Fines, probation in sewage dumping case

BY STACI WILSON

Hallstead Sanitary Service and owners, Jennings and David Birtch will have to pay a total of $75,000 in fines for improperly disposing of waste.

In a sentencing hearing held Thursday, June 18, in Susquehanna County Court, both Jennings Birtch III and David Birtch were issued the fines in the amount of $25,000, and both men were placed on probation for 23 months. The company was also issued $25,000 in fines.

Of the total $75,000 fines, $60,000 will go to the Clean Streams fund and the Fish and Boat Commission will receive $15,000.

Both men pleaded guilty to charges on May 8.

Attorney Gregory Abeln said the brothers had started their careers in their father’s sanitary service at a young age; and that farmers had begged for sewage to spread on their fields so they didn’t have to purchase fertilizers.

He also noted that no local sewer plant accepted waste from the local hauler. Now, he told the court, Hallstead Sanitary must drive the waste over 65 miles to a plant that will accept sewage.
The attorney also said the Dept. of Environmental Protection never told them the law had changed and that a special permit was needed to spread waste on fields.

Jennings Birtch told the court they had “tried to do things right.”

David Birtch said the company had been brought up on charges that all stemmed from one incident. “We were working toward a permit when this came about,” he said.

He also told the court he believed the felony charges levied against them should be dropped.

Brian Coffey of the state attorney general’s office said the Birtch’s had been cut break before. “Here we are four to five years later for nearly the same thing,” he said.

David Birtch, along with his mother Betty Birtch, were both charged with unlawful conduct in 2012 and received probationary sentences in that case.

Owners of the Lenox Township farm, Paul and Pauline Fallon, where investigators say the sewage waste was taken and dumped also face misdemeanor charges.

The couple waived preliminary hearings in Clifford District Court earlier this year and are now awaiting trial in the Susquehanna County Court of Common Pleas.

According to documents filed in Clifford District Court, the Fallons received cash payments from Hallstead Sanitary Service, Inc. to dispose of septic and grease waste on the farm over a three year time period.

The Department of Environmental Protection searched the Fallon property in June 2012. According to court documents, DEP personnel observed feminine hygiene products floating in a lagoon on the property and samples of the liquid in the body of water indicated the presence of human DNA.

The attorney general’s office initiated its investigation based upon a referral from DEP.

DEP did not issue any permits to the Fallons, Hallstead Sanitary Service Inc. or its owners, or any other company to use the land as a solid waste processing facility or a solid waste disposal area.