San Diego

A downtown metal plating firm was fined $25,000 Thursday and ordered to clean up the site where it illegally dumped hazardous wastes.

Two executives of Superplating Inc., which filed for bankruptcy last month, were placed on probation, fined and ordered to a work furlough center by San Diego Municipal Court Judge Robert Stahl Jr.

General Manager Sandra Lazovich was fined $10,000, sentenced to 60 days in a work furlough center, and ordered to pay $522.50 to the county for its costs in investigating the matter.

Chief financial officer Thomas Nerat was fined $5,000, sentenced to 45 days in a work furlough center, and ordered to pay $522.50 to the county.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Josephine Kiernan had asked for jail time for both defendants. Under terms of a plea agreement, they could have received a maximum of six months in jail.

The work furlough sentences, which allow the defendants to work by day but require them to spend their nights in the center, do not allow time credits for good behavior.

The defense attorneys complained that no similar punitive action has been taken against Teledyne Ryan for causing pollution in the bay. They also argued that Superplating was a typical industrial operation with no demonstrated hazardous effects.

“Plating operations by their very nature look dirty,” said Nerat’s attorney, John Reaves. “They use a lot of water. There have not been any employee illnesses reported.”

Felony charges filed against Lazovich and Nerat Aug. 21 alleged that they dumped acid, copper, cyanide, copper, lead, nickel and metal sludge into the ground, a public sewer and a dumpster from August, 1985 through April, 1986.

Lazovich pleaded guilty to a felony charge of disposal of hazardous waste and Nerat pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor offense of storing hazardous waste in an unlicensed facility.

Superplating, on Martin Luther King Way, filed for bankruptcy last month.

Kiernan estimated the clean-up would cost $150,000 to $436,000.