3 Plead Guilty in Toxic Dumping Case : Pleas to 2 Felony Counts Terminate Trial; Prosecutor to Seek Prison Terms for 2 Men

In a case that spurred a toughening of U.S. environmental rules and a hazardous waste pact with Mexico, three San Diego area businessmen pleaded guilty Tuesday to felony charges tied to the illegal dumping of toxic wastes near the Mexican border town of Tecate.

The pleas by officials of U.S. Technology & Disposal Services of National City halted the men’s trial in U.S. District Court just as a co-defendant was to testify about the company’s alleged payment of bribes to Mexican customs officials to ease the shipment of hazardous wastes across the border.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Charles S. Crandall said he will seek prison terms for George Shearer of Bonita, president of the firm, and Darrel Duisen of Chula Vista, its chief executive officer. Both pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge J. Lawrence Irving to two felony counts of using false documents in shipping transactions and face maximum penalties of 10 years in prison and $500,000 in fines.

The third defendant, retired Army Maj. Glenn Faulks of Oceanside, pleaded guilty to one count of using a false document. Although he faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, Crandall said prosecutors will not seek a prison sentence for Faulks, a U.S. Technology employee, as long as nothing “startling” turns up in a presentence investigation.

The three men--along with a Tijuana businessman, Rogelio Marin Sagrista--were indicted by a federal grand jury in April on 41 counts involving the disposal of toxic wastes from Los Angeles and San Diego firms.

According to U.S. officials, the case is the first ever to focus on illegal dumping of U.S. companies’ wastes across an international border.

The indictment alleged that more than 100,000 gallons of liquid and solid wastes--including paint residue, oil-contaminated rainwater, asbestos and runoff from firefighting--were dumped illegally in a field southeast of Tecate between October, 1985, and January, when the dump was discovered.

On both sides of the border, the charges focused attention on the pressure that tighter U.S. regulations have created for U.S. companies to find new means to dispose of their wastes.

Crandall said Tuesday that the case figured strongly in the Environmental Protection Agency’s recent decision to issue stricter regulations on the exportation of hazardous waste.

The case was also cited last week when U.S. and Mexican environmental officials signed an agreement that requires the United States to obtain consent from Mexico before shipping hazardous wastes across the border.

In an interview after the three men entered their guilty pleas, Faulks’ attorney, Michael Murray, said prosecutors had sought to make an example of U.S. Technology.

“We’re beset with disposal problems here in the United States, and we’re also trying to soothe some relations with Mexico that have been exacerbated by drug problems,” Murray said. The case “was an excellent vehicle to, perhaps, give some notoriety to the disposal problem,” he said.

Crandall, however, said American companies’ difficulties in disposing of wastes did not justify the U.S. Technology scheme to dump hazardous materials over the border.

“There is a crisis in America in terms of properly disposing of wastes, but that in no way justifies phonying up documents, bribing anybody or acting in any way illegally,” he said. It “doesn’t give us a license to export our problems to anybody.”

According to the indictment, Duisen, 56, and Shearer, 53, formed U.S. Technology last year to solicit California firms for their chemical wastes, promising to dispose of them properly. At the same time, Duisen and Marin, 27, formed a Mexican company, Tratamientos Petroquimicos Mexicanos, which contracted with U.S. Technology to provide a dump in Mexico for the wastes.

They allegedly told potential customers that American engineers and the U.S. and Mexican governments had approved the disposal site near Tecate. Duisen and Shearer also allegedly told customers not to tell California health officials they intended to export the wastes, as state law requires.

Marin--who was scheduled to testify on Tuesday, the fourth day of the trial--was accused of bribing Mexican officials to permit the shipments and dumping. He pleaded guilty last month to a conspiracy charge and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

Duisen, Shearer and Faulks, who is 62, will be sentenced Feb. 2. All three pleaded guilty to charges of falsifying invoices to make it appear that U.S. Technology was shipping commercial solvents, rather than wastes, to Mexico.

Mexican environmental agencies have moved to clean up the disposal site. But Murray and Faulks on Tuesday both minimized the risks involved in the dumping. Murray said that the EPA does not consider the materials shipped hazardous, although he conceded that they are on California’s more stringent list of hazardous wastes.

“It’s stuff you walk across and step into every day,” Faulks said.

Crandall, however, said that the government was prepared to prove the dangers associated with the dumping, including the risk that nearby villages’ drinking water could have been contaminated.

“I don’t care whether you are dumping natural tar from the La Brea Tar Pits, which was dumped there, or water which is contaminated with solvents and paint residues, which was dumped there, or asbestos or any of the wastes which were dumped there,” Crandall said. “There is a potential threat to the ground water that can be caused by the dumping of these wastes through an aquifer.”