Ex-Plant Chief Gets 3 Years for Toxic Dumping

A former Anaheim paint plant executive was sentenced to three years in state prison Friday for ordering his employees to secretly mix hundreds of thousands of gallons of toxic chemicals with ordinary trash that ended up in a county landfill.

Prosecutors said it was the longest sentence ever given to a toxic polluter in California and the first prison term for illegal dumping ever handed out by a judge in Orange County. Even before the sentencing, the case had been widely watched because it has created lingering fear about the effect of the toxic chemicals on the county’s ground water supply.

Marion Bruce Hale, 45, of Brea, former manager and vice president of the Anaheim plant of Chicago-based W. C. Richards Co., sat motionless as Superior Court Judge William W. Bedsworth announced the three-year prison sentence and a fine of $26,000.

The judge said probation was inappropriate because Hale’s actions could cause “great bodily harm to a multitude of people.” He said he did not intend the stiff sentence as a message to other would-be toxic polluters.

“I don’t use people to send messages,” the judge said. “What you did was a terrible thing and you must pay for it.”

The charges carried a maximum penalty of six years in prison, but Bedsworth imposed a lighter term because many letters of support for Hale--which he said he found “moving and impressive”--convinced him that the “terrible things” that Hale did were out of character.

Hale was handcuffed and taken from the courtroom and will remain in jail until a bail hearing Tuesday. He plans to appeal his conviction and sentence.

Hale’s attorney, John E. Burns of Los Angeles, argued that Hale, a devoted family man and ex-Marine, was a “scapegoat” because he ended up with a prison term, while the W. C. Richards Co. “cut a deal” with the district attorney to pay only a $250,000 fine. The company is in the process of closing its operation in Anaheim. It operates two others outside California.

Burns argued Friday that Hale deserves a new trial, contending that the samples of hazardous waste were obtained and handled improperly by investigators. Burns also argued for a light punishment, noting that Hale did not run the company. The firm’s owners are in Chicago.

“I was shocked by the sentence,” said Burns, adding that he had hoped that his client would get probation or possibly a work furlough program.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Gerald G. Johnston said it was important for government to ferret out toxic dumpers, convict them and make sure they receive stiff sentences. He has said that if the company legally disposed of the chemicals in special waste dumps, it would have cost the firm several thousand dollars per week.

“This case is a victory for the environment,” he said after the hearing. “I think we have to champion the environment, because the environment can’t speak for itself. Once the damage is done, you cannot correct it.”

County health officials have long called the case one of the most serious of its kind in Orange County because of the large amounts of toxics involved and the threat they pose to the county’s ground-water supply.

Felony toxic waste cases have been settled out of court in Orange County, but the Hale case was the first to go to trial.

“We’re happy the judge felt the same way we did,” Anaheim Deputy Fire Marshal Jamie Hirsch said. “The damage from the waste he put into the landfill won’t be known for years to come. We can’t even estimate what the impact will be.”

Since 70% of all drinking water in Anaheim comes from ground wells, many fear that the toxics dumped in the landfill could leach into the ground water, said Hirsch, who is in charge of the Fire Department’s hazardous materials unit.

“There is no way to tell how bad this could be,” Hirsch said. “You can’t abuse the environment that way. Mr. Hale tried, and he didn’t get away with it.”

The criminal charges were triggered more than two years ago by an unidentified tipster who called Anaheim fire officials. In an undercover investigation, an environmental strike team concluded that the W. C. Richards Co. had thrown away several hundred thousand gallons of chemical waste by soaking them up with sawdust and then putting them into the company’s dumpsters. The waste was then hauled off to the county dump.

As part of the investigation, the city of Anaheim sent garbage trucks to the plant in the 1100 block of North Olive to pick up the dumpsters. Tests of the trash showed high concentrations of toxic metals, including lead and zinc, and chlorinated solvents, such as ethylbenzene, which are suspected cancer-causing agents.

Johnston said the solvents dumped by the company are particularly worrisome because they will find their way through the soil into the ground-water supply.

“It was indiscriminate violence,” Johnston told the judge. “It will be years before we know what impact they will have on the landfill and the ground water.”

But Burns argued that no one was injured by the waste and no damage was done to the environment.

“There was never any evidence of health problems or blood problems of anyone who ever worked around the trash,” Burns told Bedsworth at the sentencing.

During the trial, four employees testified that Hale ordered them to mix toxic solvents with sawdust and put it in dumpsters that were taken to the Brea-Olinda landfill. Employees of the W. C. Richards Co. told investigators that between 150 and 300 gallons of hazardous waste were illegally thrown into the trash daily, amounting to hundreds of thousands of gallons over a two-year period.

But the defense has argued that the materials found were not hazardous waste and that authorities had improperly obtained and handled the samples. The defense also produced four former employees who disputed the testimony of the other workers by saying that Hale was not responsible.

On June 3, Hale was convicted of five felony counts, including the illegal dumping that occurred daily from Jan. 1, 1988, through April 17, 1990--the day the company was raided by investigators.

Many of those involved in the Hale investigation were at the sentencing Friday.

“After what has happened here today, I think some people out there will be changing their minds about illegally dumping toxic waste,” said Robert E. Merryman, director of environmental health for Orange County.

Bedsworth said Hale could be released from prison in 18 months.