Local Industry Pretty Clean, but Not Spotless : Background: Although a few haulers have paid the price for wrongdoing, the corruption, violence and ties to organized crime found elsewhere haven’t been a big problem here.

Rates, recycling and landfills are hot political topics from coast to coast, and waste haulers have long been generous contributors to the reelection campaigns of the officials who award trash hauling contracts.

But the industry has paid a price for its high political profile, as well as for its long list of environmental, antitrust and other violations. In New England and the mid-Atlantic states, trash hauling is closely tied to organized crime, and its history is laced with violence and corruption.

“In recent years, Grand Jury investigations and prosecutions in major metropolitan areas around the country have revealed that the waste disposal and carting industry is prone to anti-competitive and criminal activities,” a Seattle law firm concluded in 1989 after conducting a far-reaching, yearlong investigation into the trash hauling business ordered by the Seattle City Council.

Most of Orange County’s haulers have kept their noses clean over the years, but a few have run into trouble.

Take Waste Management Inc., which owns two of Orange County’s dozen or so firms, Dewey’s Rubbish Service and Great Western Reclamation. Executives at Waste Management hauling subsidiaries across the country have landed in court--and sometimes jail--after allegations of political corruption, price-fixing and racketeering, among other things.

In 1989, Dewey’s, which operates in Orange County, paid $1 million to settle a criminal case in which its officers were charged with price fixing and conspiring to avoid competition. The company, along with several others, was accused of fixing bids in its commercial hauling contracts, in effect agreeing not to bid against rivals in exchange for other companies staying on their own turf.

The landmark fine culminated what prosecutors called the largest criminal antitrust case in California history.

“There are instances where employees have dropped the ball,” said Robert J. Morris, a vice president for public policy development at Waste Management’s regional headquarters in Irvine. Morris also noted, however, that Waste Management employs 62,000 people and said some critics have offered a “distorted view of the company.”

That view is seconded by the Seattle investigation. “In evaluating the company,” the investigation concluded, “it is important to note the size of the company, the scope of its operations and that it operates in the highly regulated fields of collecting, transporting and disposing of solid and hazardous wastes.”

Meanwhile, several Waste Management competitors in and around Orange County have also run afoul of the law.

In 1989, Western Waste Industries--a Southern California hauler that has a tiny piece of Orange County’s market but has aggressively sought to break into new areas, including Mission Viejo, Lake Forest and Laguna Hills--pleaded no contest to criminal charges of illegally mixing hazardous waste with household garbage and sending it to Southern California landfills. A senior executive of that company was fined $125,000, which was the largest fine ever levied against an individual for an environmental crime in Los Angeles County.

The prosecutor in that case said the crime was especially serious because it was premeditated and involved “intentional dumping on a frequent basis.” The executive denied any wrongdoing.

In addition, Western Waste paid $1 million in 1989 for antitrust violations as well as for plotting to eliminate competition and inflate commercial trash hauling prices. The conviction came in the same set of cases for which Dewey’s was fined.

Some haulers have gotten in trouble here without ever lifting an Orange County trash can: An executive of Boston’s GSX Corp., a hauler that was trying to break into business in the county, was found guilty of laundering two 1985 campaign contributions to Orange County supervisors--Thomas F. Riley and Bruce Nestande. The company had tried to disguise its contributions by having an associate give the money in his name and then reimbursing him. Neither Riley nor Nestande were accused of any wrongdoing.

Even the case of W. Patrick Moriarty, a fireworks manufacturer whose contribution laundering up and down the state in the 1980s made him one of California’s most notorious influence buyers, had a connection to the Orange County waste business. Moriarty and an associate wanted to break into Orange County’s market at a time when the supervisors here were considering a plan to privatize county landfills.

While that idea was under consideration, Moriarty laundered $18,000 in campaign contributions to Supervisor Nestande. Nestande--who later stepped down from his supervisor’s post and denied that his departure was related to the contribution revelations--said he did not know the real source of the money. He returned it upon being told it came from Moriarty.

Still, despite the local industry’s embarrassments and its record of running into trouble, county officials say haulers here are better than most.

Frank R. Bowerman, the director and chief engineer of Orange County’s Integrated Waste Management Department that runs the four landfills, has examined the hauling industry in various parts of the United States. He has personally run into organized crime figures on the East Coast, and he’s had his scares out here too.

“When I set out to set up public landfills (in Los Angeles County to replace the private ones) years ago, my life was threatened, my wife’s and my family’s safety was threatened,” Bowerman said. “But Orange County, as near as I can tell, seemed to be relatively free of the organized crime ties. That doesn’t mean that everyone’s always been OK, but the business here has basically been well run.”