Man pleads guilty to dumping massive amount of polluted water into Stockton sewers
A former employee of a Stockton biofuel manufacturer pleaded guilty in federal court to dumping industrial wastewater into the city’s sewer system, prosecutors said this week.
Jeremiah Young, 38, of El Dorado, entered the plea Monday in the Eastern District of California court, U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott announced in a news release.
Young worked from 2014 to 2016 as an assistant operator at Community Fuels, which manufactured biodiesel fuel on property that was leased from the Port of Stockton, according to the release.
He and his brother stood accused of participating in “a scheme to discharge hundreds of thousands of gallons of polluted wastewater by various unlawful means, including the discharge of wastewater directly into Stockton’s sewer system after tampering with pH readings,” the news release said, citing court documents.
Young’s older brother, 41-year-old Christopher Young of El Dorado Hills, worked as the director of operations at the biofuel plant. Christopher Young faces a charge of conspiracy, 12 counts of tampering with monitoring equipment, one count of witness tampering and several other charges, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Christopher Young’s charges are still pending.
Community Fuels’ parent company, American Biodiesel Inc. admitted last July to tampering with monitoring devices, pH recordings and flow meters “for the purpose of underreporting acid and pollutant levels and volumes that would have exceeded the figures allowed under the city’s regulations,” this week’s news release said.
Judge Kimberly Mueller levied a $401,000 fine against American Biodiesel and ordered $256,206 in restitution payment. She also sentenced the company to three years’ probation.
Jeremiah Young is set to be sentenced by Mueller on April 27. His charges carry a maximum of three years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. The fine could exceed that total if the court finds Young’s offenses resulted in additional monetary losses.
The case was investigated by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, San Joaquin County’s district attorney office and environmental health department, Stockton’s utilities department, the Port of Stockton, and the California Department of Toxic Substances Control.
