WASHINGTON MAN SENTENCED TO TWO YEARS IN PRISON FOR WATE AND AIR VIOLATIONS
26 years ago
On March 31, Howard N. Angell, of Bainbridge Island, Wash., was sentenced by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle to serve two years in prison followed by an additional three years of probation. Angell previously plead guilty to violating both the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the Clean Air Act (CAA). The defendant violated the CWA by illegally discharging approximately 13,000 gallons of gasoline and gasoline-contaminated wastewater into Henderson Bay, which is part of Puget Sound. Angell’s CAA conviction was the result of his directing other people to improperly remove asbestos from a building in May 1997. The building contained approximately 14,000 square feet of dry crumbly asbestos. Federal workplace standards for the safe removal of asbestos require that it be wetted before removal and that workers wear protective clothing. In this case, the asbestos was simply scraped and sandblasted from surfaces inside the building resulting in high levels of asbestos contamination both inside and outside of the building. This case was investigated by EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division, the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries, the Seattle Fire Marshall and the Puget Sound Air Pollution Control Agency.
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