Deukmejian Criticizes His Appointee’s Toxics Remark

Gov. George Deukmejian was critical Thursday of Raymond Stone, chairman of the state Water Resources Control Board, for suggesting recently that toxic cleanup plants be placed on Indian reservations so the Indians would not have to rely on bingo games for income.

“I think he used some poor judgment in making such a comment to a small group of people he was talking to,” Deukmejian said of Stone, who has yet to be confirmed in his post and is expected to face a stormy hearing next week before the Senate Rules Committee.

On another matter, Deukmejian blamed “very poor coverage” by the news media for a controversy that erupted over his Administration’s efforts to remove federal controls from a Monterey Park toxic landfill site owned by financial contributors to his 1982 gubernatorial campaign.

Deukmejian’s comments came in response to questions posed by high school students attending a YMCA youth legislature program. The governor, who has made the YMCA program a pet project, was asked to comment on a range of issues from toxics to school funding.

The event also gave him a chance to show a lighter side of his personality as he mugged for cameras wearing a “Duke ‘86” headband, towel and sunglasses given to him by the students who said the gifts would come in handy during his reelection “race.”

On the issue of Stone’s remarks about placing toxic waste plants on Indian reservations, Deukmejian said that the gubernatorial appointee has since met with representatives of the Indian community to “explain what he meant.”

Stone’s comments reportedly were made during a meeting last week in Fresno with executive directors of the state’s nine regional water boards. They became public in a report published in the Fresno Bee based on an account given by an official who attended the meeting.

Stone, according to the official, suggested building a series of regional toxic waste cleanup plants on Indian reservations in California, reasoning that the plants would provide jobs for Indians who would not have to rely on bingo winnings as a source of cash.

Nick Villa, executive director of the Inter-Tribal Council, representing more than 100 Indian tribes in the West, replied: “No way. . . . A lot of reservations have bad water right now because of all the pollution from the farmers or whoever else.”

Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles), in the wake of that report, called on Deukmejian to withdraw Stone’s nomination as board chairman. Roberti also has accused Stone of exercising poor judgment in his private business dealings with two employees of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board.

Stone will be forced to give up his post unless his appointment is confirmed by the full Senate by the end of this month.

While Deukmejian criticized Stone’s comments, the governor gave no indication that he intends to withdraw his nomination.

Deukmejian said that Stone’s remarks were blown out of proportion and that he had never meant to suggest there was any firm proposal to locate toxic waste plants on Indian property. “There just isn’t any program of that type,” the governor declared.

On the issue of his Administration’s efforts to remove federal controls from a dump site owned by his political contributors, Deukmejian denied that the $19,250 in donations he received from Operating Industries in Monterey Park had anything to do with the state’s actions.

“I must tell you the decisions were made by the director of the Department of Health Services and he didn’t have absolutely any knowledge that those people were contributors of ours,” he said. “There has been some very poor coverage on that particular issue.”

The 45-acre site, now listed on the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund cleanup list, is part of a larger landfill of 180-190 acres owned by Operating Industries. Health Services Director Kenneth W. Kizer told the EPA that the problems are not serious on that 45-acre portion and that development of this parcel could help pay for cleanup of the rest of the plot.

EPA officials, however, claim that the smaller portion contains potentially explosive pockets of methane gas and such cancer-causing chemicals as benzene.

Deukmejian characterized the controversy as a “dispute between technical, professional people” and declared that “everything done in connection with it was done properly.”