The former superintendent of the Michigan City wastewater treatment plant is facing federal charges related to reporting and monitoring methods at the plant.
Daniel R. Olson, 62, of Merrillville, has been charged with three felony counts of making a false statement under the Clean Water Act, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for northern Indiana announced Wednesday. The charges cover the period from July 2007 through June 2010.
Olson is charged with failing to make a required report of a bypass of a treatment process before discharging waste streams into Trail Creek, which flows into Lake Michigan; selectively reporting only sample results that showed compliance with Michigan City’s discharge permit and not reporting samples that showed non-compliance; and tampering with a monitoring method.
The U.S. attorney’s office is alleging that Olson, in taking a daily sample of waste water to test for E. coli, delayed taking the sample until the point in the treatment process when the treatment chemical (chlorine) was elevated and when E. coli concentrations would be at lower levels.
Daniel R. Olson, 62, of Merrillville, has been charged with three felony counts of making a false statement under the Clean Water Act, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for northern Indiana announced Wednesday. The charges cover the period from July 2007 through June 2010.
Olson is charged with failing to make a required report of a bypass of a treatment process before discharging waste streams into Trail Creek, which flows into Lake Michigan; selectively reporting only sample results that showed compliance with Michigan City’s discharge permit and not reporting samples that showed non-compliance; and tampering with a monitoring method.
The U.S. attorney’s office is alleging that Olson, in taking a daily sample of waste water to test for E. coli, delayed taking the sample until the point in the treatment process when the treatment chemical (chlorine) was elevated and when E. coli concentrations would be at lower levels.
