United States v. Borowski

Borowski (defendant) was the president and owner of Borjohn (defendant), a mirror manufacturer that used nickel plating solutions and nitric-acid stripping baths. Borjohn disposed of the nickel and nitric-acid baths by dumping them into sinks without pretreating them. The sinks drained into underground pipes that fed into the municipal sewer system and then into publicly owned treatment works. Borjohn was required to comply with the pretreatment regulations established by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which prohibited nickel and nitric-acid discharges into publicly owned treatment works in amounts exceeding certain levels. Borjohn’s nickel and nitric-acid discharges exceeded the EPA’s pretreatment standards. Exposure to high amounts of nitric acid and nickel can cause serious health problems. Borjohn’s employees were required to bail out the nickel and nitric-acid baths by hand, scrape the sides and bottom of nickel baths, and pour the solutions into sinks, often resulting in solutions splashing and spilling onto their skin. Borjohn and Borowski knew that Borjohn’s employees were repeatedly exposed to nitric acid and nickel and the health dangers of such exposures. Borjohn and Borowski were indicted under the knowing-endangerment provision of the Clean Water Act (CWA) for knowingly discharging nickel and nitric acid into the sewer system and publicly owned treatment plant, thereby placing Borjohn’s employees in imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury. Borjohn and Borowski were convicted and moved for judgments of acquittal on the ground that the CWA’s knowing-endangerment provision does not apply to danger that occurs at the source of the discharge before pollutants reach public sewers or publicly owned treatment works.