Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
SOUTH BEND - Despite a plea agreement, U.S. District Court Judge Robert L. Miller Jr. found David Van Dyke, 53, Warsaw, has not accepted responsibility for his actions.
Tuesday, Miller sentenced Van Dyke to 46 months of jail time and ordered Van Dyke to pay restitution of $39,369 to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and Department of Natural Resources, the South Bend Tribune is reporting.
In August, Van Dyke, filed a guilty plea with the U.S. District Court in South Bend, on three of the 37-count federal indictments against him.
Van Dyke is the former Warsaw Waste Water Treatment Plant operator who is charged with multiple Clean Water Act violations. He is accused of filing false reports to hide the illegal discharge of tons of solids and sludge and large quantities of diesel fuel in Walnut Creek.
The 37-count indictment was filed March 12 and the 37-count superseding indictment was filed July 9.
In his petition to enter a guilty plea, Van Dyke agreed to plead guilty to three counts that charge him with knowingly making a false statement in a document required to be maintained under the Clean Water Act; knowingly discharging a pollutant into the water in violation of a Clean Water Act permit; and knowingly failing to notify the Indiana Department of Environmental Management in 2001 and 2002 that he directed plant employees to apply diesel fuel within the plant in an attempt to reduce foam in the waters discharged through the plant.
During May through July 2002, analysis by the Warsaw Plant laboratory employees showed the facility was discharging pollutants in amounts excessive of permit limits specified. Those records were given to Van Dyke, who knowingly altered the bench sheets so they would falsely under-report the plant's discharges.
All other remaining counts were dismissed, and no additional charges will be filed against Van Dyke arising out of the matters covered by the indictment.
For count 1, Miller sentenced Van Dyke to 10 months; and for the other two counts, Miller sentenced Van Dyke to a total of 36 months to be served concurrently.
The restitution was an enhanced sentence because Miller said Van Dyke abused his position of trust as a public official and disrupted a public utility. Van Dyke essentially ran the plant into the ground, costing the city of Warsaw $500,000 in remediation costs, according to the South Bend Tribune. The annual budget of the wastewater treatment plant is approximately $4 million. The plant still has approximately 22,000 cubic yards of sludge to be removed from Walnut Creek.
Because Van Dyke did not accept responsibility, maintaining his innocence until the trial was nearly finished, Miller not only enhanced the sentencing but also did not offer any reduction of sentence.
The environmental impact was brought out as an aggravating factor in the case, the South Bend Tribune reported, as well as the threat to residents' health.
The bureau of prisons will determine where Van Dyke will serve his sentence, but the judge will recommend Van Dyke serve his time as close to the Warsaw area as possible, as requested by Van Dyke's attorney.
The range of sentencing for Van Dyke was 41 to 51 months and the government recommended a mid-range sentence.
Van Dyke has until Dec. 30 to report to the prison once he is contacted by the U.S. Marshal Service and told where to report.
Van Dyke was given an opportunity to speak at his sentencing Tuesday, but declined.
