More Charges Against McWane

A grand jury has brought 25 charges against the McWane Corporation for environmental crimes, including illegal dumping. McWane was the focus of a 2003 NY Times/Frontline series about the high number of workplace injuries and fatalities at that company's facilities.

The indictment charges that senior McWane managers, including Charles Robison, the corporation's vice president for environmental affairs, conspired to dump huge quantities of polluted wastewater into a creek that runs through McWane's oldest foundry, the McWane Cast Iron Pipe Company, on the outskirts of downtown Birmingham.

***

According to the indictment, the defendants conspired over several years to routinely dump thousands of gallons of polluted wastewater generated daily by the foundry. They then repeatedly lied to environmental regulators to cover up the violations, the indictment states.

McWane was indicted last December in New Jersey for conspiring to violate workplace safety and environmental laws, as well as "obstructing government investigations by lying, intimidating workers and altering accident scenes."