A round-up of Central Indiana real estate & business permit filings.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Two new generators for Rolls-Royce
Rolls-Royce has applied for a permit to construct two new natural gas turbine generators for its Indianapolis aerospace engine manufacturing and testing facility.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Haynes International Expanding
Haynes International, a Kokomo-based developer and manufacturer of high-performance alloys, has applied for a permit to expand its operations in Kokomo. It plans to construct two permanent boilers and one temporary boiler. In a press release, the company said a backlog in orders means it will be making more investments.
"Capital spending for the quarter was $3.4 million with spending for fiscal 2011 targeted at $15.0 million of which $6.0 million is for upgrades of the four-high Steckel rolling mill and supporting equipment," the release stated. "In addition to the $15.0 million planned for fiscal 2011, the Company also plans to spend approximately $10.0 million over the course of fiscal 2011 and 2012 to improve the customer service capabilities of the Company’s service centers. "
"Capital spending for the quarter was $3.4 million with spending for fiscal 2011 targeted at $15.0 million of which $6.0 million is for upgrades of the four-high Steckel rolling mill and supporting equipment," the release stated. "In addition to the $15.0 million planned for fiscal 2011, the Company also plans to spend approximately $10.0 million over the course of fiscal 2011 and 2012 to improve the customer service capabilities of the Company’s service centers. "
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Niagra Bottling Receives Permit for Plainfield Facility
Niagra Bottling LLC, a bottled water company, has received a new permit for a location at 1250 Whitaker Road in Plainfield, Indiana.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
New Permit for Allisonville Meadows Phase II
Allisonville Meadows in Fishers, Indiana has received a new permit to relocate a portion of a tributary in order to build Phase II. The seniors community is located 2.4 miles north of I-465 on Allisonville Road.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Indiana Research Institute's New Equipment
The Indiana Research Institute in Columbus, Indiana, has received a permit to operate 18 new engine test cells. It looks like the company is expanding but a quick Internet search didn't turn up an announcement as of yet. The permit is up for public review and comment until May 6, 2011.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Former Executives of Indy-based Firm Plead Guilty to Criminal Charges
Three former employees of Indianapolis-based Ecological Systems, Inc. pled guilty on April 4 to criminal violations of the Clean Water Act.
According to the EPA, the oil reclamation company facility at 5232 West 79th Street did not have the appropriate excess capacity to handle runoff from a rain storm. Former Operations Manager Mike Milem and Former Operations Manager and Executive Vice President Joe Biggio decided to work around that by running hoses around ESI's treatment facility and discharging contaminated water untreated into the Indianapolis stormsewer system.
During a February 11, 2009 storm, the plant dumped 300,000 gallons of dirty water and that water backed up into residential properties, triggering complaints and the investigation. But once regulators starting digging, they found ESI had "not been adequately treating the waste it took from customers ... for a significant period of time." Biggio hid the shortfalls by tweaking data submitting to regulators and lying.
Biggio pled guilty to two counts of criminal violations of the CWA and one count of making false statements. He received three years probation, a $15,000 fine, and must lecture to graudate business students about his criminal conviction.
Milem pled guilty to one count of CWA criminal violation. Milem received three years probation, a $5,000 fine, and also must lecture to graduate business students.
Former Lab Manager Mike Snow pled guilty to one count of CWA criminal violation. Snow received three years probation during which he must perform eight hours a month of community service. He must also pay a $5,000 fine.
Read the Indianapolis Business Journal article.
Here's the full EPA announcement:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 4, 2011
Vice president, two managers of waste treatment facility sentenced for Clean Water Act felonies
WASHINGTON - Three officials of Ecological Systems, Inc. (ESI), an oil reclamation company that operated a centralized waste treatment facility in Indianapolis, IN, were sentenced in U.S. District Court, Southern District of Indiana for felony violations of the Clean Water Act. The prosecution stemmed from ESI's intentional discharges of untreated wastewater and stormwater from its facility directly into the Indianapolis sewer system.
"The Clean Water Act is designed to protect our nation's water resources, and the defendants' repeated attempts to hide the plant's capacity to handle the wastes that ESI accepted and excess rain water threatened those critical protections," said Randall Ashe, Special Agent in Charge of the EPA Criminal Investigation Division's Chicago Area Office. "Today's sentences prove that those who willfully circumvent our nation's laws and put Indiana residents and nearby homeowners at risk will be caught and prosecuted."
Joe Biggio, ESI's former Operations Manager and Executive Vice President, was sentenced to three years probation, a $15,000 fine, and community service, after having previously pled guilty to two counts of CWA criminal violations and one violation of the federal false statements statute, 18 U.S.C. 1001. Biggio's community service requires him to lecture graduate students seeking degrees in business management regarding his case and criminal conviction.
Mike Milem, former Operations Manager, was sentenced to six months home detention, three years probation, a $5,000 fine and community service, after he previously pled guilty to one criminal violation of the CWA. Similarly to Biggio, Milem's community service requires him to lecture students in Indiana colleges regarding his case and criminal conviction.
Mark Snow, former Lab Manager of ESI, was sentenced to three years probation, a $5,000 fine and 8 hours of community service per month during the duration of probation, after he also pled guilty to one criminal CWA violation.
In addition, all three defendants are prohibited from applying for any environmental license or employment in the environmental field without disclosing their felony convictions to any such licensing board or prospective employer.
The investigation began after the Indiana Department of Environmental Management received complaints from several Indianapolis homeowners that thick, oily wastewater was flowing into their yards from sewer manholes after a heavy rainfall on February 11, 2009. ESI was required to have sufficient storage capacity to handle wastewater from this type of wet weather event, but it did not. In order to deal with the excess wastewater, Mr. Milem and Mr. Snow decided to directly discharge untreated oily wastewater into the Indianapolis sewer system by pumping wastewater through hoses that bypassed ESI's treatment processes. As a result, the wastewater received no treatment, and was discharged into the sewer system leading to the City of Indianapolis' wastewater treatment plant. The discharge continued for approximately eight hours and resulted in a discharge of approximately 300,000 gallons of untreated wastewater. In the hours after this discharge, the oily sludge-like waste emerged from several sewer manholes downstream of the ESI facility, contaminating residential properties.
The subsequent investigation revealed that ESI had not been adequately treating the waste it took from customers for reclamation for a significant period of time, in part because major pieces of equipment in the treatment process, such as pumps, needed to be repaired or replaced, and because badly-needed storage space was not available at the facility. Investigators also determined that ESI had misrepresented to EPA and Indiana the storage capacity it had to handle such a rainfall event as the one that occurred on February 11, 2009.
Mr. Biggio, as the Executive Vice President of Operations, knew that ESI was hiding its noncompliance in several ways. Instead of reporting all of its wastewater samples to the city, as required by its permit, he "cherry picked" the data and only reported the "best" samples whose analytic results reflected lower concentrations of certain pollutants. Similarly, wastewater was collected after rainfalls, resulting in diluted samples that could be reported as "lower" pollution levels to the city. This practice of submitting false sampling results, along with making false statements to the authorities, attempted to disguise the fact that pollution discharge limits were being exceeded on a regular basis. The company's Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure Plan stated it had millions of gallons more capacity than actually existed to handle spills and rain events.
The case was investigated by EPA's Criminal Investigation Division, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. It was prosecuted by the Office of the United States Attorney, Southern District of Indiana.
For more information on EPA's criminal enforcement program: http://www.epa.gov/compliance/criminal/index.html
According to the EPA, the oil reclamation company facility at 5232 West 79th Street did not have the appropriate excess capacity to handle runoff from a rain storm. Former Operations Manager Mike Milem and Former Operations Manager and Executive Vice President Joe Biggio decided to work around that by running hoses around ESI's treatment facility and discharging contaminated water untreated into the Indianapolis stormsewer system.
During a February 11, 2009 storm, the plant dumped 300,000 gallons of dirty water and that water backed up into residential properties, triggering complaints and the investigation. But once regulators starting digging, they found ESI had "not been adequately treating the waste it took from customers ... for a significant period of time." Biggio hid the shortfalls by tweaking data submitting to regulators and lying.
Biggio pled guilty to two counts of criminal violations of the CWA and one count of making false statements. He received three years probation, a $15,000 fine, and must lecture to graudate business students about his criminal conviction.
Milem pled guilty to one count of CWA criminal violation. Milem received three years probation, a $5,000 fine, and also must lecture to graduate business students.
Former Lab Manager Mike Snow pled guilty to one count of CWA criminal violation. Snow received three years probation during which he must perform eight hours a month of community service. He must also pay a $5,000 fine.
Read the Indianapolis Business Journal article.
Here's the full EPA announcement:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 4, 2011
Vice president, two managers of waste treatment facility sentenced for Clean Water Act felonies
WASHINGTON - Three officials of Ecological Systems, Inc. (ESI), an oil reclamation company that operated a centralized waste treatment facility in Indianapolis, IN, were sentenced in U.S. District Court, Southern District of Indiana for felony violations of the Clean Water Act. The prosecution stemmed from ESI's intentional discharges of untreated wastewater and stormwater from its facility directly into the Indianapolis sewer system.
"The Clean Water Act is designed to protect our nation's water resources, and the defendants' repeated attempts to hide the plant's capacity to handle the wastes that ESI accepted and excess rain water threatened those critical protections," said Randall Ashe, Special Agent in Charge of the EPA Criminal Investigation Division's Chicago Area Office. "Today's sentences prove that those who willfully circumvent our nation's laws and put Indiana residents and nearby homeowners at risk will be caught and prosecuted."
Joe Biggio, ESI's former Operations Manager and Executive Vice President, was sentenced to three years probation, a $15,000 fine, and community service, after having previously pled guilty to two counts of CWA criminal violations and one violation of the federal false statements statute, 18 U.S.C. 1001. Biggio's community service requires him to lecture graduate students seeking degrees in business management regarding his case and criminal conviction.
Mike Milem, former Operations Manager, was sentenced to six months home detention, three years probation, a $5,000 fine and community service, after he previously pled guilty to one criminal violation of the CWA. Similarly to Biggio, Milem's community service requires him to lecture students in Indiana colleges regarding his case and criminal conviction.
Mark Snow, former Lab Manager of ESI, was sentenced to three years probation, a $5,000 fine and 8 hours of community service per month during the duration of probation, after he also pled guilty to one criminal CWA violation.
In addition, all three defendants are prohibited from applying for any environmental license or employment in the environmental field without disclosing their felony convictions to any such licensing board or prospective employer.
The investigation began after the Indiana Department of Environmental Management received complaints from several Indianapolis homeowners that thick, oily wastewater was flowing into their yards from sewer manholes after a heavy rainfall on February 11, 2009. ESI was required to have sufficient storage capacity to handle wastewater from this type of wet weather event, but it did not. In order to deal with the excess wastewater, Mr. Milem and Mr. Snow decided to directly discharge untreated oily wastewater into the Indianapolis sewer system by pumping wastewater through hoses that bypassed ESI's treatment processes. As a result, the wastewater received no treatment, and was discharged into the sewer system leading to the City of Indianapolis' wastewater treatment plant. The discharge continued for approximately eight hours and resulted in a discharge of approximately 300,000 gallons of untreated wastewater. In the hours after this discharge, the oily sludge-like waste emerged from several sewer manholes downstream of the ESI facility, contaminating residential properties.
The subsequent investigation revealed that ESI had not been adequately treating the waste it took from customers for reclamation for a significant period of time, in part because major pieces of equipment in the treatment process, such as pumps, needed to be repaired or replaced, and because badly-needed storage space was not available at the facility. Investigators also determined that ESI had misrepresented to EPA and Indiana the storage capacity it had to handle such a rainfall event as the one that occurred on February 11, 2009.
Mr. Biggio, as the Executive Vice President of Operations, knew that ESI was hiding its noncompliance in several ways. Instead of reporting all of its wastewater samples to the city, as required by its permit, he "cherry picked" the data and only reported the "best" samples whose analytic results reflected lower concentrations of certain pollutants. Similarly, wastewater was collected after rainfalls, resulting in diluted samples that could be reported as "lower" pollution levels to the city. This practice of submitting false sampling results, along with making false statements to the authorities, attempted to disguise the fact that pollution discharge limits were being exceeded on a regular basis. The company's Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure Plan stated it had millions of gallons more capacity than actually existed to handle spills and rain events.
The case was investigated by EPA's Criminal Investigation Division, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. It was prosecuted by the Office of the United States Attorney, Southern District of Indiana.
For more information on EPA's criminal enforcement program: http://www.epa.gov/compliance/criminal/index.html
Friday, April 1, 2011
Stanley Black & Decker's Greenfield Plans Advance
Stanley Black & Decker at 501 West New Road in Greenfield is applying for a permit for a new facility to manufacture nailers, staplers, fasteners, compressors, and related accessories. WISHTV8 wrote in October about the company's plans.
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