Judge sends Oregon polluter to federal prison for 6 months

[depakid]

In a rare prison sentence for an environmental crime, the owner of a company that repeatedly mishandled waste oil and other hazardous material has been sentenced to six months in a federal penitentiary.

Donald Spencer will also pay a maximum $150,000 fine on behalf of his former company, Spencer Environmental Inc.

In a separate case, a former Spencer Environmental plant manager was indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury on charges of obstructing justice and giving a false statement in the death of a Spencer employee.

Spencer was convicted of failing to dispose properly of thousands of gallons of used oil, much of it dumped into a large open pit in southeast Portland. His company was also convicted of illegal treatment and disposal of wastewater contaminated with highly corrosive hydrofluoric acid.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Dwight Holton said the mishandled waste was the source of a catastrophic fire and was implicated in the case of a worker who "died a horrible death -- with his lungs gradually disintegrating."

Holton told U.S. District Judge Ancer Haggerty a prison term for Spencer was necessary because "it is imperative that a message be sent loud and clear -- we can't let environmental crimes such as this be treated as the cost of doing business."

Haggerty agreed the company shared some of the blame for the death of Tim Smith, a college student who died from lung damage in July 2003 about three weeks after he tried to clean a tank for an industrial customer of Spencer Environmental.

Because a Spencer Environmental manager ordered the tank filled with other material after Smith was hospitalized with breathing problems, prosecutors said it was impossible to prove any connection.

But the judge told Spencer during sentencing on Thursday there was "no question" that if his company had properly tested the tank for contamination Smith would not have been ordered to clean it.

"I realize that you or your company were not charged with the injury that resulted in death," Haggerty said, "but the government's argument for a penitentiary sentence has merit." cm-bd

Prison terms are rare in environmental cases. Only two previous cases in the past decade in the Pacific Northwest resulted in prison sentences, both in Idaho, according to U.S. Justice Department records.

More: http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2008/06/judge_sends_oregon_polluter_to.html

[hobbit709]

1. They should do more of this.

Get a rope, find a tree or lamppost.

[Sal Minella]

2. Many ropes, many trees......factory hog producers first....

[pscot]

3. Six months?

Ten years would be more like it. And 150K won't begin to cover the cost of cleanup.