Kansas Company, Individuals Receive Heavy Sentences for Conspiracy to Violate SDWA, Fraud

Allied Environmental Services, Inc. and its president Koteswara Attaluri, and Overholt Trucking and its owner Mac DeWayne Overholt were sentenced for conspiring to violate the Safe Drinking Water Act and for fraud. In addition, Overholt also was sentenced for violating the Clean Water Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Over a 15-month period during 1994 and 1995, Allied removed more than 500,000 gallons of wastewater containing diesel fuel and kerosene from military facilities in Kansas and Missouri. The wastewater was collected from underground fuel storage tanks that were in the process of being removed. Some of the wastewater was transported to Oklahoma and illegally stored or injected into oil wells in three counties. Attaluri was sentenced to nearly five years in prison and Overholt was sentenced to serve more than seven years. In addition, all three defendants were ordered to pay $1.27 million in cleanup costs. (Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)