NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #19/NN_1992_19.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/6230

Text File | 1992-09-01 | 5.3 KB | 100 lines

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From: Nigel Allen <[e-mail]>
Subject: illegal dredging
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Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 03:11:39 GMT
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Here is a press release from the U.S Justice Department.

 Ship Yard Owners Indicted for Illegal Dredging of San Francisco Bay
 To: National Desk, California Correspondents
 Contact: U.S. Department of Justice, 202-514-2007

   SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 31 /U.S. Newswire/ -- United States Attorney
John A. Mendez and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator
William K. Reilly today announced the indictment of Donco Industries
Inc., Donald Manning and Charles Edgar James for alleged violations
of the Clean Water Act of 1972.
   Donco is a California corporation engaged in marine repairs with
corporate offices in Oakland and operates in a ship repair facility
at 894 Innes Ave., San Francisco.  Manning is the president and a
50 percent shareholder of Donco, and James is the secretary/chief
financial officer and the owner of the other 50 percent of Donco.
The corporation and two individuals were indicted by a federal grand
jury in San Francisco on Aug. 28, 1992, following an 18-month
investigation by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Defense
Criminal Investigative Service, and the Naval Investigative Service.
   The 15-count indictment charges that Manning, James and others
were involved in a scheme to illegally dredge the marine railway
tracks and the channel leading into Donco's 3.6 acre site at India
Basin and to dump the dredged material into the San Francisco Bay off
Hunters Point.  The indictment alleges that beginning in February
1990, Donco obtained four separate contracts with the U.S. Navy for
the repair and overhaul of small navy vessels, and thereafter
employed various means to dredge underwater portions of their boat
yard without obtaining permits from the Army Corps of Engineers as
required by the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899 and the Clean Water
Act of 1972.
   The indictment further alleges that Manning and James took a
"hands on" role in the illegal dredging, and that Manning personally
directed the activities of the Donco employees and independent
contractors who dredged the channel and other portions of the boat
yard.
   The indictment describes an illegal dredging operation conducted
in three phases over a six-month period in 1990.  The first phase
allegedly took place in June 1990 and was accomplished by use of a
mechanical clamshell dredge or a crane mounted on a barge.  It is
claimed that the mud and spoils removed by the clamshell dredge were
placed on a mud scow, and at Manning's direction, were dumped off the
southern portion of the former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard.  The
second phase took place in August 1990 when divers and Donco
employees used hydrualic pumps to suction pump mud and water on to
the shore of Donco's property.  The final phase took place in
September and October 1990, and involved the use of a "Pit Hog" or a
floating horizontal auger dredge which also deposited mud and water
on the shore of Donco's property.
   William K. Reilly, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
administrator, was quoted as saying: "The U.S. EPA will not tolerate
this flagrant disregard for San Francisco Bay and the law."
   Each count of the indictment charges a felony and carries a
possible penalty of up to three years in prison and a $250,000 fine
for the individual defendants.  The corporation faces a possible
$1 million fine for each offense.  Manning, age 51, of Vallejo, and
James, age 50, of Petaluma, are scheduled for arraignment before
Federal Magistrate Judge F. Steele Langford, 18th floor, Federal
Building at 9:30 a.m. on Sept. 18, 1992.
   In announcing today's indictment, United States Attorney Mendez
noted that this was the seventh criminal dredging case brought under
the Clean Water Act of 1972 nationwide and the first involving the
San Francisco Bay.  Mendez stated that criminal offenses impacting
the San Francisco Bay was the top priority on the Northern District
of California's list of Environmental Criminal Enforcement Priorities
established in concert with the Federal Law Enforcement Coordinating
Subcommittee on Environmental Crimes for this district.
   The subcommittee is comprised of 14 federal law enforcement
agencies and was created to facilitate the coordination of the
investigative efforts of federal agencies which have responsibility
for the criminal enforcement of environmental statutes and to support
federal environmental prosecutions in the United States District
Court.
   Mendez also stated that he has dedicated an assistant United
States Attorney to develop and handle environmental prosecutions in
conjunction with the LEC subcommittee and local agencies, and that
there will be an overall step-up in federal environmental criminal
enforcement in the Northern District of California.
   The case will be prosecuted by assistant United States Attorney
Dennis Michael Nerney, 415-556-8512.
 -30-
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