2 July 2004 – LAWFUEL – Marcos Daniel Jiménez, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida;
Ricky D. Langlois, Special Agent-in-Charge, United States Environmental Protection
Agency, Criminal Investigation Division, Jacksonville Area Office; and Tom Tramel,
Director, Division of Law Enforcement for the Florida Department of Environmental
Protection, announced today that defendant, Kosta Prastos, pleaded guilty before
United States District Court Judge K. Michael Moore in Miami, Florida, to a
one-count Information, which charged that Prastos, in 1999, knowingly discharged
pollutants, namely, rock and cement, into Florida Bay without a permit, in
violation of the Clean Water Act, Title 33, United States Code, Section
1319(c)(2)(A).
After accepting Prastos’ guilty plea, Judge Moore sentenced Prastos to two years’
probation and ordered him to pay a $10,000 fine. Prastos also was ordered to
demolish the illegally constructed barrier and restore the bay bottom, consistent
with Florida Department of Environmental Protection requirements, and to pay an
additional $7,762.00 to the Florida Keys Environmental Restoration Trust Fund as
mitigation for impacts to the submerged lands.
According to statements made in Court, Prastos, a New Jersey resident, owns a home
and bayfront property in Marathon. In 1998, Prastos applied for a permit to
construct a dock and a weed barrier, but the permit application for the weed
barrier was denied by Monroe County. During July 1999, Prastos, without any of the
required permit, constructed a concrete and boulder wall in the waters of Florida
Bay adjacent to his property, damaging sea grasses and other submerged land. The
wall, which extended in an enclosed arc to form a protected lagoon adjacent to his
property, would prevent smelly and unsightly sea weed from washing onto his
property.
Mr. Jiménez commended the investigative efforts the Special Agents of the United
States Environmental Protection Agency – Criminal Investigation Division and the
Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Law Enforcement. The
case is being prosecuted by Special Assistant United States Attorney Jodi Mazer and
Assistant United States Attorney Thomas Watts-Fitzgerald.
