CARPET CLEANER SENTENCED FOR WATER POLLUTION IN BALTIMORE COUNTY

Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr. announced today that Ronald Lee Curland, 38, of Cherry Chapel Road in Reisterstown, Maryland pled guilty in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County to discharging a pollutant to waters of the State. The Honorable J. Grason Turnbull, II, accepted the plea and sentenced Curland to 18 months of probation.On the morning of December 17, 2003, an investigator with the Attorney General’s Environmental Crimes Unit observed Curland, who is the owner/operator of Stain Lifters Carpet Care, Inc., dumping carpet cleaning wastewater onto a driveway of a residence in the 3300 block of Lightfoot Drive in the Pikesville area of Baltimore County.
Curland used a hose to discharge a wastewater holding tank under the company’s van. The wastewater, which contained dirt and detergents and had an elevated pH level, flowed into a nearby storm drain. Investigators followed the flow from the adjoining storm drain to a nearby unnamed tributary of Moores Branch which is itself a tributary of the Jones Falls. Approximately fifty gallons of the wastewater was dumped.
In addition to being placed on probation, Judge Turnbull ordered the defendant to perform fifty hours of community work service and imposed a fine of $5,000 and suspended $2,500 of the fine. In light of the defendant’s lack of any prior criminal record, Judge Turnbull granted the defendant probation before judgment. The maximum sentence for the illegal discharge of a pollutant into waters of the State, is up to a year in prison and/or a fine of $25,000. In the event the defendant violates any of the terms of his probation the Court could impose a sentence up to the maximum penalties.
The conviction follows a joint investigation conducted by the Environmental Crimes Unit of the Office of the Attorney General and the Maryland State Police.

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