VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - Two drivers for a Maryland-based motorcoach company have been arrested and charged with illegally dumping lavatory waste into a storm water drain.

Wei Ping Zhang and Yun Xiang Xiao, drivers for Lotus Tours of Rockville, Md., were arrested after a near month-long investigation and stakeout by Virginia Beach Police and two curious women who had observed the dumping and video taped it.

Although illegal dumping is a misdemeanor in Virginia Beach, punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine, it is possible Zhang, Xiao and their employer could also be prosecuted under federal statutes.

The storm sewer where the dumping supposedly occurred drains into Chesapeake Bay - a recreation area popular with boaters, fishermen and swimmers.

Virginia Beach Master Police Officer Dean Godwin said his department's investigation took several days to complete because the drivers did not dump every night. They apparently were dumping when the lavatory tank was full.

The 45-foot coach the drivers were operating was making daily runs from Virginia Beach to New York City's Chinatown. Godwin said Zhang would drive the bus one day and Xiao the next.

The pair was arrested on separate occasions, a few days apart, when police observed each of them dumping around midnight. Ironically, the first driver snared did not warn the other driver he had been arrested, so police were able to nab both.

When the arrests occurred, the drivers claimed they did not speak English, although they had commercial driver licenses. For the second arrest, police had an interpreter with them.

Godwin said both drivers also said they did not know the dumping was illegal.
It was just over two years ago that a motorcoach operator in northern Virginia, New World Tours of Bristow, was convicted of illegal dumping into a storm water drain. In that incident, a U.S. District Court judge sentenced New World's owner, David Bolen, to a two-year term of supervised probation, starting with six months of at-home electronic monitoring, and fined him $500. Additionally, the company was fined $50,000.

In the Bolen case, the crime was considered one of negligence, rather than intent. Agents from the FBI investigated and attorneys from the U.S. Justice Department prosecuted the New World case on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. At the time, the Justice Department and EPA were looking to send a message to the entire motorcoach industry that the federal government would not tolerate illegal dumping of waste - of any kind.

When the federal judge passed sentence on Bolen and his company she said that if a similar incident occurred in the future, the federal government would not go lightly on any company that did not learn from the punishment she had meted out. The next offender could expect jail time, was the clear implication of her comments.

An officer with the Virginia Beach Police told Bus & Motorcoach News that a referral to federal authorities is under consideration in connection with the dumping incident in their community.

The arrests of Zhang and Xiao in Virginia Beach turned up additional problems, according to Officer Godwin. Log books maintained by the drivers indicated they were making runs between Washington, D.C. and New York City; not Virginia Beach and New York's Chinatown. The phony entries would cut about three hours off the drivers' actual hours of service, according to Godwin. The pair also did not have medical cards.

Lotus Tours, which is believed to have been in business for about 10 years, is the DBA name for a company called S.J. Travel Corp. of Rockville. Efforts to contact company General Manager Jimmy Cheng were unsuccessful.

The company completed a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration compliance review in February, with a SafeStat score of 238.4. The only accident listed in the FMCSA database for Lotus Tours is a minor crash on the New Jersey Turnpike in March. The company reportedly has a fleet of about a dozen coaches, midsize buses and vans, and employs 18 drivers, according to information the company filed at the end of last year.

Video of the alleged dumping by Xiao and Zhang, shot by the two Virginia City women, was aired May 26, by WAVY-TV/Fox 43, a television outlet serving eastern Virginia. The video can be seen by going to the station's Web site, www.wavy.com, and conducting a search on the words "illegal dumping." A window will pop up, showing the station's news report and the incriminating video.