Firm Raided for Evidence of Dumping Into Sewers

A Sun Valley metal plating company was raided Tuesday morning by the city attorney’s environmental strike force and was searched for evidence that cyanide and other dangerous wastes were being illegally dumped into the city sewer system, city officials said.

A team led by a deputy city attorney and composed of representatives of the Bureau of Sanitation, the County Health Department and the Los Angeles Police Department’s Scientific Investigation Unit raided All Valley Plating, Inc., at 11321 Goss St., according to Mike Qualls, a spokesman for the city attorney’s office.

The evidence gathered had not yet been assessed Tuesday afternoon, he said.

Qualls said the team obtained a search warrant Monday based on evidence gathered by the Bureau of Sanitation last month that showed the company had allowed excessive levels of cyanide and two heavy metals to flow into city sewers on two consecutive days.

Instruments were installed in the sewer system downstream from All Valley Plating on May 7, Qualls said. “The next day, the monitoring unit detected illegal dumping that went on for more than six hours,” he said, and, on May 9, “more than nine hours of illegal dumping was detected.”

Potential Danger

The instruments measured levels of cyanide and two hazardous metals, zinc and hexavalent chromium, he said. The cyanide could give off dangerous gas if it came in contact with acid in the sewers, officials said.

Larry Horton, one of All Valley Plating’s managers, complained Tuesday that the company had not been alerted to the problem before the raid. “If they’d been monitoring that thing since May 7, why not stop it right there? Had we known there was a violation, I could have cleaned it up in half an hour,” he said.

Horton said, however, that it was not the first time a city agency has informed the company of a violation. “The last one I remember was in December,” he said. The Bureau of Sanitation had detected excessive levels of some wastes on a regular monthly check, he said, calling the situation “nothing of a major nature.”

All Valley Plating has been in business for about two years, Horton said. “We’ve had some housekeeping problems,” he said.