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PA OPERATORS OF VICKSBURG REFINERY INDICTED FOR VIOLATING ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS
Release Date: 09/04/98
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FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1998
OPERATORS OF VICKSBURG REFINERY INDICTED FOR
VIOLATING ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS
M&S Petroleum Inc., which formerly operated the Barrett Refinery in Vicksburg, Miss., and three of its officers were charged on Aug. 27, in a 16-count indictment in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi in Jackson. The charges included violations of the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, conspiracy, and making false statements to the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality. The individual defendants are John Cooke, Donnie Mullins and Jerry LaBarba, all of Houston, Texas. The defendants are charged with participating in a conspiracy that allegedly resulted in the unpermitted discharge of benzene and other pollutants into the Mississippi River and Hatcher Bayou and the release of benzene into the air. In sufficient quantities, benzene is acutely toxic and is a cause of cancer. In addition, more than one million gallons of hazardous wastes was allegedly abandoned at the Barrett refinery. The case was investigated by EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division, EPA’s National Enforcement Investigations Center, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the FBI and the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality.
R-115 ###
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