WEEK ONE ASSIGNMENT

Timothy Smith and Wayne Jones were, respectively, the plant manager and plant engineer at Acme Meats & Co$.("$Acme$"),$ a large meat$-$packing plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The meat$-$packing process created a large amount of wastewater, some of which Acme piped to a municipal treatment plant and the rest of which it treated at its own wastewater treatment plant $("$WWTP$").$ After treating wastewater at the WWTP$,$ Acme would discharge it into the Big Sioux River. WWTP$\text{'}$s function was to reduce the amount of ammonia nitrogen discharged into the river. Acme's permit limited levels of ammonia nitrogen discharge. The permit also required Acme to perform weekly a series of tests to monitor the amounts of ammonia nitrogen in the discharged water and to file those results monthly with the EPA.

Beginning in $2016,$ Acme doubled the number of hogs that it slaughtered and processed at the Sioux Falls plant. The result was an increased level of ammonia nitrate above that allowed by the permit. Ron Thompson and Barry Wilson, the manager and assistant manager, respectively, of the WWTP$,$ manipulated the testing process in three ways. In the first, called "flow manipulation" or the "flow game," Acme would discharge extremely low levels of water $($and thus low levels of ammonia nitrogen$)$ early in the week, when Thompson and Wilson would perform the required tests. After the tests had been performed, Acme would discharge high levels of water $($and high levels of ammonia nitrogen$)$ later in the week. The second technique was "selective sampling," in which they did more than the number of tests required by the EPA but reported only the tests in which ammonia nitrogen levels were within range. If these two techniques did not work, the two relied on their third technique of falsifying the test results and the monthly EPA reports. Smith received and reviewed these reports, signed and sent them to the EPA. Acme submitted false reports for every month but one in $2016.$

The Clean Water Act states that "any person who knowingly discharges a pollutant into navigable waters without a permit" violates the Act and commits a felony.

The statutory mens rea for the criminal offense is $$ knowingly.

Questions

Identify the person$($s$)$ you believe should be charged with a crime?

Explain what the government would need to establish to hold each person you identified criminally liable. Discuss the law and the facts in your answer.