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Sheffield CEO resigns, pleads guilty to violating Clean Water Act [The Day, New London, Conn. :: ](Day, The (New London, CT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) July 08--NEW LONDON -- Thomas H. Faria, who resigned in March as the chief executive officer of Sheffield Pharmaceuticals, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court today to a felony violation of the Clean Water Act for knowingly discharging untreated industrial wastewater to the New London sewage treatment plant from 1986 to 2011. Sheffield Pharmaceuticals' factory at 170 Broad St. manufactures a wide range of over-the-counter pharmaceutical creams, ointments and toothpastes. The company employs about 200 people. Faria waived his right to indictment and pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Alvin W. Thompson. As a condition of his guilty plea, Faria, 37, of Waterford, resigned from the company on March 7, 2014, and shall have no role in the operations or management of Faria Limited, according to U.S. Attorney Deidre M. Daly. Faria's father, owner of the Thomas G. Faria Corporation, a gauge manufacturer in Uncasville, purchased the New London company in 1986. The father died in 2003. Faria pleaded guilty to one count of knowingly violating, or causing to be violated, the Clean Water Act, an offense that carries a maximum penalty of three years of imprisonment and a fine of not less than $5,000 but not more than $50,000 per day of the violation. Judge Thompson scheduled sentencing for Oct. 6, 2014. Jeffrey Davis, former production manager at Sheffield, has been named chief executive officer of the company. Davis said in a brief phone conversation this afternoon that the company would be issuing a press release or prepared statement later. According to the government, Sheffield lacked a pretreatment system at its factory to treat its industrial wastewater prior to discharge to the sewage treatment plant, performed no regular monitoring of its discharges of industrial wastewater, and submitted no monthly monitoring reports to the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. The treatment plant discharges to the Thames River. In a 2011 interview with The Day, Davis, then the company's production manager, said the company was working with the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to obtain the necessary permits and comply with all regulations. According to the government, Faria, who became the company's president and chief executive officer in April 2003, learned through his employees that Sheffield was discharging pollutants, including the toxic metal zinc, in its industrial wastewater without the required permit. Obtaining a permit would require installation of a pretreatment system at significant expense. Faria's employees, including a factory manager, urged him to make the financial investment to bring the company into compliance, but he chose not to do so even after four environmental consulting firms advised him that discharging industrial waste water into the public sewage system is illegal, according to the government. "Any CEO operating a factory in Connecticut who ignores federal and state environmental laws risks not only significant fines, but also a jail sentence," said U.S. Attorney Daly. "The Clean Water Act applies to every industrial entity doing business in Connecticut. For at least seven years, Thomas Faria knowingly violated the law by directing his employees to discharge industrial wastewater into the public sewage system without a permit and without monitoring the chemical levels of the discharge. He pursued this illegal course over the objection of a manager who urged him in writing to bring the company into compliance with the law. This office will vigorously prosecute corporate officers whose decisions and actions, in the name of corporate profits, threaten Connecticut's natural resources and harm the public's right to a clean environment." ___ (c)2014 The Day (New London, Conn.) Visit The Day (New London, Conn.) at www.theday.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |