Executive Pleads Innocent in Hazardous-Waste Dumping Case

The head of a Northridge waste-hauling company pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Friday in Los Angeles Municipal Court on charges that the firm illegally dumped hazardous waste into a city sewer in Sun Valley.

Randy Singer, 26, who operates Pelland Pumping Co. in the 11300 block of Baird Avenue, was charged earlier this week with two felony and nine misdemeanor violations of state laws governing transportation and disposal of hazardous waste. Singer was released after posting $15,000 bond. A preliminary hearing was set for Oct. 3.

A driver for Pelland, which has two trucks, was apprehended on May 17 pumping industrial waste into a manhole in Sun Valley reserved for septic waste disposal, investigators with the Los Angeles Toxic Waste Strike Force said. The strike force, made up of members of several agencies, had staked out the manhole that day. Laboratory tests showed that the waste, hauled from a nearby ceramics plant, contained higher levels of lead, cadmium and other metals than legally can be discharged into the sewers.

The charges against Singer stem from that incident and two previous episodes in which a Pelland driver allegedly speeded away from a manhole when approached by city sanitation inspectors.

The Los Angeles Board of Public Works in June revoked the permits that allowed Pelland to use city manholes for septic discharge.

Each of the two felony counts carries a maximum penalty of three years imprisonment and a fine of up to $50,000. Each of the nine misdemeanor counts is punishable by up to a year in jail and up to $50,000 in fines.