The U.S. Attorney´s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania has charged the workers with knowingly causing thousands of gallons of untreated sewage and sludge to be dumped into the river between August and September 2004. A second count alleges that between 1997 and June 2005, the defendants allowed monitoring devices, such as alarms on the chlorine tank and digester at the Bristol plant, to remain disconnected and inoperable, thereby creating a potential threat to public health and the environment.

In addition, the men are accused of causing effluent samples to be tampered with by introducing chlorine bleach to the samples before they were sent to a laboratory for analysis of the fecal coliform levels.

The U.S. Attorney´s Office disclosed the charges on March 9 and identified the defendants as Steven McClain, 51, and Ronald C. Meinzer, 44, also known as Ronald Meinzer Jr.

If convicted, each defendant faces a possible five years in prison and thousands of dollars in fines, according to federal prosecutors.