Pesticide Found in Back Yard; Homes Evacuated

A residential block in El Monte was evacuated Friday evening after police and health authorities discovered more than 500 gallons of a banned pesticide stored in the back yard of a former employee of a termite control company who said his boss paid him to dump it.

Louie Gutierrez, 24, said he was unaware that the ethylene dibromide he stockpiled behind his house at 2731 Parkway Drive between mid-January and mid-March was actually poisonous and carcinogenic, although he had been told the chemical was dangerous.

Gutierrez said he was paid $1,500 by Victor Bernath, owner of Termite Company Inc., and its subsidiary Pest Control Chemicals in Los Angeles, to get rid of the pesticide that was manufactured by the latter firm under the name Kal-a-Fume before it was banned by the federal Environmental Protection Agency two years ago.

Transported to Home

Gutierrez said he told Bernath he was dumping the chemical in a field near Fillmore in Ventura County, but that he simply transferred it from its original containers to drums and cans and transported them to his home.

He said he began to worry after he became light-headed and weak while transferring the chemical from containers at the plant. His suspicions grew, he added, when Bernath asked him to make certain that labels were removed from the containers left on the firm’s premises.

In a hutch near a drum that leaked in his back yard, Gutierrez said, a rabbit gave birth to three deformed bunnies--one with only one ear, one with three ears and one with only three legs.

On Thursday, after learning that a toxic waste disposal company would charge up to $7,000 to remove the drums and cans from his property, Gutierrez called the El Monte Fire Department, but was told it was his responsibility to dispose of them properly. On Friday, he called El Monte police and Los Angeles County health officials.

Drums Examined

Representatives of all three agencies were on hand Friday to examine the four 35-gallon drums and the smaller drums and cans containing the banned chemical. As soon as the leak was discovered, the evacuation of nearby homes was ordered until the material could be removed by a toxic waste cleanup crew.

In the meantime, Sgt. Paul Pesqueira of the Los Angeles Police Department’s hazardous materials unit said officers were seeking a search warrant for the firm’s offices at 5852 S. Western Ave.

Bernath was not available Friday evening for comment.

Tim Miles, a county health department hazardous waste control investigator, said Bernath’s companies had been under investigation since a Feb. 27 anonymous telephone tip to state health officials. The tipster said that the pesticide was being illegally dumped in the Fillmore area. Police began surveillance then, Miles said, but saw nothing illegal--until after the calls from Gutierrez.

Ethylene dibromide, commonly known as EDB and an ingredient used in leaded gasoline to prevent engine knocking, was widely used against fruit flies until its ban as an agricultural pesticide in 1984.

Miles said it is carcinogenic and can cause birth defects and gene damage. It is toxic if inhaled, ingested or absorbed through the skin, he said.

Gutierrez said the pesticide apparently had not been manufactured or used by Bernath’s companies since it was banned.

Gutierrez said he was fired by the firm on Thursday in a dispute over some money, but said that was not related to his reporting the pesticide.