ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Polluters Must Get the Message

In a toxic waste dumping case, Orange County Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan has sent the right message to companies that are willing to play Russian roulette with the environment in reckless pursuit of the bottom line.

According to prosecutors, the owner and the manager of two Santa Ana circuit board manufacturing firms, Cedko Electronics Inc. and Griffin Electronics Inc., for years had failed to comply with warnings to clean up and properly dispose of hazardous waste that threatened the ground water.

So serious was the soil contamination that local environmental agencies professed shock at what they saw. County health officials reported finding that waste had been poured into sewers and dumped into holes in the ground that were then plugged with concrete in an effort to avoid detection. Metallic and acidic chemicals were present in such large amounts that the concrete and areas of soil were stained a bright blue-green, according to county health records.

In a fitting response to such disrespect for the environment, Ryan handed down the county’s first sentences in which polluters will be required to spend more than a day or two in jail. After the businessmen each pleaded guilty to six felony counts of illegally dumping large quantities of hazardous waste, the judge imposed jail terms and fines. The owner and president of both firms, Mateo Ster, was sentenced to 180 days and ordered to pay $200,000. James Figlo, the companies’ business manager, was sentenced to 60 days and ordered to pay $20,000. Ster was told that $160,000 of his fine would be waived if the waste was cleaned up to the county’s satisfaction.

The stiff sentences make the gamble of trying to avoid the expense of proper waste disposal a much bigger one for other environmental risk-takers in Orange County. The district attorney’s office has also properly signaled its willingness to prosecute other cases of corporate negligence.

The integrity of the environment, and specifically the integrity of ground water, is too delicate to tolerate institutional carelessness.