FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	ENR

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18, 1998                                                                                                                    (202) 514-2008

                                                                                                                                                                                 TDD (202) 514-1888




BILOXI WATER TREATMENT PLANT OWNER AND OPERATOR ORDERED


TO PAY $1.5 MILLION FOR POLLUTING MISSISSIPPI SOUND





	WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Johnson Properties, Inc. and Glenn K.
Johnson today were ordered to pay a $1.5 million civil penalty
for illegally discharging wastewater laden with fecal bacteria
into the Mississippi Sound, near Biloxi.  

	The judgment requires Glenn K. Johnson, general manager and
operator of Johnson Properties' Gulf Park water treatment plant,
to pay a $450,000 penalty, and Johnson Properties to pay a $1.05
million penalty.

	"The defendants' actions endangered the health of
Mississippi's citizens since 1985, and now they are finally
paying the price," said Brad Pigott, U.S. Attorney for the
Southern District of Mississippi.

	"This action represents our commitment to enforcing the
Clean Water Act to protect public health and the environment. 
Water pollution will not be tolerated," stated John Hankinson,
Regional Administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency's
Region 4 Office in Atlanta.

	In May 1997, the U.S. District Court in Biloxi ruled that
Gulf Park Water Company, Johnson Properties and Glenn K. Johnson
were liable for violating the Clean Water Act for discharging
pollutants into the Mississippi Sound without the permit required
by law.  The court found that the defendants had been illegally
discharging pollutants into the Mississippi Sound since 1985,
when they were ordered by the Chancery Court of Jackson County to
stop the discharges and find a legal alternative outlet for their
wastewater.

	The court rejected the defendants' arguments that the
violations were not serious, and held that the federal government
presented credible evidence that the discharges constituted a
significant threat to human health and the environment.

	The Gulf Park plant discharged waste into waters teeming
with shellfish and regularly used for recreation.  Oyster beds
along the shore from Ocean Springs to Pascagoula have been closed
to fishing due to fecal coliform levels in the water.  Experts
for the United States testified that people who consume
contaminated oysters run the risk of serious illness.

	The Gulf Park Water Company plant is located in Ocean
Springs, Mississippi, near Biloxi.  As a result of the lawsuit,
the discharges from Gulf Park were eliminated when the plant
connected its discharge to the Regional Wastewater Authority's
system.




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