Second Circuit affirms Tonawanda Coke convictions

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The U. S. Attorney’s Office announced Monday that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has affirmed the 2013 convictions and sentence of the Tonawanda Coke Corp. for environmental pollution.

Tonawanda Coke was convicted of 11 counts of violating the Clean Air Act and three counts of violating the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act by a federal jury in March 2013. The company was hit with a $12.5 million fine and five years probation and was ordered to fund two community service projects at a cost of $12.2 million.

“Today’s decision by the Court of Appeals represents a complete victory for the community and country,” said U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. “No one should be allowed to intentionally poison the public, and our prosecutions of both Tonawanda Coke and Mark Kamholz make this abundantly clear.”

Tonawanda Coke’s environmental control manager, Mark L. Kamholz, was convicted of 11 counts of violating the Clean Air Act, one count of obstruction of justice and three counts of violating the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

He was sentenced to 12 months in prison and a $20,000 fine. Kamholz did not appeal his conviction.

At the heart of the charges was the release by Tonawanda Coke of coke oven gas containing benzene into the air through an unreported pressure relief valve. In addition, a coke-quenching tower was operated without baffles, a pollution control device.

Before an inspection conducted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in April 2009, Kamholz told another TCC employee to conceal the fact that the unreported pressure relief valve, during normal operations, emitted coke oven gas directly into the air, in violation of the company’s operating permit.

TCC also stored and disposed of hazardous waste without a permit to do so, in violation of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. These offenses related to TCC’s management of hazardous materials on the ground next to two large deteriorating tanks, and TCC’s practice of mixing its coal tar sludge, a listed hazardous waste that is toxic for benzene, on the ground in violation of hazardous waste regulations.

“The Court’s affirmance is also significant for two other reasons,” Hochul continued. “The prosecution of Tonawanda Coke and Mark Kamholz represents only the second time in the nation’s history that a jury convicted for a violation of the Clean Air Act. This law was passed by Congress in 1970.

“Second, a sentence which includes financing of a public health study represents the first time in this District that such a remedy was sought by the Office, and ordered by the Court.”

On appeal, the government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney John Arbab from the Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division. The prosecution was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron J. Mango and Senior Counsel Rocky Piaggione.