Utah plant linked to Kingston polygamist group cited for dumping chemicals into Bear River tributary

In August 2019, an anonymous tipster reported that a company located in Portage, Utah, was illegally dumping chemical waste in ponds, sewers, storm drains and on the ground and had been doing so intentionally for months.

Later that month, a team of inspectors representing the state of Utah, a local health department and a fire department entered the American Chemical facility in Box Elder County. They didn’t like what they saw at the plant that processed vegetable oils and contaminated glycerin, a type of sugar alcohol that the facility had received as a byproduct of biodiesel operations.

Inspectors found “foul smelling, dark water” in a ditch running from the facility to the Malad River which feeds the Bear River. Greasy water pooled in many parts of the facility often from overflowing containers.

“One such oily stream on the north edge of the facility had a dead female” hawk in it. Liquids on the north edge of the facility were directed through a muddy field, and then “eventually drain through an unlined ditch, under the railroad tracks, to settling/evaporation ponds located to the east.”

The state’s Department of Environmental Quality eventually fined the company $27,519 for violating the Utah Water Quality Act.

It was one of two companies that received fines for intentionally polluting storm drains and main surface waters that feed the Great Salt Lake, according to an investigation by The Utah Investigative Journalism Project.

We analyzed 174 reports of spills affecting the Bear River and Jordan River, the primary tributaries of the Great Salt Lake, from 2019 through the first half of 2024. Most spills — 150 — were accidental.

Of the 24 reports of allegedly willful polluters, only two received fines, according to documents. In the rest of the incidents or warnings, authorities determined that no action needed to be taken and educational materials were provided. Three incidents don’t appear to have been investigated at all.

A company with ties to polygamist group

American Chemical, which has now closed, was located on the site of the notorious Washakie Fuels property and has common owners — the Kingston polygamist family. Washakie Fuels went bankrupt after federal prosecutors charged it in what the U.S. Department of Justice later called a “billion-dollar biofuel tax fraud scheme.” Before that case went to trial, the company went under and some of the same owners repurposed the site into American Chemical LLC.

The state’s 2019 inspection of spills at the property revealed some common ownership between the owners of the Washakie and the new company.

The inspection report noted the Kingston polygamist family operated Washakie and that “according to the Operations Manager, the property on which the facility is located is owned by NWR, another Kingston family entity, and is leased to the facility.”

After Washakie went bankrupt, “its operation was taken over by American Chemical LLC, which is also owned by the Kingston family.” The report also found the company was processing contaminated glycerin from California biodiesel operations.

According to the inspectors, managers at American Chemical, who had previously worked for Washakie, “repeatedly accused the various other sister companies of being responsible for many of the problems on site during the inspection.”

And there were a lot of problems, according to the inspection report.

“The best glycerin I’ve ever tasted”

Loose refining equipment was spread over a “bone yard” east of the facility that did “not appear to be scrupulously cleaned.”

Many barrels of chemicals at the facility were mislabeled or had no label, and “American Chemical personnel claimed they did not know the contents of many of the containers.”

A photo from the inspection shows plant manager John Gustafson licking a dark oily substance off of a wire that he had dipped into one of the drums to “demonstrate that the drums did not contain hazardous waste” according to the report.

“He said the material tastes good, both sweet and salty, and that cattle like it.”

The company paid a $27,519 fine but was cited again in 2022 for missing paperwork in its Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan. The inspection paperwork noted the company had said it would store “caustic/phosphoric acid” inside a building, but during an inspection it was found stored outside.

The company shut down in the fall of 2024. The Utah Investigative Journalism Project asked DEQ if it had inspected the facility since its closure to assess any hazardous materials that might be onsite. DEQ said that while it is not required, the agency decided to inspect the facility after the Project asked about it. DEQ said it would not provide the inspection report since its release might interfere with an ongoing investigation.

In the statement, DEQ also pointed out that facilities that are Very Small Quantity Generators, or VSQG, of hazardous waste, do not need to notify state regulators if they close down and aren’t required to be inspected when they do. DEQ acknowledged that it is up to the facility itself to “track how much hazardous waste they generate monthly” and notify regulators when that amount changes.

American Chemical had classified itself as VSQG, but inspectors in the 2019 report expressed skepticism.

“The inspection team asked American Chemical personnel about their hazardous waste generator status, but they said they did not produce waste, that everything was recycled,” the report stated. “This seems like an amazing statement for a chemical plant of this size.”

The Utah Investigative Journalism Project reached out to Jeremiah Kingston, the registered agent for American Chemicals, at an address state officials sent mail to, asking for comment about the company’s regulatory issues but received no response.

When contacted by phone, John Gustafson did not have any comment about the issues the facility had in the past nor about its recent closure and bore no grudge against state regulators.

“They were fair, as far as I know,” he said.

The company’s Google listing comes with only two reviews, one from an individual with the last name of the plant manager, giving it five stars with the review: “The best glycerin I’ve ever tasted.”