A year-and-a-half investigation into an oil spill from a Jefferson business has finally ended.

According to court documents, 54 year-old Kurt Krieger of Krieger’s Greenhouse plead guilty to a serious misdemeanor charge for negligent discharge of a pollutant and was sentenced last week to two years of probation plus over $55,000 in fines.

Raccoon Valley Radio previously reported an oil spill that occurred on September 12th and 13th, 2012 during Jefferson-Scranton’s homecoming week when criminal mischief reports were called into the Jefferson Police Department involving oil tanks at Krieger’s Greenhouse, Incorporated at 1608 Westwood Drive.

About 800 gallons of oil from the above ground 20,000 gallon tanks were recovered from the North Raccoon River after Krieger had noticed that a hand operated release valve had been opened.

The disposition states that Krieger had to make deliveries that day and so he contained what oil there was on the driveway of the business with peat moss and left.  The report shows that with any discovery of an oil spill, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources requires a notification within six hours, which Krieger failed to do.

Krieger found the waste oil on the ground pooling and mixing with rain water which then drained downward and eastward in the yard and timbered ditch which empties into the North Raccoon River.

The Greene County District Court ordered Krieger to serve two years of probation with the Greene County Sheriff’s office and pay $11,450 to the Iowa Attorney General’s Environmental Crimes Investigation and Prosecution Fund, another $33,610 in restitution to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and $11,100 in court costs and other surcharges.