- File photo. sweet lil’ bunny / Foter / CC BY-NC
Patrick Henry Procino, 66, of Laurel, was sentenced Thursday by United States District Court Judge Richard G. Andrews to one year probation, a $50,000 fine and a $100 special assessment for one count of illegal storage of hazardous waste without a permit.
On October 15, 2013, the owner/operator of Procino Plating, Inc. entered a guilty plea on behalf of that corporation to one count of violating the Clean Water Act. Procino was also sentenced on the Clean Water Act violation to five years’ probation and a $400 special assessment. He had faced a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
According to statements made at the plea hearing and documents filed in court, Procino owned and operated Procino Plating, Inc. in Blades, Del. until the fall of 2007, the site was used for plating and electroplating-related operations.
Documents and statements indicated that the company did not obtain a hazardous waste permit. From December 2007 through May 2010, the company stored a tank containing approximately 450 gallons of liquid hazardous waste which originally had been used at the facility on its decorative chrome plating line.
From June 2009 through March 2010, Procino Plating processed, through its wastewater treatment plant, stored drums of chemicals that were left over from its former electroplating operations and, in violation of its Clean Water Act mandated permit, discharged resulting wastewater to the Seaford treatment plant, prosecutors said.
“For years the defendant knowingly disregarded federal and state environmental laws,” said David G. McLeod, Jr., special agent in charge of EPA’s criminal enforcement program for the Middle Atlantic States. “Improperly handling hazardous wastes and industrial pollutants can threaten the environment and put the public at serious risk. Today’s sentencing demonstrates our resolve to collaborate with our state and federal counterparts to vigorously investigate and prosecute any credible allegation that a company and its leaders treat our nation’s environmental laws with contempt.”
This case was investigated by the Environmental Protection Agency, Criminal Investigation Division, and the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control-Criminal Investigations.
