McWane Inc., a major pipe manufacturer based in Birmingham, Ala., has agreed to plead guilty to federal safety and environmental crimes, the third successful prosecution against McWane this year.

McWane owns foundries in several states, including New York and New Jersey, and it produces cast iron sewer and water pipes for municipalities and major construction projects across the country. McWane has faced a widening criminal inquiry by the Justice Department since January 2003, the same month The New York Times published a series of articles describing workplace deaths and injuries, as well as illegal pollution, at several McWane plants.

In court papers unsealed yesterday in Federal District Court in Birmingham, Union Foundry, a McWane plant in Anniston, Ala., admitted that it had willfully violated federal safety rules, resulting in the death of Reginald Elston, a 27-year-old worker who was crushed in a conveyor belt. There was no required safety guard on the conveyor belt, even though an employee at a McWane foundry in Texas had been crushed to death in another unguarded conveyor belt less than two months earlier.

Union Foundry also admitted that it had illegally handled dust contaminated with lead and cadmium, two substances the federal government has linked to lung cancer.

Causing the death of a worker by willfully violating safety rules is a misdemeanor. Illegally disposing of contaminated dust is a felony. In deciding to plead guilty, McWane agreed to pay a $3.5 million criminal fine. It also agreed to submit a proposal to the United States attorney in Birmingham to spend an additional $750,000 on a community service project in Alabama that either improves workplace safety or protects the environment. No individuals were charged. The plea agreement requires approval by a federal judge.

In March, McWane pleaded guilty to environmental crimes at Tyler Pipe, its foundry in Tyler, Tex., and was fined $4.5 million. In June, a federal jury found McWane guilty of 20 environmental crimes at a factory in the Birmingham area.

• Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company