This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A bio-diesel plant worker has been indicted for allegedly dumping pollutants into American Fork sewers.
In a two-count indictment unsealed Thursday, Slade E. Barnett, Jr., 48, is charged with polluting and with lying about it in a Timpanogos Special Service District survey.
Barnett is accused of clogging about 300 feet of the Lakeside Planned Industrial Park sewer lines in 2008 with grease, tallow, vegetable oil, methanol, sulfuric acid and other things. The alleged dumping also knocked out the lift-station pumps in Lakeside's private sewer system, which connects to the public system operated by the district.
"When waste is illegally discharged into local sewage systems, as is alleged in this indictment, it defrauds businesses that paid to have their waste disposed of legally and in an environmentally sound manner and we won't tolerate it," said Jeffrey Martinez, acting special agent in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency's criminal enforcement program in Utah.
The court issued a warrant for Barnett's arrest on Thursday when he failed to appear in court to face the charges. The phone number for Barnett's listed Utah County employer, Denali, is no longer in service.
Introducing a pollutant into a sewer system carries a penalty of up to three years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines.
For making false statements, the potential penalty is of up to five years in prison and fines of up to $250,000. That count is connected to the allegation that Barnett provided a materially false statement on a sewer district survey about the discharges so they would not be regulated.
Twitter: @judyfutah