Charles Earnest Toth, 45, owner and operator of Armant Environmental Services LLC, a water treatment company, is accused of routinely dumping loads of untreated wastewater on the ground and bypassing the treatment facility at the plant, said DEQ spokesman Rodney Mallett.
The charges allege that Toth knowingly allowed the illegal discharges of untreated water from his business into the Mississippi River. He is also accused of submitting false documents and statements to DEQ pertaining to the dumpings, a violation of the company’s Louisiana Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (LPDES) permit.
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Prior to the arrest, Mallett said DEQ staff took soil samples on the property and determined there were chemicals related to oil and petroleum products around broken pipes on the ground. He said Toth also is accused of tampering with discharge monitoring report samples before sending the samples to the lab.
“Dumping untreated wastewater is against our mission of protecting human health and the environment,” said Jeffrey Nolan, DEQ criminal investigations division manager. “There is nothing worse than potentially contaminating a drinking water supply. He was benefiting economically by not following his permit, which is unfair to those businesses that follow the rules.”
Mallett said Toth’s company received its LPDES permit to discharge treated wastewater from their site at 2141 Toth St. in Vacherie in July of 2007. The earliest violation was an oil release incident in September of 2007.
Calls to various phone numbers tied to the address of Toth’s company were not answered.
According to a release from the St. James Sheriff’s Office, Toth faces 89 felony counts of intentional violations of an LPDES permit and seven counts falsifying documents pertaining to an LPDES permit. If convicted, Toth faces fines between $5,000 and $50,000 for every day he was in violation as well as the potential for three years of jail time for each violation committed.
An arrest does not constitute guilt in a criminal case. All evidence compiled during the investigation is presented to the area prosecutors who determine if formal charges are warranted. St. James District Attorney Ricky Babin was not available for comment.
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