Navy Worker Faces Toxic-Waste Trial

A federal grand jury has returned a four-count felony indictment against a civilian employee of the U.S. Navy who allegedly dumped three highly toxic chemicals into a trash can and intentionally mislabeled a chemical container, officials and sources said.

James Allen Ferrin, 29, a former supervisor at the hazardous waste storage yard at the 32nd Street Naval Station, was arraigned Tuesday and released on $10,000 bond. Assistant U.S. Atty. Melanie K. Pierson said a trial date will be set next week.

Ferrin is charged with illegally disposing of three hazardous wastes: lead dioxide, trichloro-ethylene and a less toxic form of methyl isocyanate--a chemical which, in gas form, killed more than 3,400 people in a 1984 spill in Bhopal, India. A source close to the investigation who asked not to be identified said that Ferrin dumped these chemicals into a trash bin.

Ferrin also is charged with ordering a co-worker to falsify the date on a silver cyanide container to indicate it had been stored less than a year. The storage yard he supervised, the Transfer, Storage and Disposal facility run by the Navy Public Works Center at the 32nd Street Naval Station, is authorized to store hazardous waste for up to one year.

If convicted of all charges, Ferrin could face a maximum penalty of 20 years in jail and more than $400,000 in fines.

Lt. Cmdr. Mark Claussen, the head of the Public Works Center’s environmental department, said that in February an internal Navy investigation revealed wrongdoing and Ferrin was demoted.

“We discovered the problem ourselves. There was an employee who noticed another employee was not following procedures,” said Claussen, who said his command cooperated with the Naval Investigative Service during a several-month investigation.

Since February, Claussen said, Ferrin had been working under close supervision as a waste handler. Now that indictments have been issued, he said, Navy officials will decide whether to fire Ferrin, who has worked there since August, 1988.

The indictment marks the second time in as many months that Navy employees have been accused of violating hazardous waste laws.

Last month, the California Environmental Protection Agency issued a complaint alleging that the North Island Naval Air Station’s Public Works Center and Naval Aviation Depot had stored several types of deadly chemicals that they had no permit to accept. The complaint also alleged that the two commands failed to store the waste safely, to label it properly and, in some cases, to determine whether it was hazardous.