EPA Seeking to Fine Coastcast Corp.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is seeking to impose a $391,000 fine on a metal products manufacturer for failing to report toxic releases from its plants in Gardena and two other Los Angeles area communities.

Coastcast Corp., a manufacturer of golf clubs and medical devices, did not file toxic release reports over a four-year period for its Gardena, Compton and Van Nuys plants, according to an administrative complaint issued Wednesday by the EPA.

The complaint does not accuse the firm of causing environmental harm--merely of failing to comply with federal law that requires manufacturers to report how much toxic material they send into the air, sewers or waste disposal sites.

“They did not tell us where their stuff is going, and that’s the whole problem,” said EPA spokesman Bill Glenn. A Coastcast official said that, at worst, his company might have made an “administrative error.”

Said Roberto Roman, director of personnel for Coastcast: “It’s not something that we willfully tried to hide. . . . Maybe the right form didn’t get to the right place.