PITTSBURGH — A New Jersey truck-washing service is paying $500,000 in penalties after officials pleaded guilty on behalf of the company to illegally dumping dirty water from U.S. Postal Service trucks into a western Pennsylvania creek.

Professional Mobile Cleaning, Inc. of Fairfield, New Jersey is paying $300,000 restitution to the Postal Service, a $9,000 criminal fine, and $191,000 to the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission for fouling waterways leading to the Monongahela River.

Company officials on Thursday told a federal judge that the water was dumped into Tinkers Run Creek after the company washed vehicles at the U.S. Postal Service Carrier Annex in Irwin from June 2007 to June 2010. The company was paid, in part, to properly dispose of any wastewater.

Instead, it was dumped into the creek, which feeds two others that lead to the river.

via Associated Press