The former superintendent of the J.B. Gifford Wastewater Treatment Plant in Michigan City has been charged in federal court with making false statements under the Clean Water Act, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Indiana said.

According to a statement released on Tuesday, Daniel R. Olson, 62, of Merrillville, made those alleged false statements between July 2007 and June 2010.

The three counts:

•Olson knowingly failed to make a required report of a bypass of a treatment process before discharging waste streams into Trail Creek, a Lake Michigan tributary, the information alleges.

•Olson knowingly made a false material representation by selectively reporting only those sample results regarding TRC discharges which showed compliance with Michigan City’s permit and knowingly failed to report TRC discharge samples which showed non-compliance with the permit, the information alleges.

•Olson tampered with a monitoring report by delaying sampling until the point in time during the treatment process when chlorine counts were elevated and E. coli concentrations low, the information alleges.

The case was investigated by the Criminal Division of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, part of the Northern District of Indiana Environmental Crimes Task Force.

The Task Force encourages citizens in the Northern District to report environmental crimes to (312) 886-9872 or at

 www.epa.gov/compliance/complaints/index.html

Posted 3/21/2012