September 17, 2008

AUGUSTA, GA: Edmund A. Booth, Jr., United States Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, announced that the federal grand jury sitting in Savannah has returned an eleven count indictment against Daniel Webster Cason, the Public Works Director for the City of Harlem, Georgia who is responsible for the operation of that city's Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Booth stated that the charges in the indictment involve the January 2004 pumping of a pollutant from the oxidation pond at Harlem's Wastewater Treatment Plant into the Euchee Creek tributary located adjacent to the plant, as well as false statements in records and reports regarding the plant's measurements of fecal coliform and biochemical oxygen demand.

Booth noted that the defendant faces a maximum statutory penalty of three years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine if convicted of the pumping charge. If convicted of the false statement charges, the defendant faces a maximum statutory penalty for each count of two years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine. An initial appearance and arraignment date has not yet been set.

Booth emphasized that an indictment is only an accusation and is not evidence of guilt. The defendant is entitled to a fair trial, during which it will be the government's burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Environmental Protection Agency Special Agent Charles Carfagno, assisted by FBI Special Agent Paul Kubala, conducted the investigation which led to the indictment. The government is represented in this case by Assistant United States Attorneys David M. Stewart and Carlton Bourne,