Enviro manager gets year in clink – firm fined $25M!

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How could things have gotten so bad at Tonawanda Coke Corp., NY, that the company would release benzene fumes and haphazardly dump coal tar sludge?

Former environmental control manager Mark Kamholz couldn’t explain why – all he could do was apologize before hearing his sentence: a year in jail and $20,000 fine for Clean Air Act and hazardous waste violations, as well as obstructing a criminal investigation.

His reputation may never recover. At trial, residents called Kamholz a “health terrorist.”

Tonawanda will pay a $12.5 million fine and $12.2 million toward community service projects, including an air and soil sampling project.

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