EPA Penalizes GE for Toxic Waste Violations : Worker safety: The Anaheim plant has seriously mishandled its processing of PCBs, the agency says.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has determined that General Electric has seriously mishandled toxic waste that endangers workers at its plant here and ordered the company to suspend part of its operations, officials said Thursday.

The EPA took the unusually strong action this week after discovering that the plant’s grounds and equipment are contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs.

General Electric is one of the nation’s largest handlers of PCBs, which were banned from production in the United States in 1979 because of their toxicity. The chemicals were widely used in electrical equipment, and workers at the Anaheim plant drain the PCBs from old transformers.

“There are several major concerns we have,” said Greg Czajkowski, chief of the toxics department at EPA’s western regional office in San Francisco.

“We found contamination in soils and asphalt, but also on their mobile equipment that they use, such as forklifts for moving drums around,” he said. “The second concern is that they are storing well in excess of their permits, and that opens up the possibility for more spills or leaks. They are not designed to handle that much material.”

GE Anaheim plant manager Mel Dinkel said Thursday in a written statement that the company believes that it has not violated the law.

“While we believe we are in compliance with EPA’s PCB storage rules and regulations, the agency has advised us of contrary findings resulting from its recent inspections of the facility,” Dinkel’s statement says. “We are in contact with the EPA to better understand its findings. It is GE’s intention to both cooperate completely with the EPA and its investigation and to continue to operate our facility in a safe manner.”

The suspension means GE Apparatus Service Center on La Palma Avenue in Anaheim can accept no more shipments of PCB waste until it corrects the violations. In a letter mailed Monday, the EPA notified the company that it has 15 days to show that it has complied with all laws and has begun crafting a cleanup plan.

“Further receipt of PCB waste by GE poses an unreasonable risk to human health and the environment,” according to the letter signed by David Howekamp, EPA’s regional director of air and toxics.

The federal agency mounted its investigation last fall after GE employees complained that the company has unsafe practices.

Four GE workers told The Times that they often wore shorts, T-shirts and regular shoes instead of protective suits and boots while handling the waste. They said their supervisors advised them to follow health and safety laws only when a corporate or government inspector was present.

The Anaheim plant is the only facility in Southern California--and one of the largest in the West--that removes PCBs from electrical equipment. It handles about 2 million pounds of the waste per year, and its customers, including many military bases, are spread throughout the West.

The EPA invoked a newly strengthened federal law in suspending the company’s PCB storage permit. It is the first such permit to be suspended within the EPA’s western region, which includes California and three other states, and perhaps nationwide, Czajkowski said.

“I feel it (the EPA action) is justified,” said Steve Sandberg, 36, a GE employee who handled PCBs at the plant for 2 1/2 years. “This whole damn shop’s contaminated. Too many people are getting sick.”

Sandberg’s complaint to the EPA prompted the investigation. He was transferred out of the PCB department under doctor’s orders in October after he suffered unexplained boil-like skin lesions on his legs and face.

Cal/OSHA--the state’s worker-safety agency, the Orange County district attorney’s office and the state water quality board also are investigating the GE plant. Results are not yet available, although a Cal/OSHA official said the agency has detected safety violations and expects fines to be levied.

EPA officials also said GE might face civil or criminal fines.

The contamination probably does not threaten ground water in the Anaheim area, since PCBs cling to soil and asphalt, EPA officials said. But it can soak into the skin of workers and also can be transported easily into area rivers and channels.

PCBs have been designated a probable human carcinogen.

Some studies have shown an increase in malignant melanoma and liver cancer among PCB workers, while other studies have found no serious health problems. The most widely reported health effects are liver damage and chloracne, a painful but curable skin disorder.

“The primary concern is for the people on-site, in terms of worker exposure,” Czajkowski said. “Also, if this were allowed to continue, the workers could spread the contamination by just walking through it.”

GE’s Anaheim plant, which has annual sales of $18 million, can continue business as usual in all its other departments that do not store or dispose of PCB waste. PCB disposal is about 20% of the plant’s business.

“We certainly aren’t looking to shut them down or have anyone lose their job. Our main concern is that they conduct their business in compliance with the regulations,” Czajkowski said. “We have the authority to revoke the permit, but that’s more final. We chose to suspend it and give them the opportunity to address the problems.”

The plant has 94 employees. Only three are permanently assigned to the PCB disposal staff, but several others handle the waste part time, and many of the others previously worked there.

Jerry Maxwell, a GE employee since 1989 who handled large quantities of PCBs and suffered skin sores similar to Sandberg’s, said supervisors are still dismissing his and other workers’ worries about their health.

“We just wanted to do a job properly and be the professionals we’re supposed to be,” he said. “I’m concerned about people’s jobs, but they have a right to be safe. Income is necessary, but life is more necessary.”

Czajkowski said the violations are alarming because GE is a major, nationwide handler of PCBs and should have been more alert to the dangers and laws.

“I think their business proliferated beyond the point where they really had control over things,” he said. “I’m disappointed that they weren’t more attentive to their site.