CORPORATE CRIME REPORTER
Sinclair
Oil Unit, Managers Sentenced
21 Corporate Crime Reporter 15, April 4, 2007
Sinclair Tulsa Refining Company, a unit of the major oil and gasoline producer
Sinclair Oil, and two company managers, were sentenced today for environmental
crimes related to the operation of the Tulsa Refinery.
In Tulsa, U.S. District Court Judge Claire Eagan ordered Sinclair to pay a $5 million criminal penalty and to make a community service payment of $500,000.
The company was also sentenced to two years of probation.
Harmon Connell and John Kapura, both former managers, were each sentenced to serve six months of home detention and three years of probation for felony violations of the Clean Water Act (CWA).
Connell was ordered to pay a $160,000 fine and to serve 100 hours of community service.
Kapura was ordered to pay an $80,000 fine and to serve 50 hours of community service.
Sinclair, and refinery managers Kapura and Connell, previously admitted to knowingly manipulating the refinery processes, wastewater flows, and wastewater discharges to result in unrepresentative wastewater samplings during mandatory testing required under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit program.
The manipulated samplings were intended to influence analytical testing results reported to the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Federal officials alleged that the Sinclair refinery discharged an average of 1.1 million gallons of treated wastewater per day into the Arkansas River.
Under the Clean Water Act, Sinclair was permitted to discharge treated wastewater into the Arkansas River, pursuant to certain limitations and conditions, which include scheduled monitoring and required sampling during weekdays.
But on numerous occasions in 2002 and 2003, Sinclair directed employees to limit wastewater discharges in order to manipulate the result of required bio-testing.
During
monitoring periods, Sinclair reduced flow rates of wastewater discharges to
the river, and diverted more heavily contaminated wastewater to holding impoundments
to ensure that they had passed the tests.
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