GARDEN GROVE : Firm Fined $525,000 for Illegal Dumping
A federal judge on Wednesday fined a Garden Grove manufacturing company $525,000 for hiding chemical waste in sawdust and illegally dumping it in trash taken to a county landfill.
Laminating Co. of America, known as LCOA, pleaded guilty to 25 felony counts of hazardous-waste violations in November. The assistant U.S. attorney in charge of the case, Adam B. Schiff, was among those recommending the fine. U.S. District Judge John G. Davies in Los Angeles on Wednesday approved the plea agreement and ordered the company to pay the first installment of the fine immediately.
U.S. attorneys said it was one of the largest toxic-waste cases they have handled in the region.
The illegal dumping went on for perhaps several years until it was detected by federal investigators during an undercover surveillance in October, 1988, according to U.S. attorney’s office investigators.
Federal officials said the company’s employees cleaned the machines with an industrial solvent and then poured it into a small dumpster containing sawdust. The sawdust was then buried in a trash bin that was picked up in the regular garbage collection and dumped at the county’s Santiago Landfill in Orange.
The county’s landfills accept only non-toxic garbage and state law requires all hazardous waste to be hauled to special sites for disposal.
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