WICHITA, Kan. (AP) A former northwest Kansas wastewater treatment superintendent has been sentenced to a year of probation and a $2,500 fine for violating the federal Clean Water Act.
U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom says Charles Blair, 58, of Hays pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of negligent discharge of a pollutant and was sentenced Monday in federal court in Wichita.
Blair admitted in his plea that in February 2012, he allowed effluent to be discharged from the Hays treatment plant with an ammonia nitrogen level exceeding state and federal regulations.
Blair, who retired last year, was initially charged in a four-count indictment with making false statements about nitrogen levels in discharges from the treatment plant. But federal prosecutors replaced the indictment last week with the single misdemeanor count.
