## Facts

- Frezzo Brothers, Inc., and two individual operators ran a Pennsylvania mushroom-farming business that manufactured mushroom compost.
- The operation used a concrete holding tank intended to collect and recycle water runoff from compost piles.
- A separate stormwater runoff system carried water to a channel box that discharged into a tributary, then into a creek flowing to the Delaware River.
- Government testing found high concentrations of pollutants in the channel box associated with manure-related compost runoff entering the tributary and downstream waters.
- Defendants had no National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit for the alleged discharges.
- A jury convicted the corporate and individual defendants on six counts under 33 U.S.C. §§ 1311(a) and 1319(c) for discharging pollutants without a permit; the district court denied post-trial motions for acquittal and a new trial.

## Issues

1. Whether criminal liability for violating 33 U.S.C. § 1311(a) requires proof that the EPA had promulgated industry-specific effluent limitations for mushroom compost manufacturing operations.
2. Whether the runoff conveyed through the defendants’ collection/runoff system and channel box constituted a “discharge of a pollutant” from a “point source” into “navigable waters” under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (Clean Water Act).
3. Whether the evidence and trial rulings (including instructions and evidentiary determinations) were sufficient and free from reversible error to support the convictions.

## Decision

- The Third Circuit affirmed the convictions on all six counts.
- The court held that the government was not required to prove EPA-promulgated effluent limitations specific to mushroom compost manufacturing to sustain a prosecution for unpermitted discharges under § 1311(a).
- The court concluded the evidence permitted the jury to find that pollutants from the compost operation were discharged from a discrete conveyance into waters covered by the Act without an NPDES permit.
- The court found no reversible error in the district court’s denial of defendants’ motions for judgment of acquittal or for a new trial.

## Legal Principles

- Section 1311(a) establishes a general prohibition on discharging pollutants into navigable waters except in compliance with the Act, including compliance through an NPDES permit.
- The absence of industry-specific effluent limitation guidelines does not authorize discharges without an NPDES permit and does not bar criminal prosecution for unpermitted discharges.
- A runoff system and related structures that collect and convey polluted runoff to a waterway can constitute a “point source” if they function as a discrete conveyance.
- Appellate review sustains a Clean Water Act conviction where the record supports findings of (i) pollutant discharge, (ii) point source conveyance, (iii) covered waters, and (iv) absence of a required permit, and where alleged trial errors do not warrant reversal.

## Conclusion

The Third Circuit affirmed Clean Water Act convictions arising from compost-related polluted runoff conveyed through a defined drainage system into downstream waters, holding that unpermitted point-source discharges are criminally punishable even without EPA-issued effluent limitations tailored to the specific industry.


United States v. Frezzo Brothers, Inc., 602 F.2d 1123 (3d Cir. 1979)