Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
David Van Dyke, the former certified operator and department head at the Warsaw wastewater treatment plant, has been indicted by a federal grand jury on 37 counts.
All federal criminal prosecutions begin with a grand jury indictment. Van Dyke is charged with knowingly violating conditions and limitations of the Clean Water Act permit governing the plant's operation (Title 33, United States Code, Section 1319(c)(2) and Title 18, United States Code, Section 2).
According to court documents filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court, South Bend division, Van Dyke falsified lab bench sheets, under-reporting the Warsaw plant's discharges of ammonia, total suspended solids (TSS) and carbonaceous biochemical oxygen demand (CBOD).
Warsaw laboratory employees conducted analysis of the pollutants and submitted the records, called bench sheets, to Van Dyke, 53, who has supervised the plant for 27 years.
From May through July 2002, Van Dyke allegedly falsified the bench sheet data on monthly reports of operation that were sent to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.
Each falsified bench sheet is listed in the indictment, showing dates, document type, the reported number and the original number.
In count 9, for example, a CBOD bench sheet received by the lab July 22, 2002, had a reported number of 20 mg/l and an original number of 60 mg/l.
The permitted weekly average for CDOBs is 23 mg/l.
In count 20, a TSS bench sheet received by the lab July 26, 2002, has a reported number of 15 mg/l and an original number of 134 mg/l.
The weekly average for TSS is 27 mg/l.
In count 22, an ammonia bench sheet received by the lab June 7, 2002, shows a reported concentration of 5.0- mg/l and an original concentration of 22 mg/l.
The weekly average for ammonia is 2.4 mg/l.
In addition, from approximately January through July 2001 and March through May 2002 Van Dyke, without informing IDEM, is charged with directing Warsaw plant employees to apply diesel fuel at various points within the plant.
The diesel fuel was used in an attempt to reduce foam in the plant's discharge. That discharge entered Walnut Creek and ultimately the Tippecanoe River, about 1-1/2 miles to the north, the indictments claim.
Van Dyke also is accused of misrepresenting the plant's highest average weekly discharges from May through July 2002. The allged misrepresentations also are given as separate counts.
The discharge monitoring reports actual weekly discharge of CBOD June 27 was 41.8 mg/l. The limit is 23 mg/l and Van Dyke allegedly reported 14 mg/l.
TSS levels on July 26 were actually 68.2mg/l. The limit is 27 mg/l and the report allegedly stated 23.
Ammonia levels of Aug. 26 were 17.16 mg/l. The limit is 2.4 mg/l and 7.9 mg/l was reported, the indictment charges.
If convicted, Van Dyke faces up to two years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each of the 27 counts of falsified bench sheets, the three counts of false monthly reports of operation and the three counts of false discharge monitoring reports.
On the three counts of illegal discharges and the one count of wrongful use of diesel fuel and discharge of diesel fuel, he faces three years in prison and a fine of $5,000 to $50,000 per day of violation for each count.
Van Dyke, of Warsaw, is expected to surrender to federal marshals Monday to attend a hearing.
Doug Brookhart, hired by Jones & Henry Engineers, is the current Class IV operator of the plant, responsible for day-to-day operations and reporting.
Van Dyke remains an employee of the facility.
