FLORIDA MAN HANDED LONGEST PRISON SENTENCE EVER

US Department of Justice

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Marking the longest sentence ever handed out in a federal environmental crimes case, a Florida man today was sentenced to 13 years in prison for intentionally dumping toxic waste into Tampa's sewer system and waterways, the Justice Department announced.

Gary Benkovitz was sentenced today in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida for environmental crimes he committed from 1990 through 1998 as the owner of Bay Drum and Steel, a company that buys and reconditions 55-gallon storage drums.

Benkovitz, who uses the name Gary Blake, pleaded guilty in March 1999 to charges that he ordered his employees to illegally discharge hazardous waste into a storm sewer that empties into McKay Bay near Tampa. He also admitted that he directed employees to illegally dump polluted wastewater onto land next to one of his facilities. Moreover, Benkovitz acknowledged that he committed these environmental crimes even as he was awaiting sentencing for similar offenses at one of his other facilities in Tampa.

"This stiff sentence shows that those who repeatedly violate our nation's environmental laws will be severely punished," said Lois J. Schiffer, Assistant Attorney General for Environment and Natural Resources, "and it should serve as a warning to polluters who intentionally flout the law: You will be prosecuted and you will go to jail."

Bay Drum generated thousands of gallons of wastewater each week containing pesticides, heavy metals, and methyl chloride, a highly toxic solvent. From 1990 until 1996, the company cleaned thousands of dirty storage drums at a facility on Madison Street in Tampa. During this period, Bay Drum illegally discharged an estimated 3 million gallons of contaminated wastewater and more than 450,000 pounds of solid waste. Employees concealed illegal activity from regulators by discharging liquid waste before or after working hours and by using signals that warned of the presence of environmental inspectors. Benkovitz also paid Tampa sanitation employees to illegally transport hazardous solid waste generated at the facility to the City of Tampa incinerator.

In September 1997, Benkovitz pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate federal clean water and hazardous waste laws at the Madison facility.

Before pleading guilty to his criminal conduct at the Madison Street facility, Benkovitz had moved his company in 1996 to a different location on 43rd Street in Tampa. At the new facility, Florida regulators required Benkovitz to build a system to capture and recycle wastewater, precluding illegal discharges. Despite building this system, Benkovitz directed employees at the 43rd Street facility to illegally discharge more than 1 million gallons of wastewater into a storm drain leading directly to McKay Bay, and illegally dispose of more than 170,000 pounds of contaminated sludge on neighboring property, from August 1997 through June 1998. Benkovitz was actually committing these environmental crimes while awaiting sentencing for his earlier crimes at the Madison Street facility.

Today's sentence is based on both sets of charges of environmental crimes that he committed at the Madison Street facility and the 43rd Street facility. In addition, shortly after his most recent guilty plea in March 1999, Benkovitz sought to lease a new business property in Tampa. He told the prospective landlord that his new business, Containers of Tampa Bay, would wash only drums containing orange juice residue from Tropicana. However, the property owner visited the site and found hundreds of drums labeled with hazardous waste warnings. A search of the property conducted by the FBI and the EPA on August 2, 1999, revealed several drums containing hazardous waste. Federal prosecutors alleged in court today that Benkovitz's most recent conduct amounts to a felony under federal hazardous waste law.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Terri Donaldson in Tampa and by Daniel Dooher of the Department of Justice, Environment and Natural Resources Division. The case was investigated by EPA Criminal Investigation Division and the FBI, with assistance from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the Hillsborough County Emergency Protection Commission, and the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.