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Fifth oil-field waste dumping defendant gets three years' probation
youngstown
YOUNGSTOWN
A federal judge has sentenced the fifth defendant in the dumping of oil-field waste into a Mahoning River tributary in Youngstown to three years’ of probation and ordered him to complete 150 hours of community service.
David N. Jenkins, 34, of Warren, who pleaded guilty in July to violating the Clean Water Act, drew the sentence Tuesday from U.S. District Court Judge Christopher A. Boyko in Cleveland, who imposed no fine on him.
Jenkins was sentenced a week before the scheduled release next Tuesday of his boss, Ben Lupo, 66, from the Federal Medical Center, Devens, in Ayer, Mass.
Lupo is completing the 28-month prison term he received after pleading guilty to violating the act. He was fined $25,000.
In a sentencing memorandum, Jenkins’ lawyers – Attys. John McCaffrey and Adrienne B. Kirshner of Cleveland – asked Judge Boyko to consider Jenkins’ acceptance of responsibility for his crime, and the probation sentences two co-defendants received for the same crime.
The memorandum says Jenkins was unaware the storm drain into which the waste was emptied flowed into an unnamed Mahoning River tributary.
It also says Jenkins feared losing his job if he didn’t follow Lupo’s orders concerning waste dumping.
Jenkins admitted violating the act by directing Michael P. Guesman, another employee of Hardrock Excavating LLC, 2761 Salt Springs Road, to dump fracking waste into a storm drain flowing into that unnamed tributary without a permit.
Lupo, Hardrock’s owner, directed Jenkins to contact employees about emptying the stored waste liquids into the storm-water drain at night, the U.S. attorney said.
Hardrock provided services to the oil and gas industry in Ohio and Pennsylvania, including the storage of brine and oil-based drilling mud used in hydrofracturing, or fracking.
The facility had about 58 mobile storage tanks, each holding about 20,000 gallons.
Lupo, of Springfield Township, directed employees to empty some of the waste liquid stored at the facility into the drain on or about Nov. 1, 2012, when they were alone after dark.
The last time an employee emptied waste liquid into the drain was Jan. 31, 2013.
The other defendants in this case were Guesman, of Cortland, and Mark A. Goff of Newton Falls, who were put on probation after pleading guilty to violating the act and saying they repeatedly dumped the waste at Lupo’s direction; and Hardrock Excavating LLC, which pleaded guilty to violating the act and was fined $75,000.
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine filed a civil lawsuit against all five defendants in the federal case, plus D&L Energy Inc., another Lupo company, for more than $25,000 on June 3 in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
The suit said the discharges from Hardrock violated state environmental-protection laws at least 25 times.
The federal case was prosecuted by Brad Beeson, an assistant U.S. attorney, after an investigation by federal, state and local authorities.