Pesticide Firm Owner Gets 90 Days in Toxic Case

The owner of a pesticide manufacturing company has been sentenced to 90 days in jail and fined $100,000 for his part in the illegal disposal of a banned toxic chemical in an El Monte neighborhood.

Victor Bernath was sentenced earlier this week in Pomona Superior Court after pleading guilty to illegal transportation and disposal of the chemical ethylene dibromide, which was banned by the federal Environmental Protection Agency in 1984.

Bernath was also ordered to pay $33,800 in investigative expenses and perform 200 hours of community service, said John Lynch, head deputy of the county district attorney’s environmental crimes division.

Lynch said Friday that Bernath was given a stiff sentence because of his negligence in disposing of a chemical that he knew to be extremely dangerous. He said the sentence was in the top 25% of terms handed out for environmental crimes.

Bernath, the owner of Termite Company Inc. of Los Angeles and its subsidiary, Pest Control Chemicals, had paid an employee, Louis H. Gutierrez, $1,500 to secretly dispose of 500 gallons of the pesticide, said Sgt. Paul Pesqueira of the Los Angeles Police Department’s hazardous materials unit.

Gutierrez had planned to dump the chemical in a field near Fillmore in Ventura County, but to save money moved the chemical to his home at 2731 Parkway Drive in El Monte, where it sat in drums for two months.

Pesqueira said Gutierrez contacted the El Monte Fire Department in April, 1986, mistakenly believing it would remove the chemical from his property at no cost.

Officials from the Fire Department, the Los Angeles Police Department and the county Health Department investigated and later ordered the evacuation of nearby homes after a leak was discovered in one of the drums.

Gutierrez was sentenced to 90 days in jail and a $5,000 fine in December for illegally transporting hazardous waste, Lynch said.

Ethylene dibromide, commonly known as EDB, is an ingredient in leaded gasoline and was used as an insecticide against fruit flies until it was banned in 1984, said Paul Papanek of the county Health Department.

The chemical is a known carcinogen and is extremely poisonous if inhaled, ingested or absorbed through the skin, he said.