Felony Charges Filed in Toxic Dumping Case : Environment: Prosecutors say businessman in El Cajon repeatedly and blatantly poured hazardous waste into the sewer.

An El Cajon businessman faces felony charges of dumping hundreds of gallons of hazardous waste into a sewer pipe and defying authorities who ordered him to stop.

The dumping case, which district attorney’s investigators called the most blatant they had ever seen, is only the third in San Diego County history in which criminal charges have been filed.

Donald Parham, 44, pleaded not guilty Thursday to illegally disposing of tanks of the metallic solution hexavalent chromium at his metal finishing shop in El Cajon. He is being held at County Jail on $10,000 bail.

However, according to an arrest affidavit filed nine days ago, Parham admitted to the dumping. He was arrested at his Poway home Wednesday, after laboratory tests showed the waste was at hazardous levels.

Parham, owner of B-Precise Metals at 559 Floyd Smith Drive, had received several warning notices of violation before officials forced him to close off the sewer pipe with concrete, said Bill Kreder, the investigator with the district attorney’s office who arrested Parham.

According to Kreder, Parham filled the opening of the pipe in December, 1990, to the satisfaction of inspectors from the city’s Water Utilities Department Industrial Waste Program.

But on March 29, the county Hazardous Materials Management division received a call from someone who said they saw a garden hose leading from tanks of hexavalent chromium to the sewer pipe, Kreder said.

Inspectors found that the concrete sealing off the sewer had been broken out and removed, Kreder said.

This is the most “blatant and willful” case of illegal dumping the county has ever seen, he said.

“In the past, the general feeling has been that, as long as we can get (environmental offenders) to comply, we merely issue a fine and probation, and probation, and probation,” Kreder said. However, authorities are seeking felony charges in this case “particularly because of the blatancy of the thing,” he said.

Hexavalent chromium is toxic, corrosive and a human carcinogen, said Chuck Pryatel, assistant chief of Hazardous Materials Management. Inhaling it would also irritate skin and respiratory tracts, he said.

Pryatel could not estimate how much damage may have been done to the environment. “I don’t have the data in front of me to say if it kills fish or what, but it’s toxic,” he said.

Kreder estimated that at least several hundred gallons were spilled into the sewer. Seven tanks--each with a capacity of 1,000 gallons--were at the site, but only about two or three contained the hazardous wastes, he said.

The sewage treatment plant at Point Loma, which receives sewage from El Cajon, was not affected by hexavalent chromium during the time Parham dumped it, according to a city official who asked not to be identified. “The amount of sewage coming into the treatment plant is 200 million gallons a day,” he said.

Nor were the pipes in Parham’s area affected in any way, the official said.

The city had granted Parham a permit to dump hazardous wastes into the sewer, Kreder said, but decided to revoke it after Parham repeatedly violated the conditions of his permit.

“Companies can and do dispose of hazardous waste to the sewer that has been properly treated,” Kreder explained. “The substance must be treated and neutralized to an acceptable level.”

Parham shut down his business about six months ago, Kreder said.

Inspectors who responded in late March to a report of illegal dumping at the site took photographs and five samples of the waste in the tanks. In early April, the Quality Assurance Laboratory reported that all the samples contained hazardous amounts of hexavalent chromium, Kreder said.

“Parham was subsequently interviewed and admitted that the contents of the tanks had been disposed of to the sewer,” the arrest affidavit reads.

A bail review hearing for Parham has been set for Aug. 13, and his preliminary hearing will be held Aug. 21.

In the other criminal dumping cases, a “habitual dumper” will appear for a probation revocation hearing Aug. 21. He has been convicted of dumping hazardous waste on a sidewalk, Kreder said.

In the other case, a man who is accused of abandoning several drums of hazardous waste at his machine shop, will go on trial Aug. 20, Kreder said.

“No one wants their families, friends or their business partners to think that they’re associated with messing up the environment,” Kreder said. “It’s kind of like what has happened to drunk driving. . . . As the public becomes more aware of the seriousness, the attitude is changing. There is increasing pressure to enforce the environmental laws.”