Two top officials for the operator of the city’s Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill knowingly committed violations of the U.S. Clean Water Act and then conspired and made false statements to the state Health Department, according to a 13-count federal indictment Wednesday.

The indictment names Waste Management of Hawaii Inc. General Manager and Vice President Joseph Whelan and environmental protection manager Justin Lottig. If convicted, the company faces a maximum criminal fine of $500,000 for each count and Whelan and Lottig could face federal prison terms.

Both are still at their jobs at the facility.

William McCorriston, an attorney for the company, said the indictment is baseless.

He said the company’s employees acted immediately and "heroically" to prevent damage to life and property when major flooding occurred on Jan. 13, 2011. Their actions included diverting flood water from the nearby Hawaiian Electric Co. power plant, he added.

Three major thunderstorms hit the Leeward Coast from mid-December 2010 to mid-January 2011. The third, on Jan. 12, caused the discharge of hundreds of millions of gallons of contaminated stormwater to enter the waters in and around Ko Olina Resort.

Various types of waste, including blood vials, syringes, raw sewage and sewage sludge, were discovered washed ashore on beaches not just at Ko Olina, but also other West Oahu beaches, the indictment said.

The state Department of Health said Waste Management provided documentation showing medical waste had been sterilized and was not considered infectious, although the public still was at risk of puncture wounds. Warning signs at public beaches, however, stayed up for 10 days.

The landfill, the only one on Oahu that accepts municipal waste, was closed to the public for nearly two months.

Waste Management of Hawaii designed and built the 198-acre Kahe Point landfill in 1989 and has operated it since under a series of contracts with the city. Houston-based parent company Waste Management Inc., among the largest solid waste disposal companies in the United States, is not named in the indictment.

The indictment alleges the spillage would not have occurred had company officials acted properly, specifically claiming that:

» Lottig and employees from an unnamed environmental consulting firm submitted false and outdated information from April 19, 2010, to Dec. 23, 2010, to suggest that the landfill had an adequate stormwater management system in place so the company could renew its stormwater discharge permit.

» Lottig and the company knowingly failed to inform the state Health Department’s Clean Water Branch from Oct. 27, 2010, to Dec. 23, 2010, that changes had been made to the stormwater management system that would have alerted officials that an inadequate system was in place.

» Lottig falsely told Clean Water Branch inspectors from Dec. 20, 2010, to Dec. 23, 2010, that stormwater being discharged from the landfill had not come into contact with waste when, in fact, the company pumped millions of gallons of contaminated stormwater from landfill Cell E6 into the ocean.

» Whelan and the company, without the knowledge or approval of the Clean Water Branch, dumped on Jan. 12, 2011, millions of gallons of contaminated stormwater into Ko Olina and nearby beaches.

But McCorriston, the attorney, said that Whelan, Lottig and other company officials acted not just appropriately, but "valiantly in avoiding the potential loss of life and property during the massive storms" in December and January.

He acknowledged "there may have been minor, administrative mistakes in certain documents," adding, "They certainly do not amount to crimes."

Company employees "acted heroically to ensure that life and property around the landfill site were protected." If they had not done so, stormwater could have swept down the western flank of the landfill and into the Kahe Power Plant, McCorriston said.

That could have resulted not just in the loss of life and property, but could have knocked out power to a substantial part of the island for an extended period, costing the Hawaii economy millions, he said.

McCorriston said the stormwater diversion system cited in the indictment was originally conceived and designed to be in operation in 2006. It was delayed for years by a series of bureaucratic hangups not of the company’s doing, he said, including a lengthy contested case hearing before the Land Use Commission.

The system was only weeks away from being functional, he said.

"Had this storm happened two or three weeks later, there would have been no case here," he said.

The system was completed in February 2011, McCorriston said.

City Environmental Services Director Lori Kahikina also said corrective action had been taken to avoid a recurrence.

"The city is satisfied with the ongoing operations of the landfill," she said in a statement Wednesday.

Lyle Hosoda, an attorney for Lottig, said his client and other employees are being targeted for political reasons because of the unpopularity of the landfill in the region.

"No one wants a landfill in their neighborhood, and business interests and politicians will do and say whatever they will in order to try and influence the landfill out of their neighborhood," Hosoda said in an emailed statement.

The landfill has been a growing source of consternation for West Oahu residents, and a continuing tug-of-war among city officials. Efforts to locate it elsewhere have failed while administration officials have insisted most of the island’s solid waste is now being diverted to the island’s waste-to-energy HPOWER plant.

The Ko Olina Community Association, which filed suit against the city to stop expansion and extension of the landfill, applauded the news of the indictment.

"We are hopeful this process will ensure Hawaii’s natural resources are properly cared for in the future and reaffirm the government’s commitment to the health and safety of our residents and visitors," association General Manager Ken Williams said in a statement.

Honolulu Councilman Stanley Chang, chairman of the Council Public Works and Sustainability Committee, said the indictment forces the city and the public to ponder whether Waste Management should continue operating the landfill.

"I think it’s safe to say that I feel very uncomfortable with any part of the basic, fundamental infrastructure of our city being run by people who, if found guilty, are going to be federal criminals," he said.

Waste Management’s current, 20-year contract to operate the landfill, which pays the company about $10 million a year, runs out in 2029.