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Sunday, November 06, 2005

Ind. Law - More on ex-state DNR worker admits fraud

Following up her story yesterday in the Evansville Courier& Press on how a former DNR inspector has admitted to creating fake records for an Illinois oil-well contractor is this story today, also by Maureen Hayden, reporting that:

State officials believe hundreds of old and abandoned oil wells throughout Southern Indiana pose a risk to the environment because of the actions of two former state oil-well inspectors and a private contractor implicated in what prosecutors call a scheme to defraud state and federal environmental regulators.

They also fear the cost of the crime could run into the millions of dollars and could bankrupt the state fund used to clean up abandoned oil wells.

Officials with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources' Division of Oil and Gas say more than 670 old or abandoned oil wells in Southern Indiana should be checked for groundwater contamination, but likely won't be. "We can't open up every well to inspect it,'' said Herschel McDivitt, director of the Oil and Gas Division. "We simply don't have the money."

The cost of reopening, inspecting and replugging the wells could run anywhere from $2,000 to $20,000 per well. Instead, McDivitt has instructed his staff to prioritize the wells in question and come up with a plan for inspecting them. The 670 wells in question are linked to Mount Carmel, Ill., contractor Carl Hanisch, who pleaded guilty Friday to 21 counts of falsifying government documents.

Hanisch and two former DNR inspectors came under investigation in 2002 after the DNR learned one of them, Donald G. Veatch, 54, of Francisco, Ind., was inspecting wells owned in part by Veatch's wife.

There is much more detail in the story, including that "federal prosecutors are pushing for restitution as part of a plea agreement offered to Hanisch and Veatch. In court Friday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven DeBrota said the estimated cost of restitution involving 21 wells in Vanderburgh County is between $350,000 to $500,000."

Posted by Marcia Oddi on November 6, 2005 09:41 AM
Posted to Environment | Indiana Government | Indiana Law