Dumping used motor oil in a drain is water pollution, all right, and should be deterred, but this gentleman got a bigger fine for what he did than most major corporations that flush their tens of thousands of gallons of waste into a river...
From California. Maybe they take pollution more seriously there.
Blue Lake man fined for flushing motor oil into gutter
Saturday, January 08, 2005 -
EUREKA -- Superior Court Judge Marilyn Miles sentenced a Blue Lake man to two years of summary probation Friday and fined him $540 for flushing used motor oil into a gutter.
Shane Allen Gibbens, 33, had pleaded guilty to one count of permitting petroleum to pass into waters of the state or placing petroleum where it can pass into the waters of the state under the Fish and Game Code, a misdemeanor.
According to the District Attorney's Office, the Blue Lake Police Department received an anonymous call on Oct. 26, 2003, that Gibbens was spraying motor oil down the storm drain in the 300 block of Broad Street in Blue Lake.
When the police arrived at Gibbens' residence, Gibbens said he had noticed that a 5-gallon bucket of motor oil he had in the back of his Chevy Blazer had spilled and that he had used a garden hose to spray most of the oil down the gutter into the storm drain, which leads to the Mad River.
The police called a HazMat team, which cleaned up what was left of the oil.
"Used motor oil contains heavy metals and other constituents toxic to life," said Deputy District Attorney Paul Hagen in a press release. "It is also considered a hazardous waste and must be managed as such. We ask the public to respect not only the law, but the fact that even small actions can have consequences to public health and safety."
Posted by Dave at January 8, 2005 01:34 PM