Guilty Pleas End Ship Asbestos Case

A San Diego-based ship repair company and its owner pleaded guilty Friday to criminal charges of improperly removing asbestos from the aircraft carrier Ranger, work that may have exposed thousands of sailors to the cancer-causing substance, federal prosecutors said.

California Marine Commercial Insulation and company president Frank Chavez entered the guilty pleas Friday, admitting that they failed to take proper precautions as they removed more than 260 feet of pipes covered with dry, crumbling asbestos, prosecutors said.

In a second environmentally related court case, an Anaheim firm pleaded guilty Friday to improperly applying epoxy while repairing San Diego’s Ocean Beach pier, allowing some of the gooey substance to spatter two surfers and to drop into the water. Both criminal cases were brought under federal clean air and water laws that prosecutors use far more frequently as the basis for civil lawsuits. The case against CMCI and Chavez was only the seventh successful federal prosecution stemming from violations of asbestos removal standards, Assistant U.S. Atty. Melanie K. Pierson said.

Chavez faces the possibility of jail time when he is sentenced Oct. 16, Pierson said. Criminal sanctions were warranted, U.S. Atty. William K. Braniff said, because this was “quite simply a case where unnecessary and dangerous shortcuts were taken to save money.”

Neither Chavez nor his lawyer, Kenneth Noel, could be reached Friday for comment. Chavez previously has denied any wrongdoing and said that all work aboard the ship followed regulations.

According to prosecutors, CMCI failed to properly wet, bag and label the asbestos as workers ripped it from various areas of the Ranger while the ship was docked from September, 1989, through March, 1990, at North Island Naval Air Station.

The work was performed intermittently during those six months, Braniff said.

CMCI and Chavez were hired by Pacific Ship Repair & Fabrication to remove and replace 1,100 feet of asbestos-covered pipes aboard the Ranger. About 260 of the 1,100 feet of piping was covered with dried asbestos that reduces to powder under simple hand pressure, prosecutors said.

Chavez is the father-in-law of Pacific Ship’s owner, David Bain. Pacific Ship and Bain, a former campaign treasurer to Mayor Maureen O’Connor, have been under investigation by the Naval Investigative Service, the FBI and the federal grand jury for allegedly submitting fraudulent billings to the Navy.

As The Times reported earlier this week when prosecutors filed charges against CMCI and Chavez, the company’s workers had complained to NIS agents that they had to rip asbestos and tote pipes without protective clothing or respirators. Some of the work was performed in the ship’s living quarters, workers said.

Workers also said they piled asbestos, which is an insulating material, on pallets in the ship’s hangar deck, leaving it loose until the pallet filled, then dumping it into a pier-side trash bin.

In addition, prosecutors said Friday, the ship’s ventilation system was not properly sealed while the work was performed. Because fibers could have been carried through the system, all 2,800 sailors who were aboard the Ranger last fall and winter may have been exposed to asbestos, Navy investigators said.

An undetermined number of sailors already have seen Navy medical staff to inquire about asbestos exposure, though there have been no immediate complaints of illness, Dennis Usrey, chief of the San Diego NIS office, said at a press conference with prosecutors.

Asbestos, when inhaled into the lungs, can cause lung cancer and asbestosis, a fatal lung ailment. However, the onset of disease may take anywhere from 10 to 40 years, experts say.

“You don’t have immediate feelings of illness,” said Teresa A. Morris, chief of the county Air Pollution Control District’s enforcement unit, which was called into the case last January.

Though CMCI’s contract covered a six-month period, the criminal charges stem from last Jan. 11, Pierson said.

CMCI pleaded guilty Friday before U.S. Magistrate Irma E. Gonzalez to a single count of violating the asbestos work practice standards, Pierson said. It faces a fine of up to $25,000, she said.

Chavez pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of being an accessory after the fact to the violation of the standards, Pierson said. He could draw up to six months in jail and be fined as much as $12,500, she said.

In the Ocean Beach case, Associated Industries of Anaheim pleaded guilty to a single charge of unlawfully discharging pollutants, Pierson said. It could draw up to a $25,000 fine.

The firm admitted that, on June 4, workers applied wet epoxy to the Ocean Beach pier, and some of it accidentally dripped into the water, Pierson said. In addition, workers scraped dried epoxy from the pier but did not catch it before it fell into the ocean, she said.

As it fell, the epoxy--called Sikagard and used to protect against salt water corrosion--spattered onto two surfers, who complained of nausea and eye irritation. Both were treated and released at a local hospital, Pierson said.

Douglas C. Brown, the firm’s San Diego lawyer, said company officials “recognized some of the workers have made a mistake, and they’ve taken steps to remedy it.”