Chemical Firm’s Owner Faces Toxic Waste Charges

The owner of a Sun Valley chemical company that burned last April was charged Friday with felony violations of hazardous waste laws.

More than 50 people were hospitalized in the aftermath of the blaze at Research Organic & Inorganic Chemical Co., and two cleanups were required by federal and state agencies.

Charged was Marianne Pratter, 52, owner of the firm, which went out of business after the April 13, 1985, fire.

Pratter was charged with two felony counts of unlawful disposal of hazardous wastes and three misdemeanor counts of maintaining a public nuisance, unlawful storage of hazardous wastes and failure to secure a radioactive substance, said Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Marcia W. Strickland.

She faces a maximum of three years and eight months in prison and fines of more than $150,000 if convicted, Strickland said.

Failure to Remove Wastes

Pratter is accused of failing to remove hazardous wastes after the fire, the prosecutor said. Strickland said there appeared to be no section of the California Health and Safety Code under which Pratter could be charged for injuries that firefighters, police officers and a newspaper photographer said they sustained in inhaling fumes at the fire.

Pratter has since opened a new chemical business, Advent Laboratories, in the city of Orange, the prosecutor said. It has been inspected by local fire officials, who found no hazardous chemicals in storage, Strickland added.

Pratter, for whom an arrest warrant was issued, did not return a call placed to Advent Laboratories on Friday. Her attorney, Michael Plotkin, also did not return a phone call.

Reckless Storage

Pratter pleaded guilty in New Jersey in 1984 to charges of reckless storage of hazardous materials and creating a risk of widespread injury. She owned a company there called Research Organic & Inorganic Chemical Co. She was sentenced to three years’ probation and five months of community service, and was fined $15,000, New Jersey officials said.

Chemicals at the Sun Valley site included chlorine triflouride, a rocket fuel oxidizer; methyl lithium, a reactive material; arsenic, and low-level uranium and thorium, authorities said.

The fire gave impetus to the adoption last year of a city ordinance that required more than 56,000 businesses to register their toxic chemicals.

EPA Takes Control

The federal Environmental Protection Agency assumed initial control of a $140,000 cleanup at the fire site and determined that many containers of hazardous material could be salvaged by Pratter. County health officials said two notices were sent to Pratter telling her that the materials had to be removed. Some were, but other drums and glass containers were left in a shed.

Meanwhile, the building’s owner, Juan Co. of Woodland Hills, began rebuilding the structure.

After two workmen were overcome by fumes in November, the Toxic Substances Control Division of the state Department of Health Services ordered a Long Beach hazardous-waste disposal firm to clean up. The job was completed in December, Strickland said.