Barry Darnell White, Environmental Discharge, North Carolina 2024

Raleigh, NC – Barry Darnell White, 63, pled guilty today to knowingly discharging tert-Butyl alcohol and other pollutants into the Cape Fear River in Navassa, North Carolina in violation of the federal Clean Water Act.

White did so while employed by American Distillation, Inc., a chemical processing company located in Navassa, outside of Wilmington.

"Rather than dispose of hazardous pollutants legally, this Navassa industrial site hooked a hose to a quarter-million-gallon waste tank, brazenly discharging over 50,000 gallons of pollutants into the Cape Fear River over a four-year period," said U.S. Attorney Michael F. Easley, Jr.

According to the information presented in court, American Distillation, Inc. (ADI) is a chemical processing company located beside the Cape Fear River in Navassa. ADI was incorporated in 1992 to blend and market industrial grade ethyl alcohol. ADI’s services included distillation, dehydration, reaction, carbon treating, and blending of various chemicals and products from partners across the United States.

The defendant, Barry Darnell White was the Production Manager at ADI’s main facility in Navassa. White led logistics at ADI, oversaw the movement of pollutants and various waste products within ADI, and supervised numerous other employees.

Five to six times per year, from 2020 to 2024, White released approximately 2,500 gallons of liquid wastewater from Tank 14. The hose drained into a nearby pipe that drained to an outfall flowing directly to the Cape Fear River.

ADI has not been charged with a crime or admitted to wrongdoing.

"Our natural resources must be protected from those who blatantly disregard environmental laws by illegally discharging industrial waste into US waters," said Leslie Carroll, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Environmental Protection Agency’s criminal enforcement program in North Carolina.

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