WAYNESBURG, Pa. (AP) — State prosecutors have appealed the probation sentence given to a southwestern Pennsylvania man whose company dumped millions of gallons of wastewater into streams and mine shafts.
The state attorney general says in a Superior Court appeal that a Greene County judge erred in June when he sentenced 51-year-old Robert Allan Shipman to seven years' probation instead of prison.
Judge Farley Toothman ordered Shipman, formerly owner of Allan's Waste Water Service, to perform 1,750 hours of community service and to pay $257,000 in restitution plus a fine of $100,000.
The judge also barred Shipman from ever working again in the wastewater disposal industry. Shipman's firm disposed of wastewater containing natural gas drilling byproducts, sewage sludge and restaurant grease.
But the Observer-Reporter of Washington, Pa. (http://bit.ly/S1En1R ) reports prosecutors say the sentence didn't "fit the crime" and won't deter other polluters.