SENECA (KSNT) - A company out of Seneca has been ordered to pay a penalty for playing a role in a conspiracy to delete emissions control systems on hundreds of heavy-duty commercial trucks throughout the country.
The United States Attorney's Office District of Colorado announced on Dec. 9 that Elite Diesel Service Inc. of Windsor, Colorado, and its owner, Troy Lake Sr., were sentenced after pleading guilty to conspiring to violate the Clean Air Act, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
The conspiracy included eight conspirators in seven different states, according to the DOJ. Elite Diesel Service Inc. and Lake told employees to disable on-board diagnostic systems (OBDs) on at least 344 heavy-duty trucks. OBDs are required under the Clean Air Act to monitor emissions.
Hammes Repair Inc. of Seneca was ordered to pay fines and make payments for projects designed to offset some of the environmental harm. The company was penalized $117,500 including a fine and community service payment to the Kansas Department of Health & Environment. The community service payment will go towards purchasing electric groundskeeping equipment used to replace old gas-fired equipment.
"A study of the effects of tampering with these 344 trucks showed that the conspirators in this case collectively caused an illegal increase in pollutants of at least 1,300 tons of excess nitrogen oxides, 30 tons of excess non-methane hydrocarbons, 600 tons of excess carbon monoxide, and 30 tons of excess particulate matter," the DOJ wrote in the press release.
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