EPA Cites 2 Companies in Toxics Crackdown : Environment: The plants, in Orange and Irvine, were fined for alleged violations of a federal act designed to guard against water and land contamination.

Two Orange County industrial plants were named Friday in a national crackdown targeting 28 companies for allegedly violating federal laws which regulate toxic waste disposal to protect the nation’s water and land from contamination.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued an order that charges Science Applications International Corp., a major telecommunications company, with three counts of mishandling waste produced by its Irvine plant. The company has been ordered to pay a fine of $119,500.

Also, Paul-Munroe Hydraulics Inc., a manufacturing company based in Orange, has agreed to pay $60,000 to settle similar allegations of illegal hazardous waste disposal, EPA officials said Friday.

Known as the nation’s “land ban,” the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act regulates where toxic waste can be disposed of and requires companies that generate it to keep close track of its disposal. The law restricts the disposal of untreated chemical waste on the ground to protect soil and ground water and instead requires most to be neutralized by licensed treatment plants, recycled or destroyed through incineration.

The separate actions against the 28 companies, announced in Washington by EPA Administrator William K. Reilly, involve about $5.5 million in fines.

The announcement includes one of the largest hazardous waste penalties ever obtained by the federal government.

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., more commonly known as Du Pont, has agreed to pay $1.85 million, the third largest settlement since the law was enacted four years ago. The giant chemical company had been charged with inadequate testing and handling of waste at its New Jersey plant.

“These enforcement actions are part of a continuing, nationwide campaign by EPA and the Justice Department to stop people from illegally putting hazardous wastes in the ground,” Reilly said in a statement.

U.S. Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh on Friday warned that “fouling of the nation’s land and waters will not be tolerated,” saying the latest campaign proves that the law will be “rigorously enforced throughout the nation.”

Du Pont officials in New Jersey said the company is striving to comply with the new federal laws, but they are extremely complex and change frequently. Richard Stewart, the plant’s manager, called the fine large, given that there is no apparent harm to the environment or public health, but he said “nevertheless they are violations and we have to stand up to that responsibility.”

Nineteen of the 28 targeted companies face EPA enforcement orders, which seek fines as high as $620,000 apiece, while seven were sued by the Justice Department in federal court and two agreed to settlements.

Twenty-five of the companies, including Du Pont and the two Orange County plants, were not accused of dumping waste, but of allegedly violating the federal rules that govern how they must handle, analyze and record the hauling and disposal of wastes they produce.

EPA officials said Paul-Munroe Hydraulics Inc. illegally sent toxic waste to two plants in Wyoming and Utah that cannot safely or legally accept it. The company settled the case, which involved three counts.

Representatives of the plant in Orange did not return phone calls Friday.

Also named among the 28 is Western Lighting Standards Inc., a lighting-component manufacturer at Perris in Riverside County. The EPA is seeking a $150,000 fine from Western Lighting, which allegedly sent waste shipments to the same two plants.

Last year, Disneyland paid a $550,000 fine for similar violations of sending toxic paint thinners and other waste to the Wyoming and Utah plants. It was the largest payment in an EPA toxic-waste case in the West.

Science Applications International, the telecommunications company, is based in San Diego but the allegations involve its plant in Irvine. Officials at the company’s headquarters did not return phone calls Friday.

The EPA says the plant mishandled at least two shipments of waste sent to Casmalia Resources, a landfill in Central California, one in December, 1988, and one in January, 1989, according to Al Zemsky, a spokesman for the EPA’s western regional office in San Francisco. In one case, methylene chloride, a toxic solvent, was wrongly identified.

The EPA order charges SAIC with improper manifests that track wastes, failing to test wastes to assure that they are safe for land disposal and failing to prepare proper shipment documents.

Zemsky said such violations are serious because they are crucial to the EPA’s efforts to “reduce land disposal of materials that could result in environmental degradation.”

In addition to the $119,500 penalty, SAIC is being ordered to perform an internal audit of all its facilities in the West and establish a training program for all employees responsible for handling wastes. The company has until March 25 to respond to the EPA’s order.

Although the 28 cases are unconnected, Mimi Newton, an EPA attorney, said the enforcement actions and settlements were announced together for their possible deterrent effect, “so the regulated community gets the message.” The federal government has issued more than 200 EPA orders involving the land ban since 1987.