Statue Maker Cited in Acid Leak : Environment: Family owners of a Garden Grove landmark business are accused of letting cleaner used on stone figures flow onto public property.

A father and two sons who own and operate Statueland, a landmark in Garden Grove for 41 years, were each charged Monday with two misdemeanor counts of allowing a powerful acid to leak onto public land.

The Orange County district attorney filed the criminal complaint against Woodrow Butterfield, 71, who owns the statue-manufacturing company, and his sons, Kenneth Irwin Butterfield, 28, and Silas Gregory Butterfield, 32, who operate it.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Jerry Johnston said muriatic acid, used by the company to clean its stone statues, flowed off the property and pooled onto land owned by the Orange County Transit District.

Samples taken more than a week apart showed that the acid in the pond was potent enough to eat through leather and burn skin, health officials said. Johnston said washing the statues and letting the acid drain onto the property apparently was a practice at Statueland for at least several years.

“The standing pool of water, about 35 feet by 10 feet, became so acidic that it was hazardous waste,” said Johnston, one of the county’s environmental-crimes prosecutors.

Statueland, at 13960 Harbor Blvd., is well known in Garden Grove as an island of marble and cement fountains and garden ornaments, including Venus de Milos, mermaids and busts of presidents.

Owner Woodrow Butterfield was a Garden Grove city councilman from 1972 until 1974.

Butterfield said Monday that the spill was a one-time accident in March and that he already has spent more than $14,000 to clean it up.

“We don’t deny acid got down there, but it was so diluted it was harmless,” he said. “I got a sample and drank a cup of it. I had a good-sized swig of it. That’s how bad it really was. It wouldn’t have burned anybody.”

Butterfield called the criminal case “total overkill.”

“I’m surprised they didn’t charge my dog Fang. She had just as much to do with this as I did. Maybe more, because I was in Europe when it happened,” he said.

If convicted, the men would each face fines of at least $10,000 but no more than $200,000, and up to a year in jail, although jail sentences are rare in misdemeanor toxic-waste cases.