ILLINOIS/August 17/--A former East St. Louis, Illinois city councilman was sentenced Monday by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois to fifteen months in prison and two years supervised release for the illegal removal of asbestos, after pleading guilty in June to one count of conspiracy to violate the federal Clean Air Act and one count of failure to notify authorities prior to asbestos removal. According to an EPA press release, Charles Powell, Jr., owner of Powell's Demolition Co., was hired to renovate a 12-story building in East St. Louis in 2002. Powell set out to remove the asbestos from the building without providing workers with the necessary protective gear, failing to wet the asbestos prior to removal as required by the EPA, and failing to properly label the waste materials for the waste hauling company. Powell also neglected to notify the EPA prior to the removal work.

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