COUNTYWIDE : Sanitation District, Company Settle Suit

An electrical manufacturer formerly located in Santa Ana has agreed to pay the Orange County Sanitation District $142,000 in penalties for discharging toxic concentrations of copper into the sewer system in 1989, district officials said Thursday.

Universal Circuits Inc., now headquartered near Milwaukee, Wis., reached the agreement with the sanitation district last month and has since left its facility at 1800 E. Newport Circle. The firm lost its discharge permit in 1990 after officials found that it dumped concentrations of copper up to 39 times the legal limit, according to Corrine Clawson, a spokeswoman for the sanitation district.

The company signed the out-of-court settlement to resolve a civil suit alleging that Universal Circuits violated the discharge limit for copper several times in 1989. The suit charged that the firm refused to provide the sanitation district with information regarding treatment facilities, said Tom Nixon, an attorney for the sanitation district.

Officials of Universal Circuits could not be reached for comment Thursday.

A new company operating under the Universal Circuits name at a different location in Santa Ana has been granted a permit to discharge waste and is not involved with the court settlement reached last month, Nixon said. That company, which is not controlled by the owners of the Milwaukee-based Universal Circuits, is in compliance with district regulations, officials said Thursday.

Clawson said district inspectors in 1988 noticed heavy concentrations of copper flowing into the collection system leading to the sanitation plant. They were able to locate the source of the discharge, which pointed to the facility on Newport Circle.

The amount of discharged copper originating from that plant never constituted an environmental threat, Clawson said. The district treats industrial waste and pumps it into the ocean, where it dissipates on the ocean floor, she said.

In March and April of 1989, district inspectors suspecting illegal activity took samples of the discharge flow from a manhole not far from the plant without the company’s knowledge. They found copper concentrations of up to 118 milligrams per liter, a “grossly excessive violation” of the dumping permit’s 3-milligram-per-liter limit.

Universal Circuits Inc., according to district records, had been found in violation of discharge regulations several times dating back to 1984. The district had rejected the company’s permit renewal in 1984. The company agreed to make corrective modifications to meet discharge regulations and won an appeal to the district’s board of directors.

In several instances thereafter, inspectors found violations that led them to seek revocation of the company’s permit in August, 1989, district officials said. An Orange County Superior Court judge granted the district’s petition to revoke the company’s permit in April, 1990.