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The Commonwealth of Virginia Office of the Attorney General (“AG”) issued a January 15th news release announcing indictments of a Virginia whiskey distillery for alleged violations of the Virginia Water Control Law.

Filibuster Distillery, LLC, Filibuster Barrels, LLC, and Sid Dilawri are stated to have been indicted for allegedly dumping over 40,000 gallons of industrial waste into a stream in Shenandoah County, Virginia.

The indictments are stated to have been based on an investigation by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and Shenandoah County Fire Marshal.

The news release quotes language from the indictments that states:

. . . the dumping of waste primarily occurred in November 2018, but the distillery continued to discharge industrial water with excessive levels of zinc and copper until at least September 2020. Dilawri initially denied that any dumping occurred and then claimed that there was a one-time accident at the distillery. However, he later admitted that he had given false information to law enforcement authorities and that he had known about the dumping. DEQ staff, along with the Shenandoah County Fire Marshal Dave Ferguson and other authorities, have investigated the impact of the dumping on the stream as well as on the local community and worked with Attorney General Herring’s Environmental Section to bring this prosecution.

A copy of the news release can be downloaded here.