HOPKINTON -- A man who faced six felony charges and thousands of dollars in fines for running an unlicensed scrap yard on property off Woodville-Alton Road pleaded no contest Tuesday to a charge of storing hazardous waste without a permit.

Roland Bowley, 77, was sentenced to five years' probation. As part of the plea agreement, the five other charges against him were dismissed. He has been cleaning up the property as part of a previous settlement with the state Department of Environmental Management.

Dismissed were counts of: disposing more than 3 cubic yards of solid waste at an unlicensed facility; operating a solid waste management facility without a license; illegally disposing hazardous waste potentially endangering underground drinking water sources; illegally discharging oil; and generating hazardous waste.

"The DEM has been investigating Mr. Bowley for 25 years, since 1981, and the statute of limitations barred us from prosecuting him on most of the case that was referred to us," said attorney general spokesman Michael J. Healey.

"Based on the case we had, not the case we wish we had . . . and the evidence we could use, these were the best results we could obtain," Healey said.

Mitigating factors, he said, were Bowley's age and health, and his wife's health, the fact that he has no prior criminal record and doesn't own the land where the violations occurred.

The criminal charges were filed in February 2005 following a state Department of Environmental Management investigation in 2004.

Bowley admitted running an unlicensed scrap yard on a portion of property on Woodville-Alton Road that he leased from Rose Townsend. The illegal operation also spread onto Townsend Road, a town road.

"[Local and DEM officials] knew that he was running this operation since 1991 and did nothing about it," said his lawyer, Paul J. DiMaio of Providence.

The statute of limitations for solid and hazardous waste violations is seven years from the time law enforcement authorities learn of the violation.

Bowley has a civil matter pending before the DEM's office of administrative adjudication. A pretrial conference has been scheduled for Sept. 22, said Stephanie Powell, a DEM spokeswoman.

DiMaio said his client is working on settling the case and cleaning up the property.

"He's been slowly trying to clean up the place and get rid of some of the stuff that's there to resolve the issue," DiMaio said, adding Bowley halted operations when he was notified he was breaking the law in 2004.

"He had no idea it was improper," DiMaio said. "All he really wants to do is get the property cleaned."

Town records show Bowley sought a license in 1984, but withdrew it after learning he would have to apply for a zoning change and a special-use permit.

The DEM monitored the property for at least 16 years. A 1990 fire prompted a DEM investigation into whether Bowley followed state regulations for storing oil, gasoline and electrical transformers containing PCBs. DEM officials then wrote to the Town Council asking them to enforce the permit requirements and make regular site inspections.

Follow-up inspections found approximately 9,005 cubic yards of solid waste disposed, including scrap metal, fuel tanks, and gas cylinders. Some of that waste, DEM inspectors found in 2004, was partially buried.

Bowley and his wife, Marion J., were also cited by the DEM for operating an illegal scrap yard at their Main Street property. They were fined $15,625 for that violation.

The Bowleys settled that matter in June, agreeing to pay $8,000 to the DEM and clean up the property by Oct. 31.