Chesco man charged again with wastewater-treatment violations

A Coatesville-area man serving probation for 2008 wastewater-treatment violations in Chester County faces new charges related to his operation of a Delaware County sewage plant, the state Attorney General's Office said Monday.

A news release identified him as Thomas M. Horrex, 57, of East Fallowfield Township. Horrex is the owner of TMH Environmental Services Inc. and has run the Fox Valley Community Services Sewage Treatment Plant in Concord Township since 2010, the release said.

Horrex's attorney, Robert J. Donatoni, said he and his client had known about the investigation and made arrangements with prosecutors for Horrex to surrender and to waive his preliminary hearing.

In 2008, Horrex was charged after he allowed his sewage-treatment plant operator's license to expire on Dec. 31, 2005, but continued to test wastewater and operate sewage plants in Elverson Borough and Penn and East Goshen Townships, facilities that required a licensed operator, the criminal complaint said.

Court records showed that Horrex pleaded guilty on Nov. 10, 2008, and received a sentence of three years' probation.

Donatoni said the new charges would probably constitute a probation violation. He said a non-trial disposition of the new case was likely.

According to the new criminal complaint, Horrex violated Pennsylvania's Clean Streams Law 17 times between September 2010 and June 2011, when he did not complete the daily sampling and recording of pH, oxygen, and chlorine levels required of all sewage treatment plants.

Horrex is charged with one count of unlawful conduct under Pennsylvania's Clean Streams Law, a felony punishable by up to seven years in prison and a $425,000 fine, the release said.

Horrex, arraigned Monday morning by District Judge Richard M. Cappelli in Glen Mills, was released on $10,000 bail, court records said.

According to Dun & Bradstreet, THM is a management-services business with an estimated $620,000 in annual sales that employs seven people.

The case will be prosecuted in Delaware County by Senior Deputy Attorney General Brian T. Coffey of the Environmental Crimes Section, the release said.