Wastewater Workers Plead Guilty to Ocoee River Discharge

A water district supervisor in Polk County, Tenn. pleaded guilty to discharging untreated sewage multiple times into a tributary of the Ocoee River.

A judge sentenced Randy David Adcock, supervisor of the Coppertown Utilities Basin Water District in Turtletown, to two years probation and a $1,500 fine. Adcock was also ordered to surrender his water treatment operator license.

Ricky Cochran, an employee, received a two-year suspended sentence and was fined $750.

The men said they discharged untreated sewage multiple times, at night, into the Walkertown Branch tributary of the river using a pipe they installed instead of transporting the untreated sewage to a land disposal site.

District Attorney Jerry Estes said the men's actions posed serious risks to public health and the local economy.

Source: EPA