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http://posttrib.suntimes.com/11426453-537/...es-charges.html

Former Michigan City wastewater plant superintendent faces charges

By Teresa Auch Schultz tauch@post-trib.com March 20, 2012 8:36PM

Reprints

Updated: March 21, 2012 2:05AM


Federal prosecutors have charged the former superintendent of Michigan City’s wastewater treatment plant with violating the Clean Water Act, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Hammond.

Daniel R. Olson, 62, of Merrillville, faces three counts of lying under the act. A copy of the information filed against him was not available in court records as of Tuesday evening.

According to the release, Olson knowingly lied three times from July 2007 through June 2010. The release says he knowingly failed to report that water that had bypassed the treatment process was released into Trail Creek, which feeds into Lake Michigan.

He also knowingly lied by not reporting water samples that showed total chlorine residuals above levels allowed by the district’s permit, according to the release. The third count deals with Olson delaying taking daily water samples looking for E. coli levels until the level of chlorine, which kills E. coli, was elevated.

The Post-Tribune previously reported on problems with the MCSD, including that state officials had discovered these problems in May 2009, when an Indiana Department of Environmental Management report showed that the sanitary district knew water had bypassed the treatment process 18 times in 2009 and that it had reported just one overflow during a three-year period.

A whistle-blower finally alerted state officials.

Olson denied in 2010 that any overflows took place at B&E Marina, which sits by the mouth of Trail Creek.

The 2009 report from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management said several sanitary district employees reported seeing overflows into Trail Creek and that they all believed management knew about the problems.

It was unclear as of Tuesday if Olson had been arrested. The case was investigated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which is part of the Northern District of Indiana Environmental Crimes Task Force. Anyone with information about an environmental crime can call the task force at (312) 886-9872 or go to epa.gov/compliance/complaints/index.html.

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http://thenewsdispatch.com/articles/2012/0...47095271508.txt

Former wastewater plant superintendent charged in federal court

Staff Reports
Published: Wednesday, March 21, 2012 5:07 PM CDT
MICHIGAN CITY — The U.S. Attorney’s Office on Tuesday filed felony charges against Daniel R. Olson, 62, Merrillville, the former superintendent of the J.B. Gifford Wastewater Treatment Plant in Michigan City, alleging three counts of making a false statement under the Clean Water Act.

The charges cover the time period between July 2007 and June 2010, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Olson, who served as plant superintendent for abut 10 years, unexpectedly announced his retirement on June 7, 2010, days after the Environmental Protection Agency served a search warrant at the plant for documents and samples, according to June 2010 News-Dispatch reports.

The first count charges Olson with knowingly failing to make a required report of a bypass of a treatment process before discharging waste streams into Trail Creek, a tributary of Lake Michigan.

The second count charges Olson with knowingly making a false material representation by selectively reporting only those sample results regarding discharges that showed compliance with Michigan City’s permit and knowingly failing to report discharge samples that showed noncompliance with Michigan City’s permit.

Click here to find out more!
The third count charges Olson with tampering with a monitoring method, that is taking the daily sample of waste water to test for E. coli, as required under Michigan City’s permit, by delaying the taking of the sample until the point in time during the treatment process when the treatment chemical (chlorine) was elevated and when E. coli concentrations would be at lower levels.

During that same period, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management conducted their own investigation at the waste water plant.

In a preliminary report, the state agency cited three incidents in which sewage was discharged before completing the treatment process. These were allegedly not reported to the state within the 24-hour mandatory reporting period, according to previous reports in the News-Dispatch.

One of the incidents referenced in the IDEM report was made by Ron Meer, who is now Michigan City mayor, and who worked for the Sanitation District at the time. He reported sewer overflow incidents, which were not documented properly and not reported to the state, the IDEM investigation alleged.

Meer was later fired by his supervisors, which resulted in a Department of Labor investigation into the termination. Meer said he cooperated in both investigations.

“During that last 10 years, we’ve inherited quite a mess,” Meer said in a phone interview Tuesday.

He said he levels the blame at the Sanitation District’s manager Al Walus, the former mayor Chuck Oberlie and former commission board.

“These problems occurred under the last administration,” he said, adding that fixing those errors and problems are now on his shoulders, with the cost to oversee and implement the agreement the city reached with the state likely to be passed on to sewer district customers via a rate increase.

The charges levied against Olson came from an investigation undertaken by the Criminal Investigation Division of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which is part of the Northern District of Indiana Environmental Crimes Task Force.

The Task Force encourages citizens in the Northern District of Indiana to report environmental crimes to (312) 886-9872 or at the website www.epa.gov/compliance/complaints/index.html.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Wayne T. Ault and Environmental Crimes Section Trial Attorney R.J. Powers.

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http://posttrib.suntimes.com/news/lake/115...-fed-court.html

Michigan CIty treatment plant manager pleads guilty in fed court

By Teresa Auch Schultz tauch@post-trib.com March 26, 2012 4:34PM

Reprints

Updated: March 26, 2012 9:02PM


The former superintendent of Michigan City’s waste water treatment plant will plead guilty to violating the Clean Water Act during a period of eight years.

According to a plea agreement filed Monday in the U.S. District Court in Hammond, Daniel R. Olson, 62, of Merrillville, faces up to two years in prison.

Olson was charged in federal court last week after prosecutors claimed that he continually failed to report sewage overflows and high levels of chemicals and tampered with tests checking for e. coli levels.

He admits to all three in the agreement, saying that starting in 2006, he knew that water that hadn’t properly been treated was released into Trail Creek, which empties into Lake Michigan.

He also hid test results showing a levels of Total Residual Chlorine elevated past levels allowed by government permits.

And, starting in 2002, he manipulated the tests for e. coli by delaying taking samples until the amount of chlorine was high enough to mask the actual levels of e. coli.

A change of plea hearing has been set for April 5, according to court records.

The Post-Tribune has previously reported problems with the Michigan City Sanitary District, including that district employees knew that water had bypassed the treatment process 18 times in 2009, yet reported just one overflow in a three-year period of time.

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Wow, Olsen is pleading guilty, and getting reduced time. I wonder if that means he is going to cooperate and take down others with him?

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I asked the United States District Court Northern District of Indiana Hammond Division if this meant that either the case was closed, or there were still investigations going on, and they offered no comment, but did enclose the plea agreement, which I am attaching here. I am excerpting the admission of guilt from Dan Olsen. The full document can be clicked and viewed in its entirety below.

I admit that, from October 2000 to June 2010, I was the Superintendent and certified operator of the J.B. Gifford Wastewater Treatment Plant located at 1100 East Eighth Street, Michigan City, Indiana (“the Plant”), which is owned and operated by the Michigan City Sanitary District (MCSD). The Plant collected wastewater and sewage for treatment via the city sewer system. The treatment facility=s final effluent outfall (designated Outfall 001) discharges to Trail Creek, a water of the United States, approximately 1.8 miles upstream of Lake Michigan. The collection system is comprised of partially combined sanitary and storm sewers with one combined sewer overflow location (CSO).

Discharges of pollutants into waters of the United States through a point source are required to be permitted under Section 1311 of the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. §1251, et seq. (“CWA”). The Indiana Department of Environmental Management (“IDEM”) is approved under the CWA to issue such permits in Indiana. The Plant operated under a federally enforceable CWA permit issued by IDEM - National Pollution Discharge Elimination System Permit No. IN0023752 (“the Permit”) - authorizing MCSD to discharge treated domestic sewage from the Plant to Trail Creek from outfalls identified in the Permit, subject to terms and conditions including effluent conditions for certain pollutants.

The Permit prohibits MCSD from bypassing any part of its treatment system, except under limited circumstances. Regardless, any bypass must be self-reported to IDEM on IDEM forms known as Monthly Reports of Operation (“MROs”) and U.S. EPA forms known as Discharge Monitoring Reports (“DMRs”).

The Permit also sets forth discharge limits on the concentration of pollutants contained in the wastewater, called effluent limitations. The pollutants regulated by the Permit and subject to effluent limitations included, among other things, Escherichia coli bacteria (“E.coli”) measured in colonies per 100 milliliters or cfu (colony forming units per 100 milliliters) and Total Residual Chlorine (“TRC”), measured in milligrams per liter.

MCSD was required to sample its discharges in accordance with the Permit, analyze them, record the results, and then report them to IDEM on MROs and DMRs. On each MRO and DMR that I prepared, signed and submitted to IDEM on behalf of the Michigan City Sanitary District I certified that:

Under penalty of law that this document and all attachments were prepared under my direction or supervision in accordance with a system designed to assure that qualified personnel properly gather and evaluate the information submitted. Based on my inquiry of the persons who manage the system, or those persons directly responsible for gathering the information, the information submitted is, to the best of my
knowledge and belief, true, accurate, and complete. I am aware that there are significant penalties for submitting false information, including the possibility of fine or imprisonment for knowing violations.

From in or about November 2006 and continuing through in or about April 2010, I filled out, signed and submitted multiple MROs to IDEM wherein I failed to report unauthorized bypasses of the Plant’s sand filter treatment system during the reporting period. Specifically, I knowingly failed to report to IDEM when MCSD personnel were bypassing the sand filter treatment system due to sludge blankets that had spilled over the
clarifier weir and were released directly to the chlorine contact chamber before being discharged to Trail Creek. I then certified that the information that was falsely reported was true, accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge, which was in fact, not true. I did this in order to conceal a violation of the terms and conditions set forth in the Permit.

From in or about August 2007 to October 2009, I knowingly made false statements in multiple MROs that I submitted to IDEM wherein I failed to report true, accurate and complete sample analysis results for TRC. Specifically, I knowingly reported only those Plant effluent sample test results for TRC that were within permit parameters instead of the average of all test results of samples taken the same day. I also failed to report the average of the TRC test results of the samples taken from the chlorine contact chamber
effluent and instead only reported one of those results. I then certified that the information that was falsely reported was true, accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge, which was in fact, not true. I did this in order to conceal a violation of the terms and conditions set forth in the Permit.

From in or about February 2002 and continuing through in or about June 2010, I knowingly tampered with the monitoring method for E.coli by directing Plant personnel under my supervision to delay the analysis of effluent samples for E.coli until the concentration of chlorine in the Plant’s chlorine contact chamber reached a sufficient level to avoid showing elevated levels of the parameter for E.coli which could have violated the terms and conditions set forth in the Permit.

 olson_plea.pdf ( 47.7k ) Number of downloads: 563

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http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake/me...33d3eda90f.html

Former Michigan City plant operator to plead guilty to Clean Water Act crimes

By Sarah Tompkins sarah.tompkins@nwi.com, (219) 836-3780 | Posted: Tuesday, March 27, 2012 11:15 am

HAMMOND | The former operator of a region wastewater treatment plant will plead guilty to making false statements and tampering with monitoring methods, a plea agreement filed Monday in Hammond federal court shows.

Daniel R. Olson, of Merrillville, who is in his early 60s, was the operator and superintendent of Michigan City's J.B. Gifford Wastewater Treatment Plant for nearly a decade until 2010. He now could face up to two years in prison and $250,000 in fines.

The plea agreement comes about a week after prosecutors filed a felony information charging Olson with three counts relating to federal Clean Water Act violations. According to federal law, pollutants can be discharged into water sources only if the discharge is permitted and the pollutants are within regulated limits.

According to court documents, Olson signed and submitted false reports to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management to hide that the plant had bypassed certain steps in the water treatment process. Documents state this pattern continued from 2006 to 2010 at the plant, which discharges water about 1.8 miles upstream of Lake Michigan in Trail Creek.

"I did this in order to conceal a violation of the terms and conditions set forth in the permit," Olson stated in his plea agreement.

Olson in his plea deal also accepted responsibility for tampering with E. coli monitoring over an eight-year span, directing employees to delay taking samples until the E. coli levels would fall within the plant's permit guidelines.

Olson also reported only total residual chlorine levels between 2007 and 2009 that were in compliance with the plant's permit, the agreement shows.

Martin Kus, who is representing Olson, could not be reached for comment Monday.

Olson's change of plea hearing is scheduled for 11 a.m. April 5 in Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen's courtroom.

Read more: http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake/me...l#ixzz1qQRi8D5d

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http://thenewsdispatch.com/articles/2012/0...e3604208833.txt

Former Sanitary District treatment manager enters plea agreement

By Julie McClure
Staff Writer
Published: Wednesday, March 28, 2012 5:06 PM CDT
MICHIGAN CITY — Former Michigan City Wastewater Treatment Plant supervisor Daniel R. Olson, 62, Merrillville, has entered into a plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Environmental Crimes Section of the U.S. Department of Justice, agreeing to plead guilty to three counts of making a false statement under the Clean Water Act. The charges also accuse Olson of tampering with a monitoring method under the Clean Water Act.

Olson is scheduled to appear in federal court in Hammond at 10:45 a.m. April 5 for an initial appearance, followed by a change of plea hearing at 11 a.m.

The charges cover the time period between July 2007 and June 2010, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Olson, who served as plant superintendent for abut 10 years, unexpectedly announced his retirement on June 7, 2010, days after the Environmental Protection Agency served a search warrant at the plant for documents and samples, according to June 2010 News-Dispatch reports.

The first count charges Olson with knowingly failing to make a required report of a bypass of a treatment process before discharging waste streams into Trail Creek, a tributary of Lake Michigan.

The second count charges Olson with knowingly making a false material representation by selectively reporting only those sample results regarding discharges that showed compliance with Michigan City's permit and knowingly failing to report discharge samples that showed noncompliance with Michigan City's permit.

The third count charges Olson with tampering with a monitoring method, that is taking the daily sample of waste water to test for E. coli, as required under Michigan City's permit, by delaying the taking of the sample until the point in time during the treatment process when the treatment chemical (chlorine) was elevated and when E. coli concentrations would be at lower levels.

According to the plea bargain, each count could carry a prison term of two years and a $250,000 fine, and one year of supervised release if prison time is imposed.

The agreement allows Olson to ask the court for a sentence outside the range of what is set in the plea agreement. The agreement says Olson will waive his right to appeal or contest his conviction, sentence, fine or restitution order which may be made as a result of the plea agreement.

According to the plea agreement, Olson is admitting that from November 2006 through April 2010, he filled out, signed and submitted multiple reports to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) failing to report unauthorized bypasses of the plant's sand filter treatment system during the reporting period. The agreement also says Olson is admitting that he failed to report when Michigan City Sanitary District personnel were bypassing the sand filter treatment system due to sludge blankets that had spilled over the clarifier weir and were released directly to a chlorine contact chamber before being discharged into Trail Creek.

The plea agreement also says that Olson is admitting to make false statements in multiple reports to IDEM from August 2007 to October 2009, when he failed to report accurate and complete sample analysis for chlorine test results, instead reporting only one result.

According to the plea agreement, Olson is also admitting that between February 2002 and June 2010, he tampered with the monitoring method for E. coli by directing plant personnel under his supervision to delay the analysis of effluent samples for E. coli until the concentration of chlorine in the plant's chlorine contact chamber reached a sufficient level to avoid showing elevated levels of E. coli.

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I asked Mayor Meer about what he thought of the guilty plea by Olsen. These were my questions.

I wanted to know if you had any comment on Dan Olsen pleading guilty to the charges stemming from the raid at the Sanitary District in 2010 either personally, or as Mayor?

Does the guilty plea give you a feeling of vindication for your actions in going to state authorities with these matters?

Does the City of Michigan City anticipate any more charges being brought against other employees of the Sanitary District or Sanitary Board?

This is the response I received. (through his assistant)

Mayor Meer felt vindicated long before Mr. Olsen's guilty plea. The Mayor does feel this guilty plea proves what he and others were telling state and federal officials two years ago was factual and with merit. Mayor Meer would like to convey good news to the residents of Michigan City in that all of the individuals responsible for these violations have been removed from both the Sanitary District and the city payroll. Mayor Meer inherited a Sanitary District with major mechanical, financial, and leadership problems. However, Mayor Meer would like to assure the citizens of Michigan City that corrective actions are taking place at the Sanitary District under the guidance of the new Sanitary District General Manager, Michael Kuss. Mayor Meer feels he has a leader in Mr. Kuss with an unparalleled level of knowledge and integrity that will lead the Sanitary District out of this dark past and into a bright future.

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http://www.northjersey.com/news/crime_cour..._pollution.html

Ex-sewage plant chief sentenced over pollution
Thursday June 21, 2012, 8:51 AM
Associated Press
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HAMMOND, Ind. (AP) — The former superintendent of a northern Indiana city's sewage treatment plant has avoided prison time for falsifying reports and tampering with equipment to make it appear the facility was within water pollution limits.

A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced 63-year-old Daniel Olson to a year of home detention and probation following his guilty plea to Clean Water Act violations during his time running the Michigan City treatment plant.

The Times of Munster reports (http://bit.ly/MN9kgK ) prosecutors sought a two-year prison sentence for Olson, saying his actions allowed fecal matter to flow into a waterway about 1-1/2 miles upstream of Lake Michigan.

Olson's defense attorney argued Olson showed bad judgment, but was trying to do the best he could with the facility and system in place.

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http://thenewsdispatch.com/articles/2012/0...a9785824611.txt

Feds let our community down with Olson sentencing

Published: Wednesday, June 27, 2012 5:07 PM CDT
The announcement that the former superintendent of Michigan City’s sewage treatment plant will serve no prison time for falsifying reports and tampering with equipment that allowed the city to appear that it was meeting water pollution limits when it was not is a travesty of justice.

A federal judge has sentenced Daniel Olson to a year of home detention and two years of probation after he pleaded guilty in April to violating the Clean Water Act while he ran the Michigan City treatment plant.

Federal prosecutors had asked for a two-year sentence, arguing that Olson’s actions allowed fecal matter to enter Trail Creek, which flows into Lake Michigan. While Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen told Olson that the sentence that was being sought was appropriate, he chose a lesser punishment.

The judge took into consideration letters of support from Olson’s family and friends and that he had no criminal history.

However, this should not have outweighed the fact that Olson allowed the possibility of area residents becoming sick from E. coli contamination and willingly deceived not only the La Porte County community, but federal officials who were entrusted with keeping our waterways clean and safe.

While Olson’s defense attorney argued it was “bad judgment” and that Olson was “doing the best he could with the facility and the system that was in place,” we disagree.

Olson was entrusted with not only protecting our community’s environment but also our drinking water, and the water that this area’s tourist trade depends on to attract visitors. He failed, deliberately, to protect the environment, to protect residents, to protect businesses that depend on Lake Michigan and Trail Creek being free from E. coli contamination.

While Olson told the judge he is “truly sorry” for his acts and that he now has to “evaluate who I am as opposed to who I thought I was,” we contend he should be doing that thinking from a jail cell.

In this case, Olson deserved jail time and the federal justice system and Judge Van Bokkelen now share the responsibility for allowing a serious crime to be swept aside with such a minimal punishment.