News Briefs: Former WWTP Superintendent Pleads Guilty to Clean Water Act Violation

Gary Hallinan — the former superintendent of the Oswego (New York) Wastewater Treatment Plant — has pleaded guilty in federal court for violating the Clean Water Act by illegally discharging wastewater into Lake Ontario at least three times. According to authorities, the plant’s centrifuge broke at the end of 2014, but over the next five months Hallinan failed to properly treat wastewater and didn’t report the broken centrifuge to the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation. Oswego’s mayor, Billy Barlow, released a statement saying it’s “extremely disappointing” that such negligence happened at the facility, according to Oswego County News Now.