Dive Brief:
- Waste Management Hawaii and two of its employees have pleaded guilty to charges from a January 2011 landfill spill, in which millions of gallons of contaminated storm water spilled from the Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill in Kapolei, HI into the ocean.
- The company will pay a $400,000 criminal fine for violating the Clean Water Act, and $200,000 in restitution to the Ko Olina Coast Community Association and the Malama Learning Center.
- Waste Management Hawaii Vice President Joseph Whelan and Environmental Protection Manager Justin Lottig will each pay $25,000 after both pleading guilty to a misdemeanor count of negligence.
Dive Insight:
Waste Management Hawaii, along with Whelan and Lottig, were all served a 13-count indictment last year that charged them with knowingly committing violations of the Clean Water Act, as well as conspiring to make false statements to Hawaii's Department of Health.
At the time of the incident, Gary Gill, deputy director with the state Department of Health, said that the situation should have never happened. "There's not supposed to be storm water running over a landfill and certainly a landfill is not supposed to erode and put garbage into the ocean," he said.
Despite the charges, an attorney for Waste Management has said that Whelan and Lottig acted "heroically" to prevent further harm or possible death during the spill.
