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1/21/2026
WT Staff
 Do you have knowledge of an environmental crime? Give us a call at 877-52-WATER (877-529-2837), or email info@wtla.us
Wednesday, Jan 21, 2026, 127 pm CST
CWA CrimeBox
Environmental Crimes Historic Conviction: Fiscal Year 2015; Case ID# CR_2748 (Mississippi)
Decades of CWA violations caused severe damage to the Gulf coast environment. Convicted fertilizer company bankrupt, sentenced to transfer land holdings to NOAA Research Reserve
One of 867 Criminal Prosecutions under the Clean Water Act in USA (from 1989-2024)
"Over the years, state, local and federal governments have spent billions of dollars restoring the delicate Gulf Coast ecosystem. Illegally discharged wastewater compromises that hard work. EPA will continue to work with its law enforcement partners to hold companies fully accountable for their conduct, and to ensure they comply with laws that protect the public from harm."
-Andy Castro, EPA Acting Special Agent in Charge
The Defendant in this case is a phosphate and sulphur fertilizer manufacturer with operations adjacent Bayou Casotte in the Grand Bay estuary. After decades of stalling on environmental compliance, the Federal District Court in Southern Mississippi received a bill of information charging the fertilizer company with felony violation of the Clean Water Act.
The Defendant employed 220 people in Pascagoula, a Gulf coast city of 22,000 around the time of the joint agencies' criminal investigation. The court learned the Defendant received phosphate ore by sea and rail, processing the soft rock into diammonium phosphate (DAP), a fertilizer used in conventional crop production. Another fertilizer product was made from sulphur, a by-product from the oil and gas industry. Sulfur was piped in to factory from a nearby oil refinery. In the course of normal operations, pollutants and hazardous wastes accumulate on the property, including sulfuric acid and ammonia. Environmental regulations protecting air and water quality stipulate how such waste products must be handled.
The court learned the fertilizer operation was known to the State authorities for a long history of CWA violations, with "numerous notices" from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), prompting action to correct "hundreds of violations" of the factory's discharge permit. Court learned the Defendant failed to institute remedial action to correct the excess contaminant level and pH of the discharges. At the same time, management did not ensure adequate wastewater storage for non-compliant material. Untreated wastewater from the sulfuric acid plant flowed from the factory's main outfall into Bayou Casotte, and when it rained, Combined Stormwater Overflows (CSO) carried hazardous substances out through many more outfalls, impacting multiple water bodies of the estuary.
Court heard the Defendant's prolonged history of violations, including an April 2005 incident, where 17 million gallons of highly acidic wastewater killed fish in Bayou Casotte, Tillman Creek and Bangs Lake, all part of the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. The contamination continued, even after many attempts by the State to enforce compliance with CWA.
From the Department of Justice press statement of Aug 19, 2015, following sentencing:
"These waters are some of the most productive nurseries for aquatic species on the Gulf Coast. (The Defendant's) massive discharge of pollutants resulted in the death of thousands of fish and other forms of marine life as well as the destruction of marsh grass, trees and shrubs. In the years following this environmental catastrophe, in spite of MDEQ's orders and (the Defendant's own) remedial proposals, (the Defendant) never implemented the measures necessary to prevent the release of pollutants from its facility and the discharge of an even larger torrent of wastewater destroying even more marine life."
In August 2013, the defendant admitted the factory discharged 38 million gallons of acidic industrial process water to Bayou Casotte, killing 47,000 fish.
According to information submitted to the court, contaminant levels in the spill were found "greatly exceeding" the Defendant's permitted discharge limits. The Defendant admitted to another incident, six months following the massive fish kill of 2013. In Feb 2014, oily wastewater was allowed to run from the Defendant's facility into a storm drain taking rain runoff to Bayou Casotte. The oil sheen from that spill stretched a full mile downstream of the facility, according to EPA records.
The Defendant's plea agreement was accepted by the Court. Bankrupt, and unable to cover the estimated $120 million remediation bill, Chief Judge Louis Guirola Jr. ordered the Defendant's property, 320 acres near the facility, transferred to Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve.
In lieu of fines, restitution and probation for the bankrupt company: 320 acres of property ordered transferred to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA's) National Estuarine Research Reserve System.
See last week's CrimeBox, "Water Plant Operator sentenced to home confinement for faking drinking water lab test results, filing false wastewater discharge reports", here.
CWA CrimeBox briefs are compiled from EPA Criminal Enforcement records.
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