Charles Santich, Clean Water Act Violation, New Hampshire 2025

In a shocking turn of events, Charles Santich, 59, of New York, and Old Dutch Mustard Co., Inc., a New York corporation with a manufacturing facility in Greenville, New Hampshire, pleaded guilty to knowingly discharging a pollutant without a permit.

The Clean Water Act (CWA) prohibits the discharge of any pollutant into navigable waters of the United States without a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit. Due to a long history of CWA non-compliance dating back to the 1980s, Old Dutch Mustard has been subject to several enforcement actions by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NH DES), and the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office.

Beginning in the spring of 2015, Santich hired an excavation company to bury a pipe from the Old Dutch Mustard facility to discharge acidic wastewater and stormwater in the general direction of the Souhegan River along an abandoned railroad bed. This discharge point was downstream of, and not detectible by, the continuous environmental monitoring required by the EPA and State of New Hampshire.

Santich directed Old Dutch Mustard employees to repeatedly pump acidic wastewater and stormwater through the underground pipe to the abandoned railroad bed. Santich also directed employees not to tell anyone about the pipe.

In May of 2023, state inspectors from NH DES discovered wastewater from the facility, with low pH and smelling of vinegar, flowing from a manmade ditch at the top of the hill on the Old Dutch Mustard property into the Souhegan River. In August 2023, EPA agents executed a search warrant at the Old Dutch Mustard facility and observed liquid that smelled like vinegar discharging from the end of the underground pipe into the ditch.

U.S. District Court Judge Landya McCafferty scheduled sentencing for June 23, 2025. Charles Santich and Old Dutch Mustard Co., Inc. are currently facing charges of violating the Clean Water Act.

Mandatory Facts: Defendant/Respondent: Charles Santich, Exact Criminal Charges: Violating the Clean Water Act, City and State: Greenville, New Hampshire, Exact Date: n.a. (no specific date mentioned, but occurred in 2023), Sentence or Outcome: Sentencing scheduled for June 23, 2025.