PRAIRIEVILLE MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO
MISDEMEANOR FOR DISCHARGING OILY WASTE WATER INTO THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER
THEOFILO “PHIL” DAGSAAN, age 42, from Prairieville, Louisiana, pled guilty on April 24, 2012, to an environmental crime involving the discharge of oily waste water from a crew boat into the Mississippi River, announced U. S. Attorney Jim Letten today.
DAGSAAN pled guilty before U. S. Magistrate Judge Sally Shushan to one count of violation of the Clean Water Act. The maximum penalty DAGSAAN faces is one (1) year incarceration and a fine. Sentencing is scheduled for July 19, 2012.
The government filed a Bill of Information on February 16, 2012 charging DAGSAAN with a violation of the Clean Water Act for ordering employees to discharge oily waste water, a pollutant, into a water of the United States.
DAGSAAN admitted today that he was the manager of Company A’s Grandview Launch located in the Eastern District of Louisiana. The defendant was responsible for managing the captains and crew on the boats out of that launch, as well as the maintenance of the boats and disposal of oily waste accumulated through the operation of the boats. DAGSAAN was responsible for making the arrangements for a vacuum truck to haul off the oily waste water deposited in the slop oil tank.
On or about April 8, 2008, in the Eastern District of Louisiana, DAGSAAN instructed crew members to discharge bilge and engine waste water directly into the Mississippi River, a navigable water of the United States, after the crew had completed washing out and cleaning the engine rooms of a small crew boat at the launch because the slop oil tank was full. The crew boat was powered by two diesel engines which each has a capacity to hold seven gallons of oil. The crew never discharged engine oil only oily waste water. The defendant’s instruction was to pump the bilge down until the crew saw a sheen on the river and to stop immediately at that point.
This case was investigated by the United States Coast Guard Criminal Investigative Service and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Dorothy Manning Taylor.
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