NEWS RELEASE

OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY

WESTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI

JOHN F. WOOD

Contact Don Ledford, Public Affairs ● (816) 426-4220 ● 400 East Ninth Street, Room 5510 ● Kansas City, MO 64106

www.usdoj.gov/usao/mow/index.html

DECEMBER 2, 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ST. JOSEPH COMPANY INDICTED FOR DUMPING POLLUTANTS

INTO CITY’S WASTEWATER SYSTEM

            KANSAS CITY, Mo. – John F. Wood, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a St. Joseph, Mo., company and its vice president were indicted by a federal grand jury today for discharging pollutants into the city’s wastewater treatment system in violation of the Clean Water Act.

            Oak Mill, Inc., along with the firm’s vice president, Robert Arundale, 79, of San Diego, Calif., were charged in an eight-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Kansas City. Oak Mill is a St. Joseph company that reclaims soybean oil for resale and in the process uses acid to remove vegetable oils from tanker trucks.

            According to today’s indictment, Oak Mill violated the provisions of its city-issued wastewater permit, which limits the type of wastewater that can be discharged into the public treatment facility, on eight separate occasions between Aug. 24, 2005, and Oct. 12, 2006. Arundale is also charged in two of those violations of the Clean Water Act.

            Oak Mill allegedly discharged wastewater with a pH level below 5.0 into the city’s wastewater treatment system on six separate occasions during August 2005, in violation of the pretreatment standard set for pH levels under the Clean Water Act.

            Oak Mill and Arundale allegedly discharged wastewater containing zinc and nickel, in amounts greater than authorized by the permit, into the city’s wastewater treatment system on two separate occasions in October 2006.

            Wood cautioned that the charges contained in this indictment are simply accusations, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charges must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.

            This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jane Pansing Brown. It was investigated by the Environmental Protection Agency, Criminal Investigation Division, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and the city of St. Joseph, Mo.

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This news release, as well as additional information about the office of the United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, is available on-line at

www.usdoj.gov/usao/mow/index.html