Faked results on air tests spur big fine

The parent company of a pipe foundry in Provo has been ordered to pay a $3 million fine for falsifying air pollution test results — the largest criminal environmental fine in Utah history, according to federal officials.

In a hearing Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Dee Benson ordered Alabama-based McWane Inc., which owns and operates Pacific States Cast Iron Pipe Co. in Provo, to pay a $3 million fine within 10 days and placed the company on three years' probation for what federal prosecutors called "environmental crimes."

As part of a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, McWane company officials accepted allegations that workers conspired to "rig" state-required compliance tests knowing that they might not be able to pass the tests.

In September 2000, workers with Pacific States, which takes scrap metal from automobiles that is re-cast into iron pipe for the water and sewer industry, used pig iron and structural steel during a stack test of the plant's large furnace, knowing that the emissions would provide passable emissions numbers. The company then submitted those false figures to Utah environmental quality officials in 2001 and 2002 as representing normal emissions.

Also Wednesday, a former McWane vice president and general manager, Charles Matlock, pleaded guilty to one count of submitting inaccurate test results required by the Clean Air Act. Matlock faces up to two years in prison an a $250,000 fine when sentenced May 2.

Charges against a second company official were dropped in connection with another McWane environmental violation case in another state. Charles Barry Robison, McWane's vice president of environmental affairs, was also charged with submitting false test results. In a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, Robison agreed not to challenge a sentence on a separate case out of Alabama, where Robison was sentenced to serve two years probation, pay a $2,500 fine and serve 150 hours community service.

"This criminal conduct threatens the health, safety and quality of life for residents of our state who breathe the air affected by McWane's operation," said Richard Lambert, deputy U.S. attorney for Utah. "When businesses cheat on health-related matters it is a crime of serious proportions."

McWane Inc. is a family-owned business based in Birmingham, Ala., that operates 13 iron foundries across the United States and Canada.

The Pacific States case in Provo is the fourth conviction of McWane in the past year or so for environmental crimes.