Thomas Iverson was a founder of CH2O, Inc., and served as the company's president and chairman of the board. CH2O ships blended chemicals to its customers in drums. CH2O asked its customers to return the drums so that it could reuse them. Although customers returned the drums, they often did not clean them sufficiently, and the drums still contained chemical residue. Before CH2O could reuse the drums, it had to remove that residue. To do so, CH2O instituted a drum-cleaning operation, which in turn generated wastewater.

Beginning in about 1985, Iverson personally discharged the wastewater and ordered employees of CH2O to discharge the wastewater. In April 1992, Iverson bought a warehouse in Olympia. After the purchase, CH2O restarted its drum-cleaning operation at the warehouse and disposed of its wastewater through the sewer. CH2O obtained neither a permit nor permission to make these discharges. The drum-cleaning operation continued until the summer of 1995, when CH2O learned that it was under investigation for discharging pollutants into the sewer.

A few months before CH2O restarted its drum-cleaning operation, Iverson had announced his "official" retirement from CH2O. However, he continued to receive money from CH2O, to conduct business at the company's facilities, and to give orders to employees. CH2O continued to list him as the president in documents that it filed with the state, and the employee who was responsible for running the day-to-day aspects of the drum-cleaning operation testified that he reported to Iverson.

The federal government has charged CH2O and Iverson with criminal violations of the Clean Water Act. Iverson says he is not responsible because he had retired. Can he be held criminally liable for a violation of the Clean Water Act through the drum-cleaning operations?