ANAHEIM : Plant Again Probed on Toxic Wastes

A paint manufacturing plant suspected of dumping toxic wastes on its grounds is being investigated by county and city agencies that may excavate the site, officials confirmed Thursday.

The plant under investigation, W.C. Richards Co., 1116 N. Olive St., was raided two years ago by the Orange County district attorney’s office and accused of secretly dumping hazardous waste for 2 1/2 years into the Brea-Olinda landfill. The company and its top executive officer were charged with five felony counts of unlawful disposal of hazardous waste.

At the time, Deputy Dist. Atty. Gerald C. Johnston called the company’s alleged hazardous waste disposal one of the “most serious environmental crimes” in the history of Orange County.

The new allegations concern dangerous wastes that may have been dumped on the grounds of the plant itself.

Bret Colson, public information officer for the city, said Thursday that “several agencies will be making a site evaluation (at the plant) for possible excavation of contaminated soil.”

Officials of the W.C. Richards Co. could not be reached for comment Thursday, when Colson and the district attorney’s office confirmed that the company was again under scrutiny about its toxic disposal.

Colson said more details are to be released at 8 a.m. today at a press briefing at the plant site. But he confirmed that the city’s current concern centers on possible toxic contamination of soil on the plant grounds.

In April, 1990, city and county officials announced that an investigation of W.C. Richards Co. had found that it had been secretly dumping toxic sludge, including chemicals suspected of causing cancer, at the Brea-Olinda landfill. The material allegedly was disguised to look like regular garbage, according to the district attorney’s office.

Marion Bruce Hall, 45, of Brea, the company officer in charge of the plant, was charged with five counts of illegal disposal of hazardous waste. He resigned from the company more than a year ago, and his attorney, John Burns of Los Angeles, said Thursday that Hall’s case is to be tried March 16 in Orange County Superior Court.

Johnston, an environmental-protection prosecutor in the district attorney’s office, confirmed late Thursday afternoon that a new investigation is underway involving the company.

“I cannot say much except that there is an investigation ongoing at the site, and we (representatives of the district attorney’s office) will be there tomorrow (Friday),” Johnston said.

The W.C. Richards plant is in an industrial area of north Anaheim, near the Riverside Freeway and East Street. On Thursday, some of the grounds of the manufacturing plant were cordoned off.