By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

VACHERIE – The state Department of Environmental Quality recently levied a $200,000 fine on a Vacherie waste treatment company and its owner for dumping oily wastewater on the grounds around the now-closed facility.

Armant Environmental Services LLC and its owner, Charles Earnest Toth Jr., pleaded guilty Thursday to a combined four counts of violations of the facility’s Louisiana Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit. The pleas were heard by 23rd Judicial District Judge Alvin Turner Jr., who rendered the sentence the same day in a court appearance in Convent.

According to DEQ Criminal Investigation Division Manager Jeff Nolan, companies paid Armant Environmental to treat oily wastewater by filtration and microbial digestion, but workers at the plant broke pipes and allowed untreated wastewater to flood a pond on company property.

Nolan said DEQ investigators also discovered workers at the facility were sometimes dumping poorly treated water into the Mississippi River as well as emptying untreated wastewater from trucks onto the ground instead of into the treatment system. DEQ staff took soil samples on the property and determined there were chemicals related to oil and petroleum products around broken pipes on the ground.

According to the DEQ, Toth’s company received its LPDES permit to discharge treated wastewater at its site in July 2007. The earliest violation was an oil release incident in September 2007.

The investigation, which took place in June 2009, led to Toth’s arrest as well as the arrest of Armant Plant Manager Jeffery Wayne Dabadie of Gonzales. It is not clear whether further action will be taken against Dabadie, according to the DEQ release.

Turner ordered that Armant be responsible for completely repairing the environmental damage caused by the violations. The company must also pay $150,000 in fines, plus $15,000 to the DEQ to cover the investigation and another $30,000 to beautification groups in St. James, Ascension and Assumption parishes. The company has five years to clean the property and pay the fines, according to the DEQ.

Toth was sentenced to two years probation and a $5,000 fine. Although the company has since closed, it was also sentenced to five years supervised probation.

“Environmental crimes are as much a risk to public health and safety as other more traditional offenses we prosecute,” said St. James Parish District Attorney Ricky Babin.