Firm facing dumping charges
A Greene County businessman faces nearly 100 criminal charges for allegedly illegally dumping millions of gallons of wastewater across the region and overbilling his customers over a six-year period.
Robert Allan Shipman, 50, of Holbrook is accused of illegally dumping waste, including production water from natural gas drilling operations, sludge from sewage treatment plants and grease water from restaurants, that cannot go into a normal sewer system.
Agents from the state attorney general’s office filed 98 charges against Shipman and 77 charges against his business, Allan’s Waste Water Service Inc., also of Holbrook.
Shipman turned himself into state police to face the charges on Thursday.
“This was a calculated and long-running scheme to personally profit by illegally dumping waste water, regardless of the potential for environmental damage,” acting Attorney General Bill Ryan said in a statement.
Charges were filed after a statewide investigating grand jury recommended criminal actions.
Between 2003 and 2009, numerous businesses retained Shipman and his company to haul and dispose of water waste, but instead of doing so in a legal manner, Shipman told his drivers to mix the wastes together into a “cocktail,” prosecutors allege.
The mixes were then allegedly dumped at locations across the area, including in Greene, Fayette, Washington, Allegheny and Westmoreland counties.
The reason the wastes were mixed was two-fold, prosecutors alleged: it enabled Shipman to conceal the true nature of the waste and he was able to increase the volume of disposals billed to customers.
Former drivers for Allan’s Waste Water Service testified “cocktailing” most commonly occurred with grease loads, according to the presentment.
Then, Shipman told the drivers to take the waste to various disposal sites and say it was either sewage sludge or production water.
Production water is the wastewater produced by gas well drilling operations.
The grand jury found that Shipman told his drivers to falsify their manifests so he could bill customers for the full capacity of the truck, regardless of how much waste was actually being hauled and disposed of.
Between 2003 and 2009, Shipman allegedly received about $250,000 from overbilling, the presentment alleged.
Shipman also is accused of instructing employees to shred and discard actual manifests in order to generate new fraudulent invoices that would be sent to customers, forging drivers’ signatures and other information on those bogus manifests.
His former administrative assistant testified she saw Shipman forge manifests between 2005 and 2008 so that he could bill customers for more waste than was actually hauled.
The woman, who quit in 2008, also told the grand jury that Shipman intimidated his drivers into forging manifests, and that the business made millions of dollars yearly.
The grand jury presentment also alleged that Shipman told his drivers to leave water valves open at gas wells. That would allow production water to flow onto the ground and into nearby waterways to conceal the illegal discharge, prosecutors alleged. That typically occurred after dark or during heavy rains, prosecutors alleged.
Drivers for the waste company also were allegedly told to park their trucks in business’s garage, and dump wastewater into the floor drain. That drain leads directly into Tom’s Run stream, which leads into Dunkard Creek, according to court paperwork.
Shipman also is accused of discharging waste into Morris Run Creek and Rush Run.
“The drivers would cocktail waste, improperly dispose of the waste and create false manifests by misrepresenting the quantity of waste they transported and disposed,” the presentment read. “The drivers testified that Shipman had them do this because he got paid to dispose of waste by the gallon.”
Shipman and his business were both charged with corrupt organizations and multiple counts each of theft by unlawful taking, theft by deception, deceptive business practices, forgery and tampering with records. Both face various other charges.
The charges carry substantial prison terms and fines in excess of $1.5 million for Shipman and $1.2 million for his company.
Shipman was arraigned before Magisterial District Judge Glenn Bates, and posted 10 percent of a $500,000 bond to secure is release. He faces a preliminary hearing later this month.