State AG wants a tougher sentence for wastewater dumper

WAYNESBURG, Pa. (AP)-- State prosecutors have appealed the probation sentence given to a southwestern Pennsylvania man whose company dumped millions of gallons of wastewater into streams, including the waterways in Lawrence County.

The state attorney general says in a Superior Court appeal that a Greene County judge erred in June when he sentenced 51-year-old Robert Allan Shipman to seven years' probation instead of prison.

Judge Farley Toothman ordered Shipman, formerly owner of Allan's Waste Water Service, to perform 1,750 hours of community service and to pay $257,000 in restitution plus a fine of $100,000.

In 2012, Shipman pleaded guilty to dumping millions of gallons of contaminated water containing fracking byproducts from natural gas drilling, sewage sludge and restaurant grease into streams in a six-county area of western Pennsylvania. 

The judge also barred Shipman from ever working again in the wastewater disposal industry. 

Prosecutors say the sentence didn't "fit the crime" and won't deter other polluters.