WASHINGTON (12/06/05) --  Cast-iron pipe manufacturer McWane Inc. (McWane) and company executives James Delk, Michael Devine, and Charles “Barry” Robison have been sentenced in federal court for environmental crimes connected with the operation of McWane Cast Iron Pipe Company in Birmingham, Alabama. 

Judge Robert Propst sentenced McWane to pay a fine of $5 million and serve a period of probation for five years. McWane, Inc. is also ordered to perform a community service project valued at $2.7 million. Judge Propst ordered McWane executive James Delk to serve probation for three years, including six months of home detention and a fine of $90,000; Mike Devine received two years of probation, including three months of home detention and a fine of $35,000; and Charles Robinson received two years of probation and a fine of $2,500. Additionally, Robinson will serve 150 hours of community service work.

After a six week trial McWane; James Delk, a former Vice President and General Manager; and Mike Devine, a former plant manager at and current employee of McWane in New Jersey, were found guilty in June of this year of conspiracy to violate the Clean Water Act (CWA) by discharging industrial process wastewater into Avondale Creek in Birmingham through storm drains, in violation of their permit. McWane and Delk were also convicted of 18 counts of discharging pollutants-including hydraulic oil and sludge containing zinc and lead-into Avondale Creek and eventually Village Creek, which runs into Bayview Lake, between May 1999 and January 2001. Devine was additionally convicted of seven counts of discharging pollutants into Avondale Creek between May 1999 and January 2000. In a related count, McWane and Charles Robison-its Vice President for Environmental Affairs-were convicted of making a false statement to the EPA by misrepresenting that various locations relating to wastewater management were acceptable when this was not an accurate description of those locations. Further, many of the purported inspections had not been conducted.

"The evidence at trial depicted years of illegal discharges and concerted efforts by company officials to hide those discharges from state and federal regulators," said Sue Ellen Wooldridge, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. "The Department of Justice takes seriously its responsibility to enforce the nation’s environmental laws and to prosecute to the fullest extent those who seek to break them." 

One additional individual, Donald Harbin, pleaded guilty on to a one-count information charging him with conspiracy to violate environmental laws connected with the operation of McWane Cast Iron Pipe Company. Harbin oversaw maintenance activities at the company during a period when it was allegedly discharging processed waste water into Avondale Creek in Birmingham in violation of a federal permit. Harbin is scheduled to be sentenced on December 19, 2005.

The case in Birmingham was investigated by Special Agents of the EPA and the FBI. Senior Trial Attorney Christopher Costantini and Trial Attorney Kevin Cassidy of the Environmental Crimes Section of the Department of Justice, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert O. Posey prosecuted the case.