State Points to History of Violations in Seeking Fine : Hazardous waste: The $454,000 penalty, for alleged improper storage and handling, would be one of largest imposed in Southland.

For years now, state inspectors say, they have found repeated environmental violations at a waste firm on the city’s industrial west side.

Fined in 1989, the company, Crosby & Overton Inc., was also cited last year and again this summer for improper storage and handling of hazardous wastes at its facilities at 1610 W. 17th St.

Pointing to those citations, the California Environment Protection Agency announced last week that it wants to fine Crosby nearly $454,000, one of the largest penalties ever proposed by the agency in Southern California.

The company is accused of 27 hazardous waste violations during the past two years, ranging from storing more than three times the number of hazardous waste drums allowed under the company’s state permit to a lack of leak-detection devices and the existence of open containers of waste.

“To my knowledge we have not documented any actual contamination at the site,” said Allan Hirsch, spokesman for the state EPA’s Department of Toxic Substances Control. “That’s not what we’re after. We’re concerned that they aren’t storing the waste in a safe and prudent manner.”

Crosby officials were not available for comment.

The company, which has corporate offices as well as storage and treatment facilities at the Long Beach location, primarily handles waste from the oil industry. Oily waste water is treated at the site, but Hirsch said most of the other hazardous materials the company collects--such as solvents, acids and paint wastes--are simply stored in Long Beach before being transported elsewhere.

Among the violations noted by inspectors in Long Beach was the absence of such basic safeguards as a berm to contain spills.

“The thing that most concerns us is the potential for waste getting off site because of a leak in a drum,” Hirsch explained. “We are also concerned about possibly some sort of reaction between incompatible wastes.”

Inspectors said they also found wastes stored together that should be separated, a situation that could cause a fire or the release of fumes.

Since the state’s last inspection in April, the company had told the environmental agency that it was installing a spill containment system and had reduced the number of stored drums to the permitted amount. However, Hirsch said inspectors had not returned to the firm to confirm that those steps had been taken.

Crosby can respond to the proposed fine in several ways, although there is no specified deadline for doing so. The company can pay the full amount, can negotiate with the state and attempt to have the penalty reduced, or can appeal the matter to an administrative law judge.

In 1989, the company paid a $79,000 fine to the state for similar storage violations, according to Hirsch.