HOUSTON — More than eight years after a toxic release killed four employees at the Dupont plant in La Porte, the company and a former executive were sentenced on federal charges Monday.
The company was fined $12M after pleading guilty to criminal negligence for violating federal safety regulations and negligently releasing a hazardous substance.
Editor's note: The US Attorney's Office originally said $16M but sent a correction.
On Nov. 15, 2014, the plant released 24,000 pounds of a highly toxic and flammable gas called methyl mercaptan (MeSH).
Robert and Gilbert (Gibby) Tisnado, Wade Baker and Crystle Wise were killed. and several other workers were injured.
"Gibby went in there, found his brother and tried to put his mask on him, they found him trying to do that," the brothers' father, Gilbert Tisnado, said in 2014. "When you're brother is down you're going to go down with him."
The toxic gas traveled downwind into the Deer Porte and beyond.
“Four employees are dead because of DuPont’s criminal negligence,” said Hamdani. “The sentence imposed today sends a clear message of my office’s dedication to holding managers at industrial facilities, and the corporations that own and operate those facilities, accountable for violations of federal criminal laws; laws meant to protect the safety of workers and nearby communities.”
U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal also ordered Dupont to serve two years probation and to donate another $4M to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation because of all the harm they caused to the environment. That money will be used for projects that benefit air quality in and around the western shores of Galveston Bay.
Kenneth Sandel, the unit operations leader of the Insecticide Business Unit (IBU) where the accident occurred, also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to one year of probation.
The indictment alleges Sandel and DuPont engineers devised a plan to divert a large volume of methyl mercaptan gas into a waste gas pipe system during the day before and night of the deadly incident.
A Chemical Safety Board report in 2015 said the building where the workers died "was not equipped with an adequate toxic gas detection system" and that two rooftop ventilation fans were not working" even though it they were reported a month earlier.
"Nothing could be as bad as that Saturday, that call," Gilbert Tisnado said. "Our whole life just took a big change."
Gibby Tisnado's son, Christopher, followed in his dad's footsteps. He works in the plant industry, too. He said his dad loved his job but lived for his family.
"He was the toughest guy I ever knew," Christopher told us in 2014. "He had a big heart. He was my hero."
As part of the pleas, DuPont and Sandel admitted to negligently releasing an extremely hazardous substance into the ambient air. The company also acknowledged negligently placing a person in imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury in violation of the federal Clean Air Act.
“This case demonstrates the importance of holding chemical facilities accountable for implementing chemical safety requirements that are designed to protect workers and neighboring communities,” EPA administrator Larry Starfield said.
EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division in Texas conducted the investigation along with the Texas Environmental Enforcement Task Force and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
DuPont is headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, and owns chemical manufacturing plants around the world. As part of its operations, the facility produces pesticides called Lannate and Vydate among other products.