Seattle Barrel cleaning company owner sentenced to prison for history of pollution

Seattle Barrel and Cooperage Company’s 55-year-old owner was sentenced on Friday to 18 months in prison and a $250,000 fine for a history of pollution, according to U.S. Attorney Tessa Gorman.

Seattle Barrel was sentenced to five years of probation. The company is accused of dumping gallons of waste into Elliot Bay and the Duwamish River starting in 2013.

“These discharges were not done by accident or mistake… they were done with disregard for the consequences… An enormous amount of caustic waste, an estimated 26,000 gallons of caustic water, into our system with no idea of what harm it could have done. You had no justifiable reason to engage in this deceitful and dangerous activity,” said U.S. District Judge Richard A. Jones.

The company was charged with conspiracy, making false statements, and 33 Clean Water Act violations, according to U.S. Attorney Gorman.

“These defendants sent dangerous caustic chemicals into our sewer system once a week for years,” said U.S. Attorney Gorman. “This risked environmental harm to Elliott Bay and the Duwamish River, damaged critical sewer infrastructure, and could have seriously injured utility workers. At many points, Mr. Sanft and his company could have reformed their ways. The refusal to do so results in these sentences today.”

According to court records, Seattle Barrel would collect used industrial and commercial drums and then recondition and resell them. To recondition them they would wash the barrels in a “highly corrosive chemical solution.”

U.S. Attorney Gorman said since at least 2009, the company was under a discharge permit which means they couldn’t dump their waste over a certain pH into the sewer system. Waste over a certain pH would corrode the sewer system and potentially pollute Elliot Bay and the Puget Sound.

In 2013, King County found out Seattle Barrel was illegally dumping. The company was given a fine but didn’t stop.

In 2016, the owner of Seattle Barrel said they had become a “zero discharge” facility and were not dumping any wastewater. However, in 2018 and 2019 cover monitoring by the Environmental Protection Agency’s Criminal Investigation Division led them to discover Seattle Barrel was still illegally dumping wastewater.

On March 8, 2019, the covert monitors pinpointed when Seattle Barrel was dumping the wastewater. Agents immediately got a search warrant and inside found a portable pump on the floor near the tank of caustic solution. They found out the pump was being used to pump solution to a hidden drain which led directly to the sewer system.

Seattle Public Utilities said the sewer lines downstream from Seattle Barrel are prematurely damaged and will repaired. The discharges also put utility workers at risk, as such caustic chemicals can cause blindness, skin necrosis, bone damage, and even death.

Seattle Barrel’s owner was convicted of conspiracy, 29 violations of the Clean Water Act for discharging pollutants to the sewer, four counts of submission of False Clean Water Act Certifications, and making a false statement to special agents of the EPA, according to U.S. Attorney Gorman.

U.S. Attorney Gorman said as part of the sentence, Judge Jones is also requiring the company to certify every quarter that it has complied with all federal, state, and local requirements including compliance with its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit.

“For nearly a decade, the defendants dumped caustic industrial waste into the Seattle sewer system and then conspired to conceal their illegal activities by submitting false monthly reports and lying to investigators,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Benjamin Carr of EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division for Washington. “Today’s sentencing demonstrates the seriousness of these crimes and sends a clear message that businesses will be held criminally responsible if they fail to manage industrial wastes in accordance with laws designed to protect the health of our communities, national infrastructure, and the environment.”