr. Thomas N. Detesco of Boardman, at Lupo’s sentencing hearing.
Lupo’s lawyer, Roger M. Synenberg of Cleveland, urged probation or house arrest for the ailing Lupo, telling the judge a prison term would be “esssentially a death penalty” for his client.
However, Judge Nugent said the Bureau of Prisons told a court official that it has all of the medical facilities needed to treat Lupo.
Brad J. Beeson, the assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted the case, had urged the judge to impose the maximum sentence of 36 months in prison and a $250,000 fine on Lupo to deter others from similar conduct.
The Devens facility has 1,109 inmates, and Lupo will be among 129 inmates in a minimum-security camp there, according to Ed Ross, a U.S. Bureau of Prisons spokesman.
Arriving inmates undergo medical screening and orientation concerning religious, mental health, educational, vocational and other programs available to them at the prison, Ross said.
All Devens inmates who are medically cleared to work must work while housed at the prison, Ross said.
A series of 31 surreptitious, nighttime discharges from Lupo’s Salt Springs Road waste storage tanks began Nov. 1, 2012, and ended Jan. 31, 2013, when Ohio Department of Natural Resources agents, acting on an anonymous tip, saw an illegal discharge of brine, drilling mud and drill cuttings in progress.
Two employees of Lupo’s Hardrock Excavating LLC — Mark A. Goff, 46, of Newton Falls, and Michael P. Guesman, 35, of Cortland, who pleaded guilty to violating the Clean Water Act — got three years’ probation after saying they repeatedly dumped the waste at Lupo’s direction.