RALEIGH, N.C. – Barry Darnell White, 63, pled guilty today to knowingly discharging tert-Butyl alcohol and other pollutants into the Cape Fear River in violation of the federal Clean Water Act. White did so while employed by American Distillation, Inc., a chemical processing company located in Navassa, outside of Wilmington.
“Rather than dispose of hazardous pollutants legally, this Navassa industrial site hooked a hose to a quarter-million-gallon waste tank, brazenly discharging over 50,000 gallons of pollutants into the Cape Fear River over a four-year period,” said U.S. Attorney Michael F. Easley, Jr. “We won’t let corporate polluters cut corners for cash while the rest of us bear the costs. Not in North Carolina, not on the Cape Fear River, and certainly not in Navassa, where descendants of the Gullah-Geeche people have faced more than their share of environmental calamities. We’ll fight to protect our resources and our communities - until justice rolls on like a river.”
According to the information presented in court, American Distillation, Inc. (ADI) is a chemical processing company located beside the Cape Fear River in Navassa. ADI was incorporated in 1992 to blend and market industrial grade ethyl alcohol. ADI’s services included distillation, dehydration, reaction, carbon treating, and blending of various chemicals and products from partners across the United States. ADI regularly intakes large quantities of tert-Butyl alcohol (TBOH) from its customer base, which ADI then distills into a usable product for such customers. TBOH is a pollutant that constitutes a solid waste, chemical waste, and an industrial waste under the law. During distillation, ADI created and stored byproducts in an approximately 250,000-gallon storage tank (known as Tank 14), which regularly stored liquid wastewater that included—in addition to TBOH—tert-butyl hydroperoxide, isopropyl alcohol, and acetone mixed with water. TBOH is highly flammable, colorless oily liquid with a sharp alcohol odor.
The defendant, Barry Darnell White was the Production Manager at ADI’s main facility in Navassa. White led logistics at ADI, oversaw the movement of pollutants and various waste products within ADI, and supervised numerous other employees. Such logistics included the movement of chemicals from one tank to another, and the movements from tanker trucks in and out of ADI’s facilities. White reported directly to ADI’s corporate management.
Five to six times per year, from 2020 to 2024, White released approximately 2,500 gallons of liquid wastewater from Tank 14. White did so by connecting a hose to Tank 14, then turning a valve to initiate the flow of liquid from the tank. The hose drained into a nearby pipe that drained to an outfall flowing directly to the Cape Fear River.
ADI was required to properly dispose of TBOH byproduct according to its EPA-issued permit. ADI, however, beginning in late 2019 to the beginning of 2024, was accepting more TBOH and other chemicals from its customers than it could legally and safely process and remove. To ensure operations did not come to a halt and realize maximum profit, ADI released TBOH byproduct from Tank 14 causing it to flow into the Cape Fear River. ADI management had informed some of its employees that if operations came to a halt, the company would suffer serious financial harm, potentially including dissolution.
ADI has not been charged with a crime or admitted to wrongdoing.
“Our natural resources must be protected from those who blatantly disregard environmental laws by illegally discharging industrial waste into US waters,” said Leslie Carroll, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Environmental Protection Agency’s criminal enforcement program in North Carolina. “The defendant in this case discharged wastewater containing Tert-Butyl Alcohol and other chemicals into the Cape Fear River on multiple occasions since at least 2020. Today’s guilty plea demonstrates that EPA and its partners are committed to protecting our natural resources and the communities that rely upon them.”
“This individual’s blatant violation of the Clean Water Act not only defrauded the EPA, but more critically, endangered communities relying on North Carolina rivers and streams by recklessly discharging harmful pollutants where people swim and fish” said Assistant Special Agent in Charge Keith Squires of the EPA Office of Inspector General. “The EPA OIG is committed to pursuing criminals like this who disregard and degrade the integrity of EPA’s clean water mission and put profits above human health and the environment.”