Citizens Report Hazardous Waste Offenses : Environment: More cases of illegal dumping are being prosecuted. Officials credit increased community awareness.

Paint sluiced into a gutter, used motor oil dumped in a vacant lot and dirty syringes thrown in the trash bring jail sentences and stiff fines in Ventura County.

And more of the cases are being successfully prosecuted, said district attorney’s officials, because area residents are turning in the offenders.

“There is an increased awareness in the community. They know where to complain to local law enforcement,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Linda S. Groberg said.

Citizens alerted county environmental officials or police to at least seven cases during the past 12 months, Groberg said. Reports have ranged from eyewitness accounts of illegal dumping to discovery of a box of asbestos-laden air-conditioning parts in the middle of a residential street in Somis, Groberg said.

Terry Gilday, manager of the county’s environmental health division, said emergency response to tips from the public about hazardous waste rose 16% in 1990--from 110 responses in 1989 to 128.

Charles Ruddy, 30, said it was his civic duty to call police about two men dumping cans of used motor oil in a vacant lot. He was walking his dog near his Moorpark home last month when he saw the men pouring the oil onto the dirt.

“I have been very environmentally conscious for years. It really upset me,” he said.

Ruddy followed the men, wrote down their license plate number and gave it to police.

Scott Ray Hooper and Christopher James Murawski later pleaded no contest to unlawful disposal of used motor oil. Each was fined $1,000 and placed on three years probation, Groberg said. They also had to work 10 days for the county in place of jail time and pay for the cleanup or do the work themselves, she said.

The six gallons of oil have not yet been removed.

Murawski, a Simi Valley resident, said he has learned his lesson.

“I knew it was wrong, and we shouldn’t have done it,” he said. Murawski, who drove the truck carrying the oil, said he was just trying to help his friend move, but ended up in court for three days.

“For what I had to go through, it wasn’t worth it,” he said.

But the public should be made more aware of how to dispose of hazardous waste legally and the penalties for violations, Murawski said. He said he and Hooper of Simi Valley picked the lot because it was cluttered with abandoned cars and oil left by others.

“It is a big problem,” he said. “People are doing it every day. . . .”

Not only have reports of illegal dumping gone up, but state laws have also broadened liability, officials said. New regulations hold employers liable for the actions of their employees, and owners of hazardous waste can be liable if they don’t use licensed waste haulers.

Some offenders said they have been victimized by the tougher laws. Joseph Roy Taylor, 72, of Ventura was convicted in February of illegally disposing of used brake fluid from his auto shop.

Groberg said Taylor paid $300 to a former employee, Michael Wayne Glaze of Ventura, to dispose of the waste. But Glaze left the 21 five-gallon buckets, which bore the name of Taylor’s shop, at the side of the Ventura Freeway in the Rincon area, where they were found by California Highway Patrol officers.

Glaze was ordered to serve 90 days in Ventura County Jail and given three years probation and a $5,000 fine, Groberg said.

But under state law, Taylor was also criminally responsible, although he apparently knew nothing about the dumping, she said.

Taylor was ordered to pay $9,000 in fines and put on probation for three years. He said he has had to sell his Avenue Wheel Shop to pay the fines and legal fees.

“I have been in business for 40 years,” Taylor said. “I was not going to jeopardize it.”

Prosecutors have been able to win more hazardous waste cases because of the new regulations, said Gregory W. Brose, supervising deputy district attorney. “It is easier to prove it a violation of the law if we can show they reasonably should have known. That is enough,” Brose said.

Most service stations in the county take waste oil. Automotive batteries and waste paint may be taken to Bailard Landfill in Oxnard, Toland Road Sanitary Landfill near Fillmore and Ojai Transfer Station in Ojai, Groberg said.