On January 15, 2003, the EPA published the following press release:
- Cape Cod Man Sentenced for Illegal Disposal of Mercury - Containing Waste
(01/15/03) Michael A. Raasch of Brewster, Mass., was sentenced on Dec. 17 to serve six months in home confinement as part of three years probation and pay a $10,000 fine for violating the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Raasch was the golf course superintendent at the Chequessett Yacht and Country Club in Wellfleet, Mass. On April 4, 2000, he illegally disposed of a four pound bag of Calo-Gran, a mercury-based fungicide, by dumping it in a deserted location near the sixth fairway. The land on which the fungicide was dumped was owned by the National Park Service. The fungicide contained high concentrations of mercury, a toxic heavy metal, which can be absorbed through contact with the skin and which can cause severe neurological damage and death. Sentencing was handed down by the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in Boston. The case was investigated by EPA's Criminal Investigation Division and the National Park Service. It was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston.
This mercury dump represents a small part of the large amount of toxic chemicals contaminating the CYCC golf course. Before the golf course industry adopted strict standards, CYCC liberally applied fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides to its fairways and greens every summer for many decades. This contamination (which includes chemicals containing arsenic and mercury) will have to be carefully dealt with during the extensive golf course renovation that will be an integral part of the Herring River Restoration Project.
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