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Andrew J. Simmons, Jr., also pleaded guilty to failing to pay federal taxes and his company, American Distillation, pleaded guilty to discharging pollutants into the Cape Fear River. (Courtesy USANCE)\u00a0 <\/p>\nAndrew J. Simmons, Jr., also pleaded guilty to failing to pay federal taxes and his company, American Distillation, pleaded guilty to discharging pollutants into the Cape Fear River. (Courtesy USANCE)\u00a0 <\/p>\n
SOUTHEASTERN NC \u2014 American Distillation, Inc., a chemical processing company located in Navassa, pleaded guilty to knowingly discharging tert-Butyl alcohol and other pollutants into the Cape Fear River in violation of the federal Clean Water Act on Tuesday. The company\u2019s owner, Andrew J. Simmons, Jr., also pleaded guilty to failing to pay federal taxes.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
These guilty pleas follow an\u00a0earlier guilty plea<\/a>\u00a0by ADI\u2019s former plant manager, Barry Darnell White, to discharging pollutants into the Cape Fear River in violation of the Clean Water Act on ADI\u2019s behalf. <\/p>\n The CWA prohibits the discharge of pollutants into the waters of the United States from any point source without a permit issued under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System. <\/p>\n According to the information presented in court, ADI was incorporated in 1992 to make and sell industrial grade ethyl alcohol.\u00a0ADI regularly accepts large quantities of tert-Butyl alcohol from its customers. TBOH is highly flammable, colorless oily liquid with a sharp alcohol odor; a pollutant, it constitutes a solid waste, chemical waste, and an industrial waste under the law.\u00a0During distillation, ADI created and stored byproducts in an approximately 250,000-gallon storage tank, which regularly stored liquid wastewater that included TBOH, isopropyl alcohol, and acetone mixed with water.\u00a0<\/p>\n ADI\u2019s EPA-issued permit required ADI to properly dispose of TBOH byproduct, but beginning in late 2019 through 2024, the court documents state ADI accepted more TBOH and other chemicals from its customers than it could legally and safely process and remove.\u00a0From 2020 to 2024, five to six times per year, White released approximately 2,500 gallons of liquid wastewater from the storage tank by connecting a hose that drained into a nearby pipe that drained directly to the Cape Fear River.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was not an accident, and it was not a paperwork violation,\u201d U.S. Attorney Ellis Boyle said in a press release. \u201cADI deliberately decided to dump harmful chemicals into a North Carolina river to increase profits. When corporations choose pollution over safety, we will hold them criminally accountable and enforce the law without hesitation.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Cape Fear River features diverse habitats, from freshwater streams to a vital saltwater estuary, supporting rare aquatic species and old-growth forests. The company\u2019s multi-year illegal discharges of industrial waste poses a serious threat to the River\u2019s water quality and is harmful to ecosystems,\u201d Chuck Carfagno, special agent in charge of the EPA\u2019s criminal enforcement program in North Carolina, said in a press release. \u201cToday\u2019s guilty plea demonstrates that the EPA and its partner agencies are committed to protecting the environment and pursuing those who threaten our natural resources.\u201d<\/p>\n Tips or comments? Email info@portcitydaily.com.<\/p>\n At Port City Daily, we aim to keep locals informed on top-of-mind news facing the tri-county region. To support our work and help us reach more people in 2026, please, consider helping one of two ways: Subscribe\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0or make a one-time contribution\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n We appreciate your ongoing support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andrew J. Simmons, Jr., also pleaded guilty to failing to pay federal taxes and his company, American Distillation,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-355403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}