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Former Pennsylvania Businessman Pleads Guilty to Storing Hazardous Waste Without a Permit after Closing Textile Company
Release Date: 12/18/2002
Contact Information: Donna Heron, 215-814-5113
Donna Heron, 215-814-5113
PHILADELPHIA -The owner of a closed textile company in West Hazleton, Pa., has pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of storing hazardous waste without a permit at the now-defunct Pennsylvania Textile Corp.
On Nov. 26, 2002, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania filed a one-count Information against Myron H. Feldman, 71, of Englewood Cliffs, N.J. A plea agreement between Feldman and the U.S. Attorney’s Office was also filed at the same time. Feldman entered his guilty plea December 16, 2002, in federal court in Scranton, and he will be sentenced in March 2003.
Feldman was a part owner in several companies involved in textile manufacturing and dying, including Pennsylvania Textile Corp. of West Hazelton, Pa. Feldman is charged with storing hazardous waste at the Penn-Tex facility without a permit in two ways. First, he caused a trailer containing chemicals used in water-proofing fabric to be transported from another of his plants in East Stroudsburg, Pa., to Penn-Tex where they sat unused and deteriorating for years. Laboratory analysis revealed that 67 or the 85 drums in the trailer contained ignitable hazardous waste.
When Penn-Tex ceased operating in May 1998, the company also abandoned almost 400 drums and other containers of unusable chemicals, a number of which contained hazardous waste. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) conducted a cleanup at the facility in 1995 which cost approximately $ 230,000.
This case was investigated by EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division and National Enforcement Investigation Center, which provided sampling and analytical assistance, and PADEP’s bureau of investigations assisted CID. EPA attorney Martin Harrell is serving as a special assistant U.S. attorney.
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