| SAN FRANCISCO -- A former manager of the Crockett-Valona
waste water treatment plant has been indicted by a federal
grand jury for allegedly falsifying reports to federal
regulators about pollutants discharged into the Carquinez
Strait.
William J. Perley, 49, a former resident of Concord who now
lives in Placerville, was indicted on 10 counts of filing
false monthly reports on plant discharge to the federal
Environmental Protection Agency and the state Regional Water
Quality Control Board.
Perley, who would not comment Friday on the indictment, was
manager of the treatment plant from January 1995 to July 1998.
He was employed by Parsons Engineering Sciences, which ran
the plant under contract with C&H Sugar Co. The plant
treats water for both the sugar refinery and the Crockett-Valona
Sanitary District.
C&H, whose offices were closed for Good Friday, could
not be reached for comment.
According to the indictment, announced Thursday by the U.S.
attorney's office in San Francisco, Perley reported no
discharges of chlorine on 10 separate monthly reports from
1996 to 1998 when in fact "material amounts" of
chlorine were present.
Highly toxic, particularly to fish, chlorine is commonly
used to treat waste water, but is supposed to be removed by
safer compounds before the water is released.
The state water board sets a zero limit for chlorine
discharge into the Bay.
The EPA and FBI have been investigating the treatment plant
for the past eight months after a water board inspector found
discrepancies during a routine check at the plant, said Teng
Chung Wu, the board's district chief. C&H told
investigators of at least 22 incidents where elevated chlorine
levels apparently went unreported.
Although investigators would not comment on the specifics
of the case, typically they check the accuracy of monthly
reports against raw data stored at the plant.
In addition to the federal criminal case, the water board
is continuing to investigate the plant for civil violations,
said Wu. "As far as our portion is concerned, it's not
the end of it."
U.S. attorney's office spokesman Matthew J. Jacobs would
not say if the federal investigation ended with the
indictments.
The federal criminal charges carry a maximum penalty of
five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count.
The maximum civil penalty is $10,000 per count. Plants also
can lose their operating licenses.
A date for Perley's arraignment has not been set. |