State Puts a Bounty on Toxic Polluters
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SACRAMENTO — California has placed a bounty on the heads of toxic polluters.
Gov. George Deukmejian has taken to radio and TV to encourage the public to call authorities if they know, or suspect, someone is polluting the environment.
For their trouble, the tipsters stand to get 10% of whatever fines or penalties are collected from the polluters.
“We’ve already paid one reward,” said Jennifer Tachera of the Toxic Substances Division of the state Department of Health Services.
A Sunnyvale man who saw workers dumping noxious chemicals into a gutter “stopped and asked the workers what they were doing. They told him to take a hike, so he called us,” Tachera says.
As a result, the workers’ employer, San Jose-based microchip manufacturer Xebec Corp., paid the state $25,000 in penalties. The Sunnyvale man who reported the crime collected $2,500.
“We get dozens of calls every day,” Tachera says of the pollution-tipster hotline.
The telephone number is 1-800-25-TOXIC.
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