FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ENR

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1995 (202) 616-0189

TDD (202) 514-1888

MAJOR TOWBOAT COMPANY AND TOP OFFICIALS

INDICTED FOR 20-YEAR RIVER DUMPING CONSPIRACY

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- M/G Transport Services, Inc., until

recently one of the largest towboat companies in the United
States, a top official of the company and six captains were today
indicted by a federal grand jury for dumping pollutants into the
Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.

According to the indictment, filed today in Federal District

Court in Cincinnati, M/G Transport and Harschel Thomassee, the
company's former Vice President of Operations and Port Engineer
in charge of more than a dozen towboats, conspired to violate the
Oil Pollution Act, the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships and
the Clean Water Act over a twenty year period beginning in 1971
and ending in the 1991-1993 time period. Six towboat captains
were also charged in the indictment for dumping pollutants into
the rivers.

M/G Transport and its employees deliberately dumped harmful

quantities of oil and garbage from its towboats over the last two
decades. The company and Thomassee are charged with deliberately
failing to report to authorities a significant oil discharge that
occurred on the Ohio River in Wheeling, West Virginia, in July
1990, by ordering employees to lie to authorities if questioned
about the discharge.

Thomassee's successor as Port Engineer, Roger Williamson,

pled guilty to similar charges in December 1994, making him one
of the first ever to be charged with polluting an inland water
way from a vessel.

The indictment charges that the towboat captains burned

waste products on the decks of the barges and then dumped the
resulting pollutants overboard, including plastic, metal, glass,
ash, paint chips, and oil.

If convicted, the company could face up to $4.2 million in

criminal fines. During the period of the charges, M/G Transport
was the third largest towboat company in the United States.
Defendant Thomassee and the six towboat captains could each face
up to 5 years in prison and criminal fines.

Lois J. Schiffer, Assistant Attorney General for the

Environment and Natural Resources Division, today said
"Intentional dumping by ships threatens our nation's rivers. We
must curtail pollution from ships."

Edmund A. Sargus, Jr., the United States Attorney for the

Southern District of Ohio, stated that Williamson's guilty plea
and today's indictment "tells industry that commercial use of the
Ohio River cannot be at the expense of the environment."

Ms. Schiffer and Mr. Sargus commended Special Agents from

the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of
Transportation, the United States Coast Guard, and the
Environmental Protection Agency for their investigation of this
case.

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