Former scrap metal manager pleads guilty to dumping contaminated water into Piscataqua River

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (AP) � A former manager of a scrap metal business in New Hampshire has pleaded guilty to charges he dumped contaminated water into the Piscataqua River.

The Portsmouth Herald reports (http://bit.ly/1NnWZDE ) Christopher Garrity, of Leeds, Maine, faces up to three years in prison and fines after pleading to a felony charge of discharging a pollutant into water in the U.S. without a permit.

Court records say the former yard manager for the now-closed Grimmel Industries business connected a large hose to a valve on a tanker truck and dumped wastewater into the river on June 25, 2013, in Portsmouth.

Garrity's plea agreement states that the water contained mercury, iron, copper and other metals.

Surveillance images taken at the port site were used in the investigation.

His sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 2.

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Information from: Portsmouth Herald, http://www.seacoastonline.com