Illegal Chemical Storage Suspected in Toxic Leak

Unidentified chemicals that leaked fumes Tuesday outside a Sun Valley building that formerly housed a chemical company may have been stored illegally and abandoned after a spectacular fire in April, Los Angeles County health officials said Wednesday.

The officials said they will meet next week with members of the district attorney’s environmental crimes division to decide whether to file a criminal complaint against the company’s owner, charging illegal storing of hazardous materials.

The fire at Research Organic & Inorganic Chemical Co., a chemical distribution firm, prompted an investigation by the district attorney’s toxic waste strike force into the business operations of owner Marianne Pratter, officials said.

In April, 53 firefighters were hospitalized after inhaling smoke from poisonous chemicals. Because of the quantity and toxicity of chemicals stored in the building, the federal Environmental Protection Agency assumed control of a two-week, $140,000 cleanup, an EPA official said Wednesday.

Spokesmen from the district attorney’s office and the county health department declined to release details of the investigation but said that Tuesday’s episode will become part of the case.

“You can’t walk away and leave materials with no posting or labels,” said Anastacio Medina, chief of the county’s hazardous-waste control program. “It is possible that this will be construed as abandonment by legal definition.”

The chemicals that began releasing fumes Tuesday were stored in five 55-gallon drums and about 12 five-gallon and one-gallon glass jars in a covered shed on the site at 9068 De Garmo Ave.

The last of the reacting chemicals was removed early Wednesday morning by a Long Beach hazardous-waste removal firm that was ordered to clean up the site by the Toxic Substances Control Division of the state Department of Health Services.

County officials asked for emergency assistance from the state in removing the chemicals when additional drums began leaking fumes late Wednesday night. The fumes “presented an immediate threat to the community” because county officials could not be sure what the chemicals were, Medina said.

“There were handwritten labels on the containers and we don’t consider that to be sufficient labeling,” he said.

The chemicals were believed to be “highly corrosive,” officials said. Two men who were overcome by the fumes Tuesday were treated and released from a hospital. Also, a neighboring auto dismantling shop was evacuated and one block of Tuxford Street, which intersects with De Garmo Avenue, was cordoned off for five hours.

The chemicals had been left in the building after the EPA cleanup because agency officials had determined that they could be salvaged by the owner.

“It was determined that, since the emergency aspect was completed, we would agree to leave the material there,” said Terry Wilson, an EPA regional spokesman.

County health officials said that, within a month of the fire, two notices were sent to Pratter telling her that all materials were to be removed according to the law. Under state law it is illegal to store hazardous waste for more than 90 days, Medina said.

“She kept telling us she was contacting chemical companies that would salvage the materials,” said Richard Galespi, a senior environmental health officer for the county. When she realized that the chemicals were not in a condition to be resold, Galespi said, “she apparently began packing them herself.”

Some material was removed, Galespi said, but the drums and glass containers were left in the shed. In the meantime, the building’s owner, Juan Company of Woodland Hills, began rebuilding the structure. Company, who intends to rent the building in January to an auto body shop, said he has been unable to contact Pratter about removing the chemicals.

County officials said they, too, have had trouble finding Pratter. County officials last spoke with Pratter in July, Medina said.

“I would be hard put to find her right now,” Galespi said. “We had a number for her in Orange County but could never get through. We would always get a recording.”

At one point, Galespi said, Pratter notified county officials that she had hired a private hazardous-waste removal firm, Crosby & Overton of Long Beach, to remove the chemicals. Thomas Twillie, a spokesman for that company, said it gave Pratter a $3,000 cost estimate in early June, then heard no more from her.

The state contracted with the same company to do the emergency cleanup this week, which Twillie said cost $10,000.

Medina said the backlog of hazardous-material cases in the county prevented officials from acting sooner to remove the chemicals.

“The bottom line is that, there they sat” until the chemicals began releasing fumes this week, Galespi said.