BOWLING GREEN — An executive at J.L. French, LLC was indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury in Bowling Green for allegedly violating the Clean Air Act at the Glasgow facility.

Daniel Evanoff, 59, of Plymouth, Wisc., is charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States and rendering inaccurate a monitoring device required under the Clean Air Act, according to a report from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Louisville.

The Indictment charges that between 2007 and November 2009, Evanoff and other co-conspirators agreed to make materially false statements, agreed to tamper with and render inaccurate a monitoring device required under the Clean Air Act, and agreed to defraud the lawful and legitimate functions of the EPA in enforcing federal environmental regulations. As the Indictment alleges, Evanoff and others agreed to create false records concealing that J.L. French improperly exceeded production and air emissions limits. Count two of the indictment alleges that Evanoff directed others to install a temperature resistor on air pollution control equipment to create a false temperature reading and to make it appear as though the pollution control equipment was operating properly. 

In addition, the Indictment states during 2007, Evanoff instructed and directed co-conspirators to install a temperature resistor that would falsely indicate a lower inlet temperature on an air pollution control device. That allowed the bag house unit to operate at a temperature exceeding limits allowed by emissions testing and appear to be in compliance with EPA regulations and the permit. Evanoff also instructed that the temperature resistor be removed to prevent its discovery by inspectors from the Kentucky Department of Air Quality (KDAQ), according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

In the event of a conviction, the maximum potential penalties for Evanoff are seven years in prison, a $500,000 fine, and supervised release for a period of no more than 3 years.

The indictment of a person by a Grand Jury is an accusation only and that person is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

More information about this indictment will be in Thursday’s edition of the Daily Times.