36 Firms Cited in Crackdown on Dumping of Toxic Wastes

By LARRY B. STAMMER

Oct. 31, 1985 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Los Angeles County sanitation districts on Wednesday accused 36 electroplating companies with willfully violating federal clean water standards by discharging untreated cyanide and other toxic chemicals directly into Los Angeles sewers.

It was the first joint enforcement action by the two agencies. In addition, the EPA disclosed that it has asked federal prosecutors to file civil suits against another four unnamed polluters.

“The age of letting industries do what they want is gone,” sanitation district spokesman Don Avila said. “There is simply no more messing around. You either comply or face fines and severence of your sewer connection. If you can’t discharge your waste, you can’t operate.”

Intervention of the EPA followed repeated but unsuccessful efforts by the sanitation districts to bring the companies into compliance with local and federal clean water standards.

The sanitation districts, which have been delegated by the EPA to enforce the federal standards locally, issued cleanup orders to the companies as long as six months to a year ago, officials said. The standards, which were put on the books in 1982 and were to take effect a year ago, require all dischargers to pretreat their waste before dumping it into sewers.

“They were aware of the standards. . . . We have taken this (additional) enforcement action against them because they have refused to comply,” said Charles W. Carry, chief engineer and general manager for the sanitation districts.

He added that discharges of untreated toxic chemicals and heavy metals exceeded federal standards by 90%.

“These 36 have a history of non-compliance. . . . They are significant violators,” said Frank M. Covington, regional director of the EPA’s water management division. There are 8,000 firms with industrial discharge permits in the areas served by the sanitation districts. The 36 are among 225, or 3%, of the firms in varying degrees of non-compliance.

Effects Listed

Carry said that discharging untreated cyanide into sewers threatens the lives of sanitation workers, damages equipment and ultimately could pollute the ocean. “Had we had people in those (sewers) and had we had acids mixed with it (the cyanide) we could have had deaths in the sewers,” Carry said.

About half of the 36 companies reportedly discharged untreated cyanide directly into the sewer system. Carry also reported that cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, nickel, silver and zinc were detected in illegal amounts.

Under terms of the added enforcement orders, known as federal administrative orders, issued Wednesday, the 36 firms have 30 days to report on how they intend to comply and what it will cost them. Carry said he believes that the average cost to install equipment would be $60,000, plus another $45,000 annually to operate it.

All firms must be in full compliance with local and federal electroplating standards by December, and with federal metal finishing standards by next Feb. 15. Persons found in willful or negligent violations of the order are subject to one year in jail and/or fines of $2,500 to $25,000 a day.

These 36 firms were issued federal administrative orders to comply with clean water standards:

Aerodynamic Plating, Gardena

Aerojet Ordnance, Downey

Allied Plating, Compton

American Standard Circuit Labs, Pomona

Anchor Plating Co. Inc., South El Monte

Cal Bumper Co., Long Beach

Cal-Style Furniture Mfg. Co., Compton

Darnell Corp. Ltd., Downey

ElectroEtch Circuits, Inglewood

Endemano Plating Co., Huntington Park

Gardena Specialized Processing, Gardena