Cabool Business Owner Pleads Guilty to Polluting Big Piney River

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – A Cabool, Mo., man pleaded guilty in federal court today to violating the Clean Water Act by dumping grease into the Big Piney River.

Brian Dale Fleming, 51, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge David P. Rush to one count of knowingly discharging a pollutant (used grease) into the Big Piney River without a permit. 

Fleming is the owner of BF Byproducts, LLC, which is located in Cabool. BF Byproducts (formerly Fleming Recycling) is a grease-recycling business. BF Byproducts uses trucks to collect used grease from hundreds of restaurants in Missouri, Arkansas and elsewhere. The grease is transported to the Cabool facility, where it is recycled for resale and a profit.

Drivers who work for BF Byproducts collect the used grease for further processing at the Cabool facility where it is hosed from the collection trucks to a pit at the facility. From the pit, the grease is pumped to tanks located on the facility for further heating. The heating process separates the used grease; any grease that falls to the bottom of the heat processing tank is considered waste.
    
Because the waste was not needed, employees were instructed by Fleming to pump the waste grease down the hill from the main plant processing facility. This waste grease that was illegally pumped from BF Byproducts entered an unnamed tributary that leads into the Big Piney River.

On April 2, 2015, the Environmental Protection Agency – Criminal Investigation Division (EPA-CID) executed a search warrant at BF Byproducts in conjunction with the Texas County, Mo., Sheriff's Department. The search warrant was issued after numerous residents near and adjacent to the grease processing facility complained of used grease being found in nearby ditches and tributaries leading to the Big Piney River.  

Under the terms of today’s plea agreement, the government and Fleming recommend a fine of $15,000 and a restitution payment to the state of Missouri of $3,818. This recommendation is made in light of the fact that Fleming already served a year and a day of incarceration after being convicted in a separate criminal case, in which he participated (with his brother and co-defendant) in a conspiracy to steal spent cooking oil from restaurants and transport the stolen property across state lines to a grease recycling business in Tulsa, Okla. Additionally, there was a Superfund cleanup conducted at BF Byproducts, and today’s plea agreement anticipates that there may be costs associated with the cleanup that are separate and apart from this criminal proceeding. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Abram McGull II. It was investigated by the Environmental Protection Agency – Criminal Investigation Division, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, the Texas County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department and the Cabool, Mo., Police Department.