Trash Firm Accused of Toxic Waste Infractions

Western Waste Industries, one of Los Angeles County’s largest waste haulers, its vice president and two employees were charged Tuesday with hiding hazardous waste in household trash and dumping it illegally in three landfills.

Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner said the criminal complaint alleges that in 1985 and 1986, the Carson firm “routinely” hid hazardous waste inside truckloads of trash headed for three county landfill dump sites.

Reiner said that as much as two tons of hazardous waste would be concealed in a large truckload of ordinary trash and taken to a dump. The hazardous substances were chromium, nickel and perchloroethylene, a substance used in dry cleaning, the district attorney said.

“These are extremely hazardous materials” that could endanger public health if they find their way into groundwater, Reiner said. “There is no indication this has gotten into the groundwater,” but such effects are often not discovered until years later, he added.

Reiner said it could not be determined how much of the material was taken to the dumps, which are the BKK landfill in West Covina, the Puente Hills landfill near Whittier and the Scholl Canyon landfill near Glendale. He said the dumping currently poses no health hazard to area residents.

Western and its vice president, Hacob (Jake) Shirvanian, who helped found the company 30 years ago and is a former member of the state Waste Management Board, were charged with felony counts of illegal transportation and disposal of hazardous waste and a misdemeanor count of illegal disposal of waste oil.

Hovsep Shadarevian and Dennis Kautz, employed by Western as dispatchers, were charged with illegal transportation and disposal of hazardous waste.

The felony charges carry maximum penalties of a $50,000 fine and three years in prison.

Western’s attorney, Richard Haft, said the firm is looking into the charges but is unaware of any wrongdoing.

“We’re simply a hauler” he said.

If a customer indicates the trash is hazardous, Western takes it to a hazardous waste facility, the lawyer said. But if the customer says the material is non-hazardous, it is disposed of at an ordinary dump, he said.

Western collects household trash from several cities in the South Bay area and from commercial and industrial accounts throughout the county. Its waste transfer station in Carson handles up to 2,000 tons of trash a day.

Reiner said the case began more than a year ago with a report by a former Western employee and has been substantiated through interviews with other former and current employees.

“The motive was financial,” Reiner said, explaining that it is much cheaper to dispose of waste at nearby landfills than to truck it to licensed hazardous waste facilities in Santa Barbara and Kings counties.

The complaint also accuses Roehl Corp. of Wilmington and its general manager, Paul DeVries, of the illegal disposal and transportation of hazardous waste.

Until recently, the company ran a plant in Wilmington that picked up perchloroethylene from dry-cleaning plants for recycling.

Investigators from the county toxic waste strike force said they found that Roehl threw perchloroethylene waste into trash that was picked up by Western and also dumped thousands of gallons of contaminated waste water into the soil.

DeVries and other Roehl officials were unavailable for comment.

Both Western and Roehl could be fined up to $50,000 for each day of alleged illegal dumping.

Arraignment was scheduled for March 31 in Los Angeles Municipal Court.