Man admits discharging pollutant

NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (WIVB) - Louie Zaninovich, 54, of Niagara Falls, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of negligently discharging a pollutant to the Niagara Falls Water Board's publicly owned treatment works in violation of the Clean Water Act.

The negligent discharge of a pollutant carries a maximum penalty of term of one year in prison, a fine of $25,000 per day of violation, and a term of supervised release of up to one year.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron J. Mango, who handled the case, stated that the defendant is the Plant Superintendent at the Tulip Corporation in Niagara Falls, New York. Tulip is a plastics recycling and molding operation, which recycles shredded battery casings, commonly referred to as "chips." Tulip purchases the chips from various suppliers, and then re-processes the chips by washing, drying, and re-extruding the chips into usable material.

Some of the chips processed and recycled by Tulip were contaminated with lead, and therefore are hazardous materials.

During the chip re-processing at Tulip, a significant amount of water is used to wash the lead off of the chips. From at least May 24, 2006, to November 8, 2007, the lead-contaminated water would then be captured in a large holding tank.

During that time, the lead-contaminated water was piped directly from the large holding tank to the sewer leading to the Niagara Falls POTW.

In the defendant's capacity as Plant Superintendent, the defendant should have been aware of the lead-contaminated water being discharged to the Niagara Falls POTW and acted negligently in allowing lead-contaminated water to be discharged to the POTW. This discharge was unknown to the Niagara Falls POTW, and was in violation of their pretreatment program.