Ohio BusinessmanPleads Guilty After Dumping Fracking Wastewater Into Mahoning River
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JULIE CARR SMYTH
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The former owner of a Youngstown-based
wastewater company pleaded guilty Monday to federal Clean Water Act
violations in the dumping of thousands of gallons of fracking wastewater
into a northeast Ohio storm sewer.
Ben Lupo,
63, changed his earlier not guilty plea during a hearing before Judge
Donald Nugent in federal court in Cleveland. He faces up to three years
in prison, a year of supervised release and fines of up to $50,000 per
day, to a maximum of $250,000. Sentencing is scheduled for June 16.
Authorities
had charged that Lupo, of Poland, Ohio, ordered an employee at Hardrock
Excavating LLC to repeatedly dump drilling mud and brine intended for
deep injection into a sewer that empties into the Mahoning River
watershed, or he dumped the material himself, between November 2012 and
January 2013.
The employee, 34-year-old
Michael Guesman of Cortland, was sentenced last week to 300 hours of
community service and three years of probation.
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