THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 6, 1996 TAG: 9609060567
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 74 lines
The former president of a Norfolk shipyard was sentenced to 10 months in jail Thursday for dumping toxic paint chips and other contaminants into the Elizabeth River in 1993.
Also in federal court Thursday, a former sewage plant operator for Isle of Wight County schools was fined $2,500 and must repay the school system $1,815 for falsifying water-pollution reports in 1993.
The sentencings ended two longstanding cases involving violations of the national Clean Water Act, and gave members of a regional environmental crimes task force a rare chance to celebrate.
The task force - consisting of local, state and federal law enforcement agencies - works quietly and must spend months compiling evidence against illegal dumpers and polluters in Hampton Roads. The group was responsible for both cases Thursday.
George Madariaga, 48, former president of Virginia Dry Dock Corp., will start serving a 10-month jail stint next month as a result of years of dumping from his defunct shipyard in the shadow of the Campostella Bridge, according to court records and prosecutors. Madariaga started the company in 1990 and filed for bankruptcy in early 1994.
Now living in Florida, Madariaga admitted in court papers that, to cut corners and save money, his workers swept ``hundreds of tons'' of paint chips, sand-blast abrasives and other debris into the Eastern Branch of the Elizabeth between 1991 and 1994.
Such materials are supposed to be captured by special screens and kept from damaging waterways by other safeguards.
U.S. District Judge J. Calvitt Clarke Jr. also ordered Madariaga to pay a $12,000 balance on an outstanding $25,000 fine levied by state regulators in 1992 for discharging wastes without a permit.
His lawyer, Melvin Redin, has portrayed his client as a small businessman trying to compete in a struggling industry. ``He couldn't win,'' Redin said after Madariaga pleaded guilty to the federal pollution charge earlier this summer.
The case against Robert Gill, 41, a sewage plant operator, was different. Gill was never caught dumping any wastes. His crime was falsifying pollution reports at three Isle of Wight County public schools for three months in 1993, said assistant U.S. attorney Harvey Bryant. The schools are Smithfield High School, Windsor High School and Windsor Elementary.
State inspectors rely on the reports, which describe how much and what kinds of pollutants are found in discharges, to determine if violations have occurred.
Gill billed the School Board $605 for each report in July, August and December 1993, each of which claimed that sewage at the three schools met all environmental standards, Bryant said.
State inspectors got suspicious when the reports included no laboratory analysis of results. When they asked, Gill said he had received the analyses by phone from the labs; the labs, in turn, responded that they had never received any samples from Gill for those months, Bryant said.
Gill, of Hopewell, declined to make a statement Thursday before U.S. District Judge Henry Coke Morgan Jr., and he left court quickly after his sentencing. Morgan also ordered Gill to 30 days of home detention, where he must wear an electronic monitoring device.
Despite his troubles, Gill still holds a state license as a certified wastewater treatment operator, according to the Virginia Board of Waterworks and Wastewater Works Operators, in Richmond.
He no longer works for the Isle of Wight County School Board, however. His contract was terminated soon after state and federal officials began investigating the case, Bryant said. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
THE TASK FORCE
The environmental crimes task force - consisting of local, state
and federal law enforcement agencies - works quietly and must spend
months compiling evidence against illegal dumpers and polluters in
Hampton Roads.
KEYWORDS: CONVICTION CLEAN WATER ACT VIOLATION POLLUTION
ELIZABETH RIVER by CNB