Dairy manager sentenced for Ohio waterway pollution

Teunis Jan Willemsen, a 54-year-old manager at Heartland Dairy, has been sentenced for his role in polluting a northern Ohio waterway. Willemsen pleaded guilty in May to negligently discharging a pollutant in violation of the Clean Water Act.

In December 2022, wastewater containing manure and silage leachate was pumped from a settling basin on the dairy property into a ditch that drained into Little Black Creek, a tributary of the Saint Mary’s River and the Maumee River watershed. The discharge contained concentrated amounts of ammonia, which resulted in the deaths of approximately 789 fish and 1,371 other aquatic animals.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Darrell A. Clay sentenced Willemsen to 15 months of probation, 100 hours of community service, and a $25,000 fine.