On October 26, 2015, WASTE MANAGEMENT OF HAWAII, INC., (WMH), JOSEPH R. WHELAN, the company’s general manager and vice president, and JUSTIN H. LOTTIG, the company’s environmental protection manager, were sentenced in federal district court for the District of Hawaii. WMH was sentenced to pay a $400,000 fine; $200,000 in restitution (with $100,000 payable to the Ko Olina Community Association and $100,000 payable to the Malama Learning Center on the leeward shore of Oahu for implementation of water quality monitoring and erosion control projects); and pay a $250 special assessment to the Court. Whelan was sentenced to pay a total criminal fine of $25,000. Lottig was sentenced to pay a total criminal fine of $25,000. They were sentenced for negligently discharging pollutants into a water of the U.S. without having a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit.

The charges stem from illegal discharges of contaminated storm water from the Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill into Hawaii’s coastal waters after heavy rainfalls in December 2010 and January 2011. WMH was permitted to discharge storm water from the landfill to the Pacific Ocean under a NPDES permit issued by the Hawaii Department of Health Clean Water Branch. The storm water was required to go through the landfill’s storm water management system to ensure that it did not come into contact with waste in the landfill before being discharged to Hawaii’s coastal waters. The NPDES permit prohibited WMH from causing or contributing to a violation of Hawaii’s state water quality standards.

• Clean Water Act (CWA)