Businessman Pleaded Guilty for Lying about Asbestos Dumping
Terrance Yates, a Californian businessman of 43 pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court in Greenbelt yesterday to lying about dumping asbestos-filled trailers in west county. Yates faces years of imprisonment and thousands of dollars in fines.
According to the allegation of federal officials, Yates dumped the trailers in Severn instead of sending them to a landfill in Pennsylvania.
Mr.Yates is the owner of the Hazport Solutions Inc. from 1997 until 2006. The main work was to transport asbestos from construction sites to landfills for asbestos-abatement companies. He hired contractors to move more than a dozen trailers of asbestos from sites in Maryland, Virginia and Washington to a landfill in Pennsylvania.
The plea agreement states that Mr. Yates took possession of the trailers, paid the contractors and left the trailers on a lot in Severn, then filled out the waste-shipment record and sent it back to his contractors stating the trailers were taken to the Pennsylvania landfill.
Enforcement officials found 12 trailers in the location. Eight of them had contained asbestos but, none of the containers had plastic lining or signs indicating asbestos was inside. As per rules, asbestos, a dangerous air pollutant and carcinogen, must be transported in leak-proof containers inside trailers that are lined in plastic.
The EPA had to spend $57,000 in order to clean up the site between August and December last year.
However, the charge against Mr. Yates is not illegal dumping. He was charged for falsifying the paperwork.
