BALTIMORE BRICK WASHER SENTENCED FOR CONTROLLED
HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCE AND WATER POLUTION VIOLATIONS

Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr. announced today the guilty plea and sentencing of Robinson Agresott, 54, of the 700 block of East Fort Avenue, Baltimore, for violations of the State’s Controlled Hazardous Substance laws. Agresott pleaded guilty before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Evelyn O. Cannon to the charges of unlawful storage of controlled hazardous substances and discharging a pollutant into the waters of the State.

According to the statement of facts between January and September of 2002, Agresott stored numerous barrels of lead-laden wastewater from his brick washing business in the backyard of his Fort Avenue house and in a nearby garage. In addition, Agresott admitted to discharging brick washing wastewater into a storm drain in the 1200 block of Hull Street on October 1, 2001.

It is a criminal violation to store a controlled hazardous substance such as lead-laden wastewater any place other than a controlled hazardous substance facility for which there is a current permit. It is also unlawful to discharge a pollutant into the waters of the State

Agresott was sentenced to five years in the Department of Corrections. That five years of incarceration was suspended and Agresott was placed on a period of three years supervised probation. As a condition of that probation Agresott was ordered to pay a $10,000 fine to the Maryland Hazardous Substance Control Fund and to perform 300 hours of community service within the first year of his probationary period.

"We will continue to monitor the activities of brick washers in Baltimore City and elsewhere because of the dangerously high levels of lead found in the wastewater they produce," Attorney General Curran said.

This case was investigated by the Environmental Crimes Unit of the Office of the Attorney General with the assistance of the Baltimore City Police Department, the Baltimore City Department of Public Works and the Maryland Department of the Environment.

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