GreatFalls
BUTTE — U.S. Minerals, Inc., a corporation that admitted to exposing employees at its former Anaconda plant to elevated levels of arsenic, was sentenced Friday, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office.
U.S. Minerals received a maximum probationary term, was fined and ordered to enact a medical monitoring plan for workers at the Montana plant and a nationwide environmental health and safety plan at its five other plants. The company pleaded guilty in August to one count of negligent endangerment, a misdemeanor, under the Clean Air Act as charged in a criminal information.
U.S. District Judge Dana L. Christensen sentenced U.S. Minerals as recommended in a plea agreement to a maximum of five years of probation and to pay a $393,200 fine. The criminal fine is in addition to civil penalties totaling $106,800 imposed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in a related civil proceeding, bringing the total amount to be paid by U.S. Minerals to $500,000.
Probationary conditions require U.S. Minerals to implement a medical monitoring program for employees who were exposed to elevated levels of arsenic during their work at the Anaconda plant and a nationwide environmental health and safety plan at all five of its plants throughout the United States. The Anaconda plant ceased operations in June. The company operates plants in Illinois, Wisconsin, Kansas, Texas and Louisiana.
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