Two supervisors at a facility that illegally dumped sewage into Nashville’s wastewater system have pleaded guilty to federal charges.
Prosecutors say the men conspired to defraud the Environmental Protection Agency and violate the Clean Water Act, and that the case “sends a message” about the seriousness of the violations.
When rain water mixes with the buried waste in a landfill, the water can dissolve contaminants — a process known as leaching. Then the contaminants mix into the water, making it highly polluted. That product is called landfill leachate.
“Whenever his company took more industrial waste and landfill leachate than it could treat, the defendant had the waste dumped straight into Nashville’s sewer system and had employees tamper with the city’s monitoring equipment to avoid detection,” said Jeffrey A. Hall with the EPA’s enforcement division. “The waste clogged and damaged the city’s water infrastructure, posing a health risk to the community.”
The men, David Stark and Caleb Randall, worked together for Onsite Environmental, which hauls waste. Authorities say they told employees to bypass sewage treatment processes in 2022 and 2023 and to route the pollution into the city’s wastewater system. They also told co-workers to tamper with monitoring devices to cover it up.
The company already admitted to problems and paid a fine of $512,000. Metro also brought legal action and recouped nearly $300,000. The city said it also had to make $80,000 in repairs because of Onsite Environmental.
The two employees await sentencing in August and face potential prison time and fines.
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