Hospital Fined for Dumping Diesel Fuel

Los Angeles Doctors Hospital was ordered by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge Wednesday to pay more than $64,000 in fines for illegally dumping diesel fuel into a street and storm drain near the hospital and a neighboring elementary school in June, 1985.

Prosecutors said a Wilmington contractor, working under the hospital’s supervision, pumped 200 to 300 gallons of waste fuel directly into the street instead of taking it to an authorized dumping area. The spill was reported by a school bus driver transporting handicapped students to the 24th Street Elementary School. The waste poured across the children’s path to school.

A Superior Court jury found the hospital guilty of illegal dumping last August in what was the first felony conviction under a 1985 law covering hazardous waste disposal.

The contractor, Robert Smallwood, had earlier pleaded guilty to illegal dumping and was fined $1,000 and sentenced to 90 days in jail. His assistant, Walter Holton, was sentenced to 66 days in jail after also pleading guilty. A. Vaji Nasoordeen, the hospital’s mechanical engineer, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor dumping charges and was ordered to perform 50 hours of community service.