State convicts 2 illegal dumpers
Convictions in two separate cases of illegal dumping could net two Oahu companies $50,000 in fines and up to five years in prison for their presidents, the state attorney general announced this week.
A state court accepted no-contest pleas Nov. 22 from Rick Martin, 40, and Martin's Farms Inc. on two counts of felony solid waste pollution regarding construction demolition rubble illegally dumped on Dec. 2 in an Aiea neighborhood and on Jan. 27 near Kawainui Marsh in Kailua, according to a news release.
Earlier this month the state accepted guilty pleas from James Wyse and Pacific Waste Services Inc. on two counts of felony solid waste pollution regarding illegal storage and transfer of trash at its Campbell Industrial Park base yard between Dec. 28 and March 8.
Citizen reports led to both investigations and prosecutions, said Marcus Sierra, a deputy state attorney general who worked on the cases.
In the Martin case, a number of Kailua residents and the watchdog group Envirowatch questioned the presence of boulder-size pieces of concrete rubble and other demolition materials on private land that is near the protected marsh, Sierra said Tuesday.
Original concerns that the waste material might have affected nearby water bodies were ruled out, Sierra said. But investigations by the state Department of Health and the attorney general's office found violations of the size and quality of concrete rubble that is acceptable as fill material, he said.
In the Wyse/Pacific Waste Services case, the company accumulated "large amounts of solid waste on-site after their access to Waimanalo Gulch (landfill) was suspended for non-payment of fees," the release said.
Martin did not respond to a request for comment, and Wyse's attorney Howard Chang refused comment.
The two cases are the latest in a push by the attorney general's office to criminally prosecute more environmental crimes, Sierra said.
"We are clamping down, and we are looking at cases that set a community precedent," Sierra said. "People are not aware of how bad their conduct is on the environment until they see it in newsprint."
In 2004 only two environmental crimes were prosecuted, Sierra said. They were convictions against former city solid waste manager Peter Kealoha in connection with the illegal burial of 214 tons of used appliances at the old Waipahu Incinerator site, for which Kealoha received a $2,400 fine for 24 petty misdemeanor counts; and a maximum $50,000 fine against John T. King for illegally dumping dirt into Kaneohe Bay.
In 2005 there were three cases prosecuted, one of which was a record settlement of $7.8 million, in cooperation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, against James Pflueger for large-scale illegal grading and earth moving at Pilaa, Kauai.
In the past year there have been 11 cases prosecuted, the attorney general's office said: six solid-waste cases, four water pollution cases and one case of falsified records.