• Firm hasn't paid North Dakota fine for wastewater violation
    2 replies, posted
[B][quote]BISMARCK, N.D. (AP)[/B] — It's been two years since state regulators touted a record $1.5 million fine against a company for illegally dumping 20,000 barrels of toxic liquid and threatening drinking water supplies near a large western North Dakota city, and little has changed. The now-dissolved company is under federal investigation, the penalty is unpaid and the affected site is still contaminated. Environmental groups are calling for more federal oversight of North Dakota's exploding energy development, saying that the state has done practically nothing to penalize the company and that the illegal dumping near Dickinson wouldn't have happened if state regulators were required to do due dillgence. A simple Internet search would have revealed that the company's owner had a criminal past long before wells were drilled in North Dakota, they say. Meanwhile, state officials say the Stark County site doesn't pose a threat to drinking supplies, and that the entire fine may never be collected. Court records show that federal officials have been investigating the incident since at least November, when a search warrant was issued to inspect the site. Authorities in late July 2012 fined Halek Operating ND LLC of Dickinson for putting drinking water at risk by illegally dumping more than 800,000 gallons of salty, oilfield wastewater into a former oil well and then attempted to cover up the crime. Administrative Law Judge Allen Hoberg called it 'among the most egregious violations ever pursued" by state regulators, resulting in the state's largest regulatory penalty. It was the first time anyone had been prosecuted for breaking those laws, and regulators said it sent a strong message about the state's stance on protecting the environment. U.S. Attorney Timothy Purdon confirmed this week that the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Justice Department and the U.S. Attorney's office are conducting a federal criminal investigation into Halek Operating and its owner, Jason Halek, 40, of Southlake, Texas. Purdon declined to comment further. Telephone calls by The Associated Press to a listing for Halek at his home in Texas were not answered this week. Halek had been under the scrutiny of North Dakota regulators for an improper cleanup of an oil leak near Dickinson in 2011. The company faced more than $588,000 in fines but was ordered to pay less than 10 percent of that.[/quote] [url=http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/texas/article_7fb2f53b-bd2a-5c04-8967-04b6d8ee1d05.html]Brownsville Herald[/url] North Dakota folks. If you so much as touch our groundwater incorrectly with your lips, you'll get fined and sued by the Bank of North Dakota. One of the benefits of having a state runned bank.
Time to pierce the veil and go straight to the principals' personal assets if they won't pay up as a corporate entity.
I imagine random audits are gonna appear for the company and it's management too.
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