Prison for Mustard Company Owner Who Built Secret Pipe

A businessman is headed to federal prison after admitting he secretly piped factory wastewater into a New Hampshire river for years. Charles Santich, 60, owner of Old Dutch Mustard Co. in Greenville, was sentenced Friday to 18 months, a year of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine for violating the Clean Water Act by discharging pollutants into the Souhegan River without a permit, prosecutors said.

His company was separately ordered to pay $1.5 million and set up environmental compliance and ethics programs, reports the Boston Globe. The Monadnock Ledger-Transcript reports he and his company pleaded guilty to violating the Clean Water Act in February 2025. Court documents describe a decades-long pattern of noncompliance dating back to the 1980s. The Union Leader reports his most recent scheme involved falsified documents and the 2017 construction of a covert pipe used to dump acidic wastewater and stormwater into the river.

Workers were allegedly told they would be fired if they refused to do as Santich told them. An EPA toxicologist testified the pollution likely contributed to a mercury fish consumption advisory, and US Attorney Erin Creegan said it reduced fish populations in the river. State inspectors ultimately uncovered the secret discharge pipe in 2023.