Greene County Man Pleads Guilty to Illegally Dumping Liquid
Waste
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
11 February 2012
By Kaitlynn Riely
A Greene County man charged last year with illegally dumping
millions of gallons of Marcellus Shale wastewater, sewer sludge
and restaurant slop throughout southwestern Pennsylvania, has
reached a plea agreement with the state attorney general's office.
Robert Allan Shipman, 50, of New Freeport, pleaded guilty to 13
counts, including theft by deception, receiving stolen property,
tampering with public records or information, unlawful conduct,
pollution of waters, and criminal conspiracy.
As part of his guilty plea, Mr. Shipman must pay a $90,000 fine to
the Pennsylvania Clean Water Fund and a $10,000 fine to the
Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. He must also show proof
that he and his wife, Carolyn Shipman, have divested themselves
from Allan's Waste Water Service Inc. and Tri-County Waste Water
Management Inc.
The Shipmans also must agree at sentencing that they will not
apply for or obtain permits from the Pennsylvania Department of
Environmental Protection.
Mrs. Shipman was not charged in connection with the case.
A sentencing hearing date has not yet been set. In addition to the
conditions of the plea agreement, the state will recommend Mr.
Shipman serve nine to 16 months in jail. Mr. Shipman could not be
reached for comment Friday.
The plea agreement brings some conclusion to what the state
attorney general's office has described as one of the largest
dumping cases in recent memory.
An investigation into Mr. Shipman and his companies began after
the Cecil Township Municipal Authority found more than 170,000
gallons of sludge unaccounted for during an audit into how much
sludge Mr. Shipman's company received and how much it disposed of.
State prosecutors charged Mr. Shipman with illegal dumping in
March after a grand jury report indicated he was earning up to $7
million a year while he and his company, Allan's Waste Water
Service, dumped waste materials in Allegheny, Fayette, Greene,
Lawrence, Washington and Westmoreland counties between 2003 and
2009. According to the grand jury report, the waste materials were
dumped in holes, mine shafts and waterways, often at night or
during heavy rains.
"He was pouring the stuff in any hole he could find," a spokesman
for the attorney general's office said in March.
The nine-page grand jury presentment recommended 98 criminal
charges against Mr. Shipman and 77 counts against Allan's Waste
Water Service. Among the charges in the presentment was that Mr.
Shipman's company emptied tanker trucks of drilling waste into a
floor drain that led to Tom's Run, which empties into Dunkard
Creek.
The waterway was the site of a 2009 fish kill over a 30-mile
stretch along the Pennsylvania-West Virginia border. The attorney
general's office said in March that investigators did not
establish a cause-and-effect link between Mr. Shipman's discharges
and the fish kill. But a spokesman for the office said Mr. Shipman
played a role in compromising the quality of Dunkard Creek and
other waterways in the area.
Kaitlynn Riely: kriely@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1707.