By Howard Riedel
Buffalo, NY – An executive at Tonawanda Coke has been charged with violating the Clean Air Act and two other environmental laws.
Mark Kamholz, 62, of West Seneca, the manager for environmental control for the company, faces up to five years in prison and fines of $50,000 a day. He's been charged with failing to notify the Environmental Protection Agency when coal tar sludge was released into the air this summer.
Kamholz told the state Department of Environmental Conservation in June that two tanks at the River Road plant holding the coal tar sludge were being decommissioned. But an inspection in September determined that the tops of the tanks had been cut off and several feet of the sludge had been exposed to the air, releasing benzene, a known carcinogen, into the air at levels far over legal limits.
Kamholz also faces charges for storing the sludge without a permit, and for failing to insure that two towers at the plant had baffles installed to reduce pollution.