Settlement Reached in Toxic Waste Case : State Will Receive $338,000 for Cleaning Up East L.A. Dump Site

California’s long-running case against the owners of an East Los Angeles hazardous waste facility has ended with a settlement under which the state will receive $338,000 in costs and fines without a trial.

Under the agreement, Refugio Carrasco; his wife, Genevieve, and their Capri Pumping Service and A&R; Vacuum Trucking Corp. must pay the state $288,000 in costs and $50,000 in civil fines. Another $25,000 in civil penalties is due the City of Los Angeles. In addition, the defendants are permanently enjoined from handling hazardous wastes without obtaining a special state permit.

The state has already recovered about $1.4 million for cleanup of the controversial site from companies that generated the waste, and after this, “the state will be made whole,” Deputy Atty. Gen. Susan Durbin said Monday. She said California has paid $1.7 million to clean up the dump site.

Durbin said reaching a settlement was “a great advantage to the state” over going to trial, which would have taken six to eight weeks and cost tens of thousands of dollars. In addition, she said, it gives the state what prosecutors would have sought at a trial: recovery of costs and protection of the public.

Trial of the more than 5-year-old case had been scheduled to begin this week.

Attorneys told the court on Monday that the dump site on Whittier Boulevard, which was ordered shut down in mid-1980, was declared free and clear of contamination by the state Department of Health Services in 1984. It has since been fenced off, planted with wildflowers and rezoned for parking, according to city officials.

Pending entry of a final judgment, the settlement dismisses two Los Angeles Superior Court cases against the Carrascos and removes them as individual defendants from a federal court case that the state is pursuing against toxic waste producers.

In early 1982, Carrasco was cited for contempt for continuing to store hazardous acids and soil at the former chemical disposal site. He was given a sentence of 30 days in jail and $3,000 fine, which was suspended for six months to give him a chance to clean up the site. Six months later, the contempt citation was dropped after the court found that Carrasco had shown “good faith” and completed the job ahead of time.

The Times learned last week that the FBI is investigating the state-financed, city-run cleanup of the dump, which generated a separate controversy.

According to individuals interviewed by the FBI, the investigation focuses on the possibility that political influence might have played a role in awarding the $1.3-million cleanup contract in 1983 to R. E. Wolfe Enterprises.

In a controversial decision, the city Public Works Board rejected the initial advice of city and state staff members in accepting the bid from Wolfe, a firm established by Rolla E. Wolfe, a Kansas City-based highway contractor, and W. Patrick Moriarty, a former Orange County fireworks manufacturer and a central figure in the government investigation.

Last March, Moriarty pleaded guilty to seven counts of mail fraud in connection with bribery of public officials and illegal contributions to politicians.