THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, June 6, 1996 TAG: 9606060415
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 71 lines
Bankruptcy, environmental trouble and now a guilty plea to a felony for polluting the Elizabeth River. Norfolk was not a happy place for George Madariaga, the former president of the defunct Virginia Dry Dock Corp.
On Wednesday, Madariaga returned here from his new home in Hialeah, Fla., to try to end his odyssey into the ship repair business.
Madariaga, 48, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Norfolk to violating the federal Clean Water Act by dumping toxic paint chips and other debris into the Eastern Branch of the Elizabeth River in 1993.
At the time, his company was under a state order to stop illegally discharging paint wastes in this manner.
If allowed to fall freely into a waterway, the wastes are known to damage aquatic life.
Under state and federal law, shipyards are required to put up curtains to catch paint chips sandblasted from a ship's hull, and to apply other safeguards to minimize impacts of painting and sandblasting on the environment.
Despite the state order, investigators witnessed dock workers over two days in 1993 use shovels, buckets, brooms, hoses and a small truck to dump materials into the river, according to court records.
Madariaga faces up to three years in jail and a $250,000 fine at his sentencing, scheduled for Sept. 5, according to a plea agreement signed Wednesday with the U.S. Department of Justice.
His attorney, Melvin Radin, described his client as a small-businessman who tried to compete in a large and struggling industry.
``He couldn't win,'' Radin said. ``He probably knew he was doing some things wrong, but he didn't know about others.''
Madariaga was released on a $5,000 bond and returned to Florida on Wednesday, Radin said. Madariaga could not be reached for comment.
Under the plea agreement, Madariaga also admitted that over the life of his company, from 1991 to 1994, his crews unlawfully dumped ``hundreds of tons'' of paint wastes into the Elizabeth from company docks at the southern end of the Campostella Bridge.
In addition, he must settle a $12,000 debt remaining from a separate $25,000 fine he received in 1992 from the State Water Control Board.
That fine was for numerous violations chalked up between 1991 and 1992, including discharging pollutants without a permit.
Madariaga never obtained that permit. But he hired an engineer and began to try to comply with environmental discharge laws.
He stockpiled wastes on land, instead of releasing them into the water, but he continued to let materials wash into the river ``when hurrying to complete a job or when compliance was difficult or inconvenient,'' according to the plea agreement.
By doing so, he managed to save thousands of dollars in labor and disposal costs, the agreement said.
In early 1994, he declared bankruptcy and closed his business that year, prosecutors and officials said.
The case against Madariaga was developed by the Tidewater Environmental Crimes Task Force, an organization of local, state and federal law enforcement officials.
``The United States is committed to working with the state of Virginia to identify and prosecute those persons who knowingly violate our nation's environmental laws despite repeated warnings,'' said Helen F. Fahey, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, in a statement. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
[Box]
THE LAW
Under state and federal law, shipyards are required to put up
curtains to catch paint chips sandblasted from a ship's hull, and to
apply other safeguards to minimize impacts of painting and
sandblasting on the environment.
KEYWORDS: WATER POLLUTION ELIZABETH RIVER U.S. DISTRICT COURT by CNB