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American Distillation Inc. officials admitted to secretly dumping thousands of gallons of chemical wastewater into the Cape Fear River for years. As the company prepares for sentencing, its attorney says it can’t afford the consequences.
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Operating beside the Cape Fear River outside Wilmington since 1992, the chemical processing company blends industrial-grade alcohol.
In court documents, investigators and prosecutors alleged that company officials accepted more chemicals than they could safely handle under their EPA permit and secretly discharged the byproducts into the Cape Fear River.
The river, which supplies water to nearly a million people, has been saddled with industrial pollution for decades, and American Distillation is far from the first company to knowingly pollute the waterway. This case, though, could show how willing federal authorities are to punish a polluter — even when that polluter says it’s out of cash.
“That section of the Cape Fear River, around that facility and downstream of that facility, has been just really abused over the last 100 years or so,” said Kemp Burdette, head of the Cape Fear River Watch. “They are discharging into a waterway that already has a lot of serious pollution issues, and also has a lot of folks who fish there for consumption.”
During the company’s distillation process, the byproducts — a mix of tert-butyl hydroperoxide, isopropyl alcohol, acetone and water — are stored in a 250,000-gallon tank.
American Distillation was required under its EPA-issued permit to properly dispose of the byproduct. But from 2019 through early 2024, prosecutors said, the company accepted more alcohol and other chemicals than it could “legally and safely remove,” the complaint states.
Up to six times per year between 2020 and 2024, Barry White, the company’s production manager, connected a hose to the tank storing the byproduct, turned a valve, and let about 2,500 gallons of polluted wastewater flow into a pipe that led to the river, the criminal complaint states.
American Distillation’s attorney declined to comment for this story.
Exposure to water contaminated with these chemicals doesn’t pose an immediate danger, but research shows it can cause damage to the liver and kidneys over time.
American Distillation also sits just upstream of Navassa, a town outside Wilmington that’s home to several popular fishing spots. The town of about 2,000 residents, most of whom are Black or mixed-race, is already home to an EPA Superfund site — a former wood-treating factory that dumped pollutants into Navassa’s waterways for decades before shuttering in 1980. Federal authorities are still managing cleanup at the site today.
“This is just another upstream polluter that’s dumping pollution into the river, but it’s going to be felt first and most powerfully by the people in Navassa,” Burdette said.
The dumping came as the company’s management told employees that the company could close if operations halted, the complaint states.
While the EPA doesn’t regularly test the Cape Fear River for the pollutants that American Distillation was dumping, routine monitoring showed that the company violated requirements for managing and reporting hazardous waste several times over the past six years.
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The EPA fined the company $39,500 in 2022; it has continued to violate hazardous waste requirements well into 2026.
In 2025, White and American Distillation owner Andrew Simmons Jr. were indicted on federal charges in the Eastern District of North Carolina.
White, the company’s production manager, pleaded guilty to knowingly discharging a pollutant into federal waters. He was sentenced June 29 to two years’ probation, including up to 240 days of home detention.
Under the same indictment, Simmons was charged and recently pleaded guilty to not paying 2023 income taxes. A judge sentenced him to 10 months in prison and ordered him to pay more than $112,000 to the IRS.
The company pleaded guilty to intentionally discharging unpermitted pollutants. Under the plea agreement, the company could receive up to five years of probation and a fine of up to $500,000. It also has to “establish, implement, and enforce a comprehensive Environmental Compliance Plan,” within 90 days after sentencing.
On Aug. 14, the company’s attorney argued in court documents that it can’t afford to pay the fine and may not be able to implement the plan.
The filing states that American Distillation, also referred to ADI, is experiencing “significant financial difficulties” as it has experienced a substantial decrease in business and owes money to several utility companies.
“When ADI signed the plea agreement in late 2025, it intended to comply with all provisions of the plea agreement. Unfortunately, ADI’s current financial circumstances are such that the company does not have the funds to pay a fine and may not be able to afford to implement the ECP,” the filing states.
The company’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for Friday.
Simmons, the company’s owner, has led a company convicted of federal environmental crimes before.
In 2003, Simmons pleaded guilty to environmental and tax violations involving High Rise Services Co., which refined used oil and cleaned storage tanks.
Simmons pleaded guilty to the negligent discharge of pollutants into the Cape Fear River and failure to report an oil spill, along with attempting to avoid paying federal taxes. The spill left an extensive oil sheen and required a significant Coast Guard cleanup, according to a 2003 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District.
Simmons was sentenced to two years in prison, fined $50,000 and given three years of supervised release.
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This story was originally published September 3, 2026 at 5:41 PM.