Filibuster Distillery and its owner, Siddharth Dilawri, were indicted, charged with dumping more than 40,000 gallons industrial waste without a permit into a publicly owned waste treatment works.
According to the indictments, the dumping of waste primarily occurred in November 2018, but the distillery continued to discharge industrial water with excessive levels of zinc and copper until at least September 2020. Dilawri initially denied that any dumping occurred and then claimed that there was a one-time accident at the distillery.
However, he later admitted that he had given false information to law enforcement authorities and that he had known about the dumping. DEQ staff, along with the Shenandoah County Fire Marshal Dave Ferguson and other authorities, have investigated the impact of the dumping on the stream as well as on the local community and worked with Attorney General Herring’s Environmental Section to bring this prosecution.