![](https://heysocal.com/wp-content/themes/heymediadev/assets/img/logos/beacon_white.png)
![](https://heysocal.com/wp-content/themes/heymediadev/assets/img/logos/logo-white.png)
The former owner of a wastewater treatment facility in Orange County and his company each pleaded guilty Friday to a federal environmental criminal charge for discharging untreated industrial wastewater into the county’s sewer system.
Tim Miller, 65, of Kewaskum, Wisconsin, and his company, Klean Waters Inc., pleaded guilty in downtown Los Angeles to one felony count of knowingly violating a requirement of an approved pretreatment program, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
U.S. District Judge Josephine Staton scheduled an April 14 sentencing hearing. Miller faces up to three years in federal prison and Klean Waters face a possible maximum of three years probation and $50,000 in fines.
According to their plea agreements, from 2013 to April 2015, Miller was the owner and president of Klean Waters, a wastewater treatment facility in Orange. Klean Waters was permitted to receive nonhazardous industrial wastewater, treat it for pollutants if needed, and then discharge the water into the Orange County Sanitation District’s sewer.
OCSD runs a pretreatment program that was approved under federal law and that implements and enforces national standards established under the Clean Water Act, prosecutors said. Pursuant to the act, any violation of any requirement imposed in OCSD’s local pre-treatment program is a violation of federal law.
In 2013, Miller applied for and received a permit from OCSD for Klean Waters to discharge wastewater into the sewer. Klean Waters’ permit required the defendant to, among other things, test and treat wastewater so the level of pollutants remained below permitted levels when it was discharged to the sewer.
In April 2015, without testing the wastewater, Miller knowingly caused Klean Waters to discharge wastewater into the sewer, so that the type and concentration of pollutants in the wastewater remained unknown, according to federal prosecutors.
We are able to provide high-quality political journalism to you for free thanks to our advertisers. So that you can continue to enjoy HEYSOCAL's in-depth reporting, we ask that you please turn off your ad blocker and come on in, free of charge.
Subscribe to our newsletter for this giveaway and many more. Also, stay in the loop for SoCal news and updates.
Your subscription has been confirmed. You've been added to our list and will hear from us soon.
Your request has been confirmed! We will get in touch with you shortly.
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Essential Cookies should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.
This website uses Google Analytics to collect anonymous information such as the number of visitors to the site, and the most popular pages.
Keeping this cookie enabled helps us to improve our website.
Please enable Essential Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!
You can find more information about our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy