Firm Pleads No Contest in Toxic Waste Dumping

A Los Angeles firm on Wednesday pleaded no contest to felony charges stemming from illegally dumped toxic wastes and was fined $350,000, believed to be the second highest such penalty in the county’s history.

Virco Manufacturing Co. was accused of dumping hazardous acidic and heavy metal wastes into the city’s sewer systems, said David Guthman, who heads the environmental crimes division in the district attorney’s office.

The Vermont Avenue firm manufactured desks and chairs using chromium and nickel--combined with acid--to electroplate metal parts, and then discharged the waste into the sewer system, prosectors said.

Investigators, acting on a tip, monitored the industrial waste water discharged by Virco between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31, 1987, and determined that hazardous levels of the metals and acidic wastes were being dumped into the sewers.

A search warrant served on the firm also uncovered information that hazardous chromium and nickel wastes were poured into the soil around the company.

An attorney for the company noted that the electroplating department has since been taken out of operation.

“There has been no concern to the public for well over a year because that system was dismantled,” said John Burns, the attorney.

The company pleaded no contest to three counts of illegally dumping toxic waste. Superior Court Judge Reginald Dunn placed the company on three years’ probation and imposed the fine.