Article
Didion Milling pleads guilty
Published: 01/02/2024
Didion Milling Inc of Cambria in Wisconsin in the United States (US), pleaded guilty to two federal criminal charges and agreed to pay millions in restitution for a 2017 explosion at its Cambria mill that killed five workers and injured others, according to the US Department of Justice (DOJ).
Didion Milling and six of its managers and superintendents were charged in May 2022 in a nine-count criminal indictment for its alleged role in failing to ensure work was done to safely handle combustible maize dust and keeping deliberate false records before the explosion on 31 May 2017.
According to court documents, Didion Milling was required to operate ‘baghouses’, equipment designed to prevent particulate matter, such as maize dust, from being released into the environment from the maize mill. From at least 2015 to May 2017, Didion Milling employees, including shift workers and shift superintendents, made false entries in the mill’s ‘baghouse logs’, disguising data meant to monitor and document whether the mill’s baghouse equipment was working properly to filter particulates from the air. – WORLD-GRAIN.com