Businessman Accused of Dumping Hazardous Wastes

The 71-year-old operator of a small North Hollywood metal polishing business was charged Friday with dumping thousands of gallons of solid hazardous waste alongside dirt roads in a remote area near Palmdale.

Authorities said the dumping of more than 100 drums of lead, copper and zinc dust along with other heavy-metal wastes from Washington Metal Polishing took place over several years and was discovered by chance.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office alleged in a felony complaint that the business’s owner, Naaman Washington, disposed of the hazardous material by dropping the 55-gallon drums along the side of dirt roads while driving to a ranch he owned in the desert area east of Palmdale.

Deputy Dist. Atty. William W. Carter said that while the business is small, it produces enough metal dust and other wastes to fill a cardboard drum about every two weeks.

Authorities began an investigation in September when a man driving on a dirt road near Avenue T and 126th Street East saw seven drums and called the county health department. Over the next two months health investigators found 100 more drums in the area. In some instances the cardboard of the drums had deteriorated and the greenish-gray waste had spilled onto the ground, Carter said.

“A mile stretch of desert is littered with these drums,” Carter said. “We believe everything generated in that shop was dumped there. With a lot of them, the cardboard has deteriorated and the material is sitting in the soil.”

However, it is unlikely that the dumping has contaminated any ground water or created an immediate health threat, Carter said. The dumped materials are cancer-causing wastes that would be dangerous if ingested over a long period, he said.

California law requires companies that produce metal wastes to dispose of them through licensed hazardous waste handlers, Carter said.

After the drums were traced last year to Washington’s shop in the 5400 block of Cleon Avenue, he was ordered by the county to clean up the site, Carter said. However, Washington denied responsibility for the dumping and the drums remain where they were dropped, some as long as five years ago. The county has held off cleaning up the drums while it attempts to force Washington to pay for their removal.

Washington was charged Friday with unlawful transportation and disposal of hazardous waste between January, 1985, and September, 1989, Carter said. If convicted, Washington could be fined in excess of $100,000 or sentenced to three years in prison as well as ordered to pay for the cleanup of the drums and spilled material.

Washington denied that he or his business dumped the drums but declined further comment Friday. He is scheduled to surrender March 5 for arraignment on the two charges, Carter said.

The dumped metal waste was traced to Washington’s business through documents found in one of the drums, Carter said. County investigators also learned that Washington owns a ranch within a mile of the dump area and had previously lived there. He now lives in North Hollywood, Carter said.

Washington’s business has three to four employees and does contract work polishing and buffing mostly ornamental metals such as brass and copper, Carter said. The hazardous waste largely consists of dust that is left over from the polishing process.

Carter said Washington told investigators that he once took a few barrels of the metal waste to his ranch near Palmdale to use as a fertilizer but it didn’t work. He denied dumping any of it on property he didn’t own.