TAMPA — A company operating at Port Manatee was ordered to pay a $1 million penalty Tuesday and sentenced to two years of probation for “environmental crimes.”
Officials with Kinder Morgan Port Manatee Terminal LLC in February pleaded guilty to violating the federal Clean Air Act during a seven-year period, according to a plea agreement reached with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Tampa. Those violations involved a malfunctioning air-pollution control system which allowed the release of particles into the air from materials the company ships at its four-acre site.
During a sentencing hearing in a Tampa federal courtroom Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge James Moody Jr. ordered the company to pay a $750,000 fine and make a $250,000 “community service payment” to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Moody also tacked on $1,600 in court costs for the company’s guilty plea.
The fines, Moody said, were to be paid in full immediately.
Moody also placed the company on two years of probation and instructed it to implement an “extensive” environmental compliance plan. The payment will be used “for a project targeted at environmental restoration, mitigation and/or education in the Manatee County area,” the plea agreement states.
In reaching a plea deal with prosecutors, Kinder Morgan and its officials avoided a potential $2 million in fines and 20 years in prison.
Prior to sentencing, Moody gave Kinder Morgan’s attorney David DeVeau the opportunity to make a statement on behalf of his client.
He declined.
The company’s violations involved “baghouses,” machines that trap, filter and separate dust and other airborne particles. Air-quality permits require Kinder Morgan to use them at its Port Manatee facility, which receives and ships materials such as granular fertilizers and cement clinker by rail, truck and ship.
Those baghouses frequently “were in poor condition and several were not fully operational at various times” between 2001 and 2008, the plea agreement states.
Kinder Morgan officials falsely told the Florida Department of Environmental Protection in 2006 and 2007 that the baghouses would be operated correctly, and failed to tell the agency of the malfunctioning machines between late 2006 and early 2008.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Cherie Krigsman said the company reported the violations in March 2008 after an internal audit.
Following the plea deal, company officials said Kinder Morgan has corrected the problem.
