Governor’s Toxics Record Improved, Auditors Find

The Deukmejian Administration has shown some improvement in regulating toxic wastes but continues to have problems in responding quickly to complaints and in punishing violators, state Auditor General Thomas W. Hayes said Tuesday.

Auditors for Hayes’ office found that the state Department of Health Services’ toxic substances control division has greatly increased the number of permits issued to facilities that store, treat or dispose of hazardous waste--issuing 181 permits over the past 2 1/2 years, compared with 63 permits in the previous five.

The department has also stepped up the number of inspections of these facilities, the auditor general said in a report. But many smaller plants and disposal sites may not be inspected for long periods, Hayes said.

On the reelection campaign trail, Gov. George Deukmejian has repeatedly insisted that under his Administration, there have been more fines levied, permits issued and sites inspected than during the two terms of his predecessor, Edmund G. Brown Jr.

Campaign Issue

However, Mayor Tom Bradley of Los Angeles, the likely Democratic nominee for governor, has made Deukmejian’s record on toxics regulation a major campaign issue. While the findings of the legislature’s auditor buttressed some of Deukmejian’s claims, other findings might not be as welcome to the governor.

The auditors found examples of complaints by citizens of illegal dumping that were not forwarded for several months to the appropriate local office for action.

In one case, a caller using the state’s toll-free waste alert hotline reported the dumping of oil field wastes into a Fresno area canal that the citizen said was a source of drinking water. The report was not forwarded to the proper office for five months.

Even though the department’s hotline system was intended to help catch those who dump toxic waste illegally, the department took an average of 11 days to respond to calls.

Hayes warned: “If complaints are not investigated promptly, there is less likelihood that actual cases of dumping may be discovered, and the potential for endangering public health and the environment increases.”

Hayes also chided department officials for failing to follow up on violations identified during inspections.

Out of 250 serious violations discovered at hazardous waste facilities in 1985, the department took formal enforcement action in only 77 instances--less than one-third of the total. In theory, each violation represented the release or threat of release of toxic substances into the environment and should result in a formal notice and a follow-up inspection, the auditors said.

No Written Notice

At one unidentified facility, cited as an example by the auditors, department inspectors discovered a crack in a hazardous waste drum storage pad--a potentially serious violation. The state toxics staff told the managers of the facility about the problem but issued no written notice. A subsequent inspection made more than a year later turned up 16 violations, seven of them significant. But again no written notice was filed, Hayes said.

Without a vigorous enforcement program, the department is not doing enough to discourage violations that could harm public health and the environment, the auditors concluded.

In a response attached to the report, Dr. Kenneth W. Kizer, director of health services, generally agreed with the auditors’ findings--but stressed the improvements that have been made in the department’s toxics program in recent months.

Kizer and members of his staff contend that many of the 250 violations are not as serious as the department’s classification implies--and many of the violations should, in fact, be reclassified to less serious levels.

Kizer pointed out that Deukmejian has proposed adding more than 200 new positions to the state’s toxic pollution efforts.