Local News in Brief : Fine Under Toxics Law
The first person convicted under Los Angeles’ hazardous materials “right-to-know” ordinance was fined $1,000 Thursday and ordered to spend two days cleaning freeways for failing to register materials that burned during a toxic fire.
David Cooper, 44, the owner of Cooper-La Clear Inc., a steel drum recycling firm that does business as David Cooper Drum Co., was also placed on one year’s informal probation by Municipal Court Commissioner Joseph Spada.
Cooper was ordered to work for the California Department of Transportation for two days after pleading no contest to violating the city ordinance requiring many companies to submit inventories of hazardous materials to the Fire Department.
City Atty. James K. Hahn said Cooper had failed to register hazardous materials discovered by firefighters during a major blaze at his company’s facility in South-Central Los Angeles last summer.
One firefighter, Robert J. Munda, was injured by toxic fumes from the burning hazardous materials that he did not know were in the building. “That’s precisely the kind of hazard the ordinance was enacted to prevent,” Hahn said.
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