Ohio Dairy Manager Was Sentenced for Pollution Causing Fish Kill
Teunis Jan Willemsen, a 54-year-old Dutch citizen living in Frankton, Indiana, was sentenced on September 8 by U.S. Magistrate Judge Darrell A. Clay. He admitted responsibility for a discharge from Heartland Dairy that reached Little Black Creek in northern Ohio.
Willemsen pleaded guilty in May to negligently releasing a pollutant in violation of the Clean Water Act. The sentence includes 15 months of probation, a $25,000 financial penalty and 100 hours of community service.
Court records say that investigators identified the discharge in December 2022, when Willemsen was managing Heartland Dairy. Wastewater was pumped from a settling basin on the property into a ditch that drained into the creek.
Testing found that the material contained manure and silage leachate, including concentrated ammonia. The discharge entered Little Black Creek, a tributary of the Saint Mary’s River, which flows into the Maumee River. Authorities said the pollution killed about 789 fish and 1,371 other aquatic animals.
David M. Toepfer, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, said that business practices threatening Ohio’s environment and wildlife would not be tolerated. He said the sentence demonstrated that federal environmental laws would be enforced against those found responsible for reducing the quality of land, air or water.
Allison Landsman, special agent in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency’s criminal-enforcement programme in Ohio, said the ammonia-laden wastewater poisoned the creek for miles and killed thousands of fish and other aquatic animals. Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson said the case showed that people who pollute the state’s waterways would be held accountable.
The investigation involved the EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division, the Ohio Attorney General’s Office Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s Special Investigations Unit, with support from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew D. Simko prosecuted the case, assisted by Sasha Reyes, regional criminal-enforcement counsel for the EPA.
