TALK JXN
crime
‘Rebel’ Businessman Dumps Suburban Waste into Jackson Sewage System
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$500,000 fine and four years of supervised release after imprisonment. Assistant U.S. Attorney Theodore Cooperstein explained in open court that if the case had gone to trial, the government would have proven the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, using documents and testimony from Mississippi state government officials. Walker declined to comment to this reporter at his company’s location on March 7, suggesting his attorney Micheal
in November 2016 with an unnamed president and part owner of a manufacturing company called “Company A” in the court, which has operated for decades in a Jackson suburb. A month before that, Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality officials detected high levels of contaminants in the Jackson sewer system, traced it to company A, and subsequently ordered the business to stop dumping waste with pollutants exceeding regulatory limits with-
rounding counties that struggle to function as it ought, court documents indicated. “For many years, JWTS has suffered from increased input and inadequate maintenance and upgrades,” the document said. “This caused thousands of sewage overflows throughout the Jackson area, and numerous bypasses of the treatment works. JWTS operated under a series of consent decrees with (the Environmental Protection Agency), requiring the expenditure of hundreds of millions of dollars to repair and improve kayode crown
May 5 - June 1, 2021 • jfp.ms
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ndrew Walker, 71, may find himself in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring with others to wrongfully discharge 3 million gallons of industrial waste between December 2016 and October 2017 into the Jackson sewage system, court filings say. The University of Mississippi Department of Business Administration graduate owns Walker Environmental Services operating under the name Rebel Velocity Sewer Services. Then-U.S Attorney Michael Hurst signed the charging document in August 2020 stating that the everyday business of Walker’s company consists of disposing of sewage, grease trap, clearing blocked sewer pipes and storm drains, and inspecting sewer-lines maintenance. “Rebel transported customers’ waste to the Jackson sewage treatment plant and to landfills and other disposal sites, but its 333 Wilmington Street (Jackson) location was not a permitted waste disposal location,” the charging documents said. In the Jan. 27, 2021, hearing, U.S. District Judge Kristi Haskins Johnson wanted to know if Walker was clear about the decision he would make that day before she accepted his guilty plea. She told him the length of possible jail time he is facing and the rights he would give up by pleading guilty to two felony offenses—conspiracy and illegal discharge of industrial waste into Jackson sewer system. “Mr. Walker, do you understand that the felony, that the offense to which you’re pleading guilty is a felony offense,” the judge asked in the audio recording of the proceeding. “I do,” Walker replied. The judge then asked if he understood what the illegal dumping plea would cost him: “valuable civil rights, such as the right to vote, the right to hold public office, the right to serve on a jury, and the right to possess any kind of firearm?” “I do,” he repeated. The judge informed Walker that he may have to forfeit some of his properties to the government and that if sentenced to prison, he will not be eligible for parole. “Do you also understand that parole has been abolished and that if you are sentenced to prison, you will not be released on parole?” the judge asked. Walker’s offenses draw a maximum penalty of eight years of incarceration,
by Kayode Crown
Walker Environmental Services operates from this building at 333 Wilmington St. in Jackson as Rebel High Velocity Sewer Services. On Jan. 25, 2017, owner Andrew Walker participated in digging up Jackson Sewer System pipes at this location to illegally dump industrial waste, court documents said. He has pled guilty to the criminal charges.
Dawkins of Baker Donelson. “Based on the status of this matter, it would not be appropriate for Andy Walker or me to make any comments,” Dawkins, whose practice at Baker Donelson focuses on white-collar criminal defense and environmental law, said in a March 8 statement. Walker is out on bond. Johnson did not determine the date for sentencing in his last court appearance on Jan. 27. How it All Started Walker’s involvement in the felony crimes is traceable to a phone call he had
out adequate pre-treatment. “The order notified the operators with company A that it could not discharge its industrial waste into the sewer system and indicated that the city would install monitoring devices in the sewer to detect any further discharges,” Cooperstein told the court. Walker now admits to conspiring to circumvent that order. Jackson Water Treatment System consisted of three wastewater-treatment facilities—Savanna, Trahon, Presidential Hills—that serve Jackson and parts of sur-
the collection and treatment systems.” “To enable public wastewater treatment plants to comply with their Clean Water Act permits, industrial users of public wastewater systems could not discharge industrial waste into the system without a permit establishing pretreatment requirements and pollutant limits,” it added. “Wastewater treatment systems were required to monitor the pollutants they accept in order to protect the systems from damage and to preserve their ability to treat the wastes they received.” On Jan. 27, before Johnson
