Brewery Fined $53,000 After No-Contest Plea in Creek Pollution
Anheuser-Busch Inc. on Thursday pleaded no contest and was ordered to pay more than $53,000 in criminal penalties for a chemical spill last February that polluted the Sepulveda Basin wildlife area.
The plea in Los Angeles Municipal Court stemmed from the discharge of about 6,000 gallons of a caustic solution into Haskell Creek, a storm channel that flows through Sepulveda Basin about three miles from the Van Nuys brewery.
Although the plea resolved the criminal case against Anheuser-Busch, the giant brewer still faces a civil complaint by the Los Angeles office of the California Regional Water Quality Control Board.
The board on Oct. 19 is scheduled to consider a proposed $55,000 penalty against Anheuser-Busch for the spill Feb. 23 and 24 and a previous discharge of 5,400 gallons Jan. 27. Both spills involved a solution of sodium hydroxide and water that is used for cleaning operations at the brewery, which is located on the 15800 block of Roscoe Boulevard.
Brewery Manager Earl Burke said he was glad the criminal case “is behind us and that it’s been . . . equitably handled.”
“It’s not our way of doing business to have anything put us in this predicament,” Burke said. “We’re apologetic as hell that it took place.”
The plea of no contest--the legal equivalent of a guilty plea--was to a misdemeanor charge of unlawfully discharging a hazardous substance. In exchange for the plea, the city attorney’s office agreed to dismiss three other misdemeanor counts filed under California’s fish, game and safety codes.
Deputy City Atty. Don Kass said prosecutors agreed to drop the other charges because Anheuser-Busch has installed a spill-prevention system against future accidents.
“They took appropriate action,” Kass said. “They have a sophisticated system in now.”
The total penalty of $53,730.38 includes fines of $2,700 and $11,030.38 to reimburse the state Department of Fish and Game and the hazardous-materials unit of the Los Angeles County Fire Department for the cost of investigating the incident.
In addition, the two agencies will get $20,000 apiece for future enforcement of wildlife and hazardous-waste laws.
These payments could be a “shot in the arm” for agencies that “are financially strapped and overburdened,” Kass said.
The February spill resulted in a small kill of fish and bullfrogs in the Sepulveda Basin, where Haskell Creek, a concrete-lined storm channel for most of its length, becomes an earth-bottomed stream. Officials investigating the spill also found a homeless encampment along the creek and warned the residents to stay out of the water.
In their complaint filed last month, prosecutors said the spill occurred because Anheuser-Busch failed to activate a pump it had installed as a temporary measure to prevent a repeat of the January spill.
In addition, they said, the February spill was not reported by the company but was detected 24 hours later by city employees conducting routine water-monitoring tests in Sepulveda Basin.
State water quality officials said Thursday they are negotiating with the company in an effort to bring a proposed settlement of the civil complaint before the regional water board Oct. 19. State and company officials said they are hoping to reach a settlement that would earmark funds for environmental enhancement of the 108-acre wildlife area.
