HARRISONBURG, Va. -- A Virginia distillery and its owner have been indicted on multiple charges involving illegal dumping of industrial waste.
A Shenandoah County grand jury returned a 115-count indictment last week against Filibuster Distillery LLC and Siddharth Dilawri.
The alleged offenses include discharging industrial waste without a permit into a state water and discharging industrial waste into a publicly owned waste treatment works.
Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring said in a news release that the charges follow a two-year investigation and are the first criminal indictments related to environmental violations brought by his office and the state Department of Environmental Quality.
“All businesses, no matter what size they are, must adhere to state and federal environmental protections, and when they don’t, they will be held accountable,” said Attorney General Herring. “Not only did this distillery allegedly dump tens of thousands of gallons of industrial waste into a stream, Dilawri also allegedly lied about it to investigators, and that will not be tolerated in Virginia. I want to thank our partners at DEQ and the Shenandoah County Fire Marshal for their help and coordination on this case. I hope these charges will send a message to other businesses that Virginia takes protecting our environment very seriously.”
