Official Says He Violated Own Rule in Waste Burn

A Department of Water and Power official who helped edit the utility’s environmental safety manual has admitted that he fouled the air himself by instructing subordinates to burn toxic materials at the Scattergood Generating Station near El Segundo.

Charles Ivan Ashbaugh pleaded no contest Monday in Los Angeles Municipal Court to a misdemeanor charge of discharging air contaminants that endangered public health. He was fined $500, placed on probation for two years and ordered to hold an environmental safety seminar with DWP managers.

Ashbaugh, Scattergood’s environmental safety officer, admitted that he told employees last year to burn paint cans, solvents and cleaning materials in a furnace, said Deputy City Atty. Vince Sato. Ashbaugh said he did not know the burning violated the state Health and Safety Code.

A dense cloud of black smoke billowed from a smokestack at the seaside power plant for about 15 minutes after the material was burned on Sept. 2, Sato said.

“He broke the rules that he helped to write,” Sato said. “He admits that he messed up. He made a mistake.”

Ashbaugh, 53, is a member of a DWP committee that edited the utility’s “Hazardous Materials and Waste Procedures Manual.”

He was suspended without pay for three days after the illegal burn, but he remains assistant superintendent and environmental officer at the plant.

Scattergood burns natural gas and fuel oil to produce enough electricity to power 750,000 homes a year.

“It just seemed like the proper thing to do at the time. It seemed like a convenient way of getting rid of (the waste), but I realize now it was a misjudgment on my part,” Ashbaugh said in an interview Tuesday.

Ashbaugh said he thought there was so little paint left over from routine maintenance that the remainder could be burned without creating a hazard.

Tests showed that the burn left a residue of zinc and barium in the furnace, although the substances released into the air were not measured.

Ashbaugh, a 20-year DWP employee, said he was unaware that the state prohibited burning paint in a furnace.

“It was not an intent to harm the environment,” Ashbaugh said. “I did not realize there were regulations that prohibited it. . . . There are so many rules and regulations that I don’t have access to all of them.”

Since his error, Ashbaugh said, the utility has placed a regulation into its manual prohibiting the burning of waste in power plant furnaces.

Ashbaugh said he was chagrined by his mistake.

“People are looking up to me as being the expert and then I make the blunder,” he said. “It’s kind of like the (California) Highway Patrol getting arrested for speeding.”