Press Releases
Yazoo City Hazardous Waste Operator Pleads Guilty
November 15, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Natchez, Miss - United States Attorney Dunn Lampton and Granta Nakayama, Assistant
Administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency’s Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Program, announced that Dennie Eugene Pridemore pled guilty today to all six counts of an indictment charging him with having operated a sham hazardous waste recycling facility in Yazoo City, Mississippi under the name Hydromex, Inc. Pridemore pled guilty to having illegally stored and disposed of hazardous waste at the Yazoo City site, and for having made false statements to state and federal regulatory officials and investigators in an effort to conceal his illegal disposal of the waste.
The indictment to which Pridemore pled guilty charged him with having disposed of hazardous waste contaminated with the heavy metals, cadmium, chromium and lead that he had been paid to recycle into marketable products. Pridemore admitted that instead of doing so, he buried the wastes in trenches and produced products that leached heavy metals into the surrounding soil and groundwater. The indictment alleged that the products produced at the Hydromex plant were useless and made only to create the allusion that the company was legitimately recycling hazardous waste in accordance with federal and state environmental laws.
In a further effort to conceal his failure to properly recycle hazardous waste, Pridemore created false documents making it appear to regulators that he had customers for the products he claimed to be making and selling.
Pridemore is scheduled to be sentenced on February 7, 2008 in Natchez, MS. He faces a maximum fine of $1.5 million and up to 30 years in jail.
“Today's plea sends a strong message that we will vigorously investigate those who violate environmental laws," said Granta Nakayama, "The defendant concealed the illegal storage and disposal of millions of pounds of hazardous waste and put the public at risk."
U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton added, “This successful prosecution demonstrates our resolve to deter anyone intent on degrading our state’s land and waters.”
Lampton went on to commend the work of Jeremy Korzenik of the Environmental Crimes Section, for his tenacious and professional prosecution and disposition of this case. He also commended David McLeod, of the EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division, for his thorough with investigation of this matter.
