Chatsworth Firm Fined for Pollution Violations

A Chatsworth firm that City Atty. James K. Hahn accused of breaking nearly “every environmental law in the book” was ordered Monday to pay $61,308 in fines and restitution after pleading no contest to 10 misdemeanor violations of state and city pollution control laws.

As part of the plea bargain entered in Los Angeles Municipal Court, city prosecutors agreed to dismiss scores of other charges against Electroplating Technology, and all counts against its president if an Aug. 29 deadline for paying the fine is met.

Electroplating Technology, 9625 Cozycroft Ave., a small manufacturer of printed circuit boards, was charged in December with 203 counts of violating hazardous waste storage and disposal laws, and of illegally discharging toxic waste into city sewers. The charges, also filed against company President Dorence Anderson Freed, carried millions of dollars and more than 100 years in potential fines and prison time.

The outcome did not live up to those extremes or to Hahn’s angry words when the charges were filed. But the fine is significantly larger than most resulting from environmental crimes, said Deputy City Atty. Don Kass.

The complaint covered events from December, 1986, to February, 1987--when the city temporarily cut off the firm’s sewer service because of excessive discharges of acids, caustics and heavy metals, including copper, lead and nickel.

Eight of the 10 counts in the plea bargain concerned the sewer discharges. The two other counts involved the use of ordinary trash containers to dispose of wooden pallets contaminated by hazardous waste.

Illegally Stored Wastes

City and county inspectors also found large amounts of hazardous waste stored at the plant in unlabeled metal drums. The wastes were removed, Kass said, and prosecutors agreed to dismiss all 122 counts of illegal waste storage. The rest of the counts dismissed involved discharges into the sewer.

Under the agreement, fines on nine counts will be suspended, pending successful completion of three years of probation. A $40,000 fine will be paid on one of the state hazardous waste disposal counts.

Electroplating Technology also must reimburse the city and county agencies that brought the case a total of $21,308.

Environmental agencies are focusing increased attention on electroplating businesses out of concern over the toxic chemicals and metals that electroplaters use and because of the risks to sewer lines and sanitation workers from improper wastes.

Robert M. Talcott, attorney for the company and for Freed, called the plea bargain “fair . . . for the city and the individual.” In addition to the fines, Electroplating Technology has spent substantial sums to come into compliance with laws and ordinances, he said.

Talcott said “there is blame on both sides” because environmental agencies have failed “to properly educate and instruct those people who are in this business as to what the pitfalls are.”

Kass responded that any company using toxic substances “takes on a social responsibility. Ignorance of the law has never been a defense, particularly with regard to hazardous waste.”