FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contacts
[email protected]
410-576-7009
BALTIMORE, MD – Attorney General Anthony G. Brown today announced the filing of criminal charges against Terry Adrian Handy, Jr., of Eden, Maryland, for violations of Maryland environmental laws regarding the discharge of pollutants.
On August 14, 2026, Handy was charged in the Circuit Court for Wicomico County with two counts of illegal discharge of a pollutant and two counts of unlawful disposal of sewage relating to illegal dumping that occurred in a wooded property in Wicomico County, Maryland. The investigation was led by the Attorney General’s Environmental and Natural Resources Crimes Unit (ENRCU), the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE), and the Wicomico County Health Department.
“Dumping sewage into the woods near a residential area is not a temporary solution; it is a crime that puts Marylanders’ health and the environment at risk,” said Attorney General Brown. “My Office will hold accountable anyone who takes shortcuts instead of following the laws that protect Maryland’s environment.”
The investigation revealed that Handy was an employee of Price & Son Septic Services, Inc., a septic-hauling business with its principal office located in the 28000 block of Stanford Road in Eden, Wicomico County, Maryland. On October 23, 2025, the Wicomico County Health Department responded to a neighboring property and observed piping leading from the Price & Son sewage pump truck parking pad into the forested area in the rear of the property, extending beyond the Price & Son property line. The forested area smelled of sewage, and the ground had soft areas that could not be walked on without sinking into the surface.
Four days later, on October 27, 2025, ENCRU investigators conducted a site visit of the 2800 block of Stanford Road. At the rear of the property, they located a large area of black sludge-like material and noted an overwhelming odor consistent with raw sewage. Later at that location, investigators witnessed Handy disconnecting a hose from the rear of one of the Price & Son septic trucks, and then immediately observed a new large area of brown liquid actively flowing over the area of black sludge that had been previously dry a few minutes before. Investigators determined that Handy had just discharged the contents of the septic truck directly onto the adjacent property.
“Illegal dumping of sewage damages our environment and hurts communities,” said Maryland Department of the Environment Secretary Serena McIlwain. “There are many facilities designed to properly dispose of this material for treatment, and this property is certainly not one of them. Anyone who chooses to put public health at risk or pollute our environment will be held accountable.”
In making today’s announcement, Attorney General Brown thanked his Criminal Division, specifically Criminal Division Chief Katie Dorian, Environmental and Natural Resources Crimes Unit Chief D’Arcy Byrnes Talley, Chief Investigator Thomas Waugh, Investigator Ronald Weinreich, Jr., and Assistant Attorney General Eileen M. Murphy, who is prosecuting this case. Finally, Attorney General Brown thanked State’s Attorney for Wicomico County Jamie Dykes for her assistance with this investigation and prosecution.
A criminal information is merely an accusation of wrongdoing, and a defendant is presumed innocent until the State proves the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
###