Great Lakes Echo (https://greatlakesecho.org/tag/law/)
A federal grand jury has indicted two business rivals in Western Pennsylvania for alleged interstate trafficking in wild ginseng, a perennial herb whose root is valued for its reputed aphrodisiac and medicinal properties, including as a panacea or cure-all for some diseases.
A former supervisor of a Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority plant is expected to plead guilty to a felony charge for allegedly ordering employees to discharge sludge into the Allegheny River.
Sept. 1, 2019, was a deadly day for a 700-pound black bear illegally shot with a compound bow near a garbage dump on Minnesota’s Red Lake Indian Reservation.
Federal authorities have charged the owner and manager of more than 100 buildings in Buffalo with conspiracy for violating laws intended to protect tenants from lead paint poisoning.
The owner of the Old Cavern Boutique in Montreal has been arrested on charges of illegally trafficking in wildlife parts and sending them from Canada into the United States.
By Eric Freedman
A federal judge has sentenced a Flint, Michigan, polluter to one year behind bars for illegally discharging more than 47 million gallons of untreated waste into the city’s sewer system. Robert Massey, the 70-year-old president and owner of family-owned Oil Chem Inc., pleaded guilty to violating the Clean Water Act over an 8½ year period between 2007 and 2015. “That amounts to over 72 Olympic-size swimming pools. The crime was driven by greed. Oil Chem received over a million dollars to dispose of the (material),” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in its sentencing memorandum to U.S. District Judge Stephanie Davis.
An Ontario shipping company has agreed to pay a $500,000 fine and to implement an environmental compliance program after accepting responsibility for the illegal dumping of 11,887 gallons of oily bilge water into Lake Ontario.
Reinstatement of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Habitat Grant Program could provide significant funding for many habitat projects this year, the department said.
Recovering America’s Wildlife Act would provide states, territories and tribes with $1.4 billion annually to protect important species and their associated habitats.
A federal judge has slapped a Western Pennsylvania copper-processing company with a $550,000 fine for its years-long criminal violations of the Clean Water Act, including illegal discharging of oil into the Ohio River.