Waste Hauler Sentenced to 30 Days in Jail

MADISON - Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen announces today that his office has successfully prosecuted Randy M. Soper of Gillett, Wisconsin for illegal disposal of sanitary waste.  Mr. Soper was convicted of three counts of illegally disposing of sanitary sludge from a treatment work without obtaining a permit and willfully discharging a pollutant into a water of the state, the Oconto River.

Shawano County Judge Thomas G. Grover sentenced Soper to serve 30 days in jail, and will pay over $30,000 in fines and penalties, and completely remediate the wooded site that he contaminated with his illegal operation.  Specifically, for three years, 2006, 2007, and 2008, Mr. Soper and his company, R.T. Sanitation, LLC, created a homemade treatment work hidden in a wooden area at which they dumped hundreds of truckloads of sanitary waste from customers' septic systems.

Department of Natural Resources Warden Stephan Fabian, who investigated the case, testified in court describing the observations he made of the woods covered with sanitation waste.  He further observed discharges into an unnamed creek that discharges into the Oconto River.

Soper at times dumped waste directly into the woods and at times dumped waste into his homemade treatment plant which was unknown and unlicensed by the Department of Natural Resources prior to this investigation.  Assistant Attorney General Cynthia R. Hirsch prosecuted the case.

A copy of the criminal complaint is available at