Opinion ID: 562065
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Insufficiency of evidence--count 29.

Text: 77 Count 29 charged that Baytank and Johnsen knowingly failed to timely report to the National Response Center an April 27, 1985 unpermitted release into the environment at the Baytank facility of a reportable quantity of a hazardous substance, namely over 100 pounds of acrylonitrile, contrary to Sec. 9603(b)(3). Having already upheld on other grounds the grant of a new trial to Johnsen, we consider the new trial on this count only as to Baytank. The government's evidence showed that some 4,000 pounds of acrylonitrile--a listed hazardous substance whose reportable quantity is 100 pounds--overflowed a Baytank tank on April 27, 1985, that several responsible personnel of Baytank knew about this spill the same day, but that it was not timely reported. The chemical spilled into the tank bay, a moat-like area around the tank open to the atmosphere. The government's evidence also showed that within the first hour after the overflow some 1,800 pounds of the spilled chemical would have evaporated from the tank bay into the ambient air, and that the air containing this chemical traveled to the neighboring Celanese plant where employees noticed it and experienced resultant adverse effects. The district court instructed the jury that a reportable release into the environment included an escaping into the ambient air, but that a release into a contained structure ... like tank bays was not a release into the environment unless you find that a reportable quantity of the chemical evaporated or otherwise traveled beyond the confines of the containment structure. 78 In granting a new trial the district court expressed doubt about the level of proof on count 29. The court noted that the testimony of the government's expert concerning the quantities that evaporated into the air was based on an assumption that 4,000 pounds had spilled into the tank bay, as to which latter amount the expert gave no opinion of his own. The district court found this a serious defect because the evidence of the quantity spilling into the tank bay was, in the court's view, mere folk estimates and quantifications ... in the industrial context where somebody scratches himself, looks at it, and says that's about X. However, Baytank's own written records show without contradiction that it contemporaneously estimated and subsequently reported to OSHA that approximately 4,000 lbs. spilled on this occasion. A witness from the Celanese plant smelled the chemical there, looked for its cause, then shortly thereafter observed ongoing overflow (like a curtain of liquid) from the Baytank tank at an estimated rate of 100 to 150 gallons a minute, with the spilling continuing until some 10 to 12 minutes had elapsed after the witness had first smelled it. Baytank written records reflect that the spilling went on for 15 minutes. Baytank records also reflect that three hours after the spill the ambient air in areas west and north of the tank bay contained respectively 400 and 800 parts per million of acrylonitrile, but that some eight hours after the spill that substance was not detectable in the ambient air at those same locations. Importantly, there was absolutely no evidence that the 4,000 pound figure was too high or was for any reason unreliable. Moreover, the 4,000 pound figure did not have to approach precision to sustain a finding that from it at least 100 pounds evaporated into the ambient air, as the government's expert stated that 1,800 pounds would evaporate in the first hour from the 4,000 pounds he assumed to have been spilled into the tank bay. 79 The evidence was clearly more than amply sufficient for the jury to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that approximately 4,000 pounds spilled into the tank bay. The district court's determination that this undisputed and essentially unchallenged evidence was so weak as to justify a new trial is not supportable (and does not purport to be supported) by considerations of witness demeanor or trial atmospherics. We recognize the district court's especially broad discretion on these matters, but here we are driven to conclude that that discretion was clearly abused. Although we have not previously set aside a new trial granted on such a ground, the Eleventh Circuit has. United States v. Martinez, 763 F.2d 1297, 1312-14 (11th Cir.1985). Cf. United States v. Kuzniar, 881 F.2d 466, 470-71 (7th Cir.1989). 33 80 The grant of new trial to Baytank on count 29 cannot stand. 81