FULLERTON : Man Pleads Not Guilty in Toxics Case

The former president of a bankrupt environmental consulting company pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges that he dumped a dangerous combination of toxic wastes into a dumpster in Anaheim.

Joseph Zywczak, 56, of Bellflower has been charged with 27 felony counts of illegal disposal and transport of hazardous waste and endangering the public with the risk of bodily injury.

The case was set for a pretrial hearing in Municipal Court in Fullerton on Feb. 11. In the meantime, Zywczak, who was arrested in November, remains free after posting $50,000 bail.

About 50 containers of chemical waste were found in a dumpster last April, including some large drums. Although the volume of waste was relatively small, the alleged dumping is considered serious because incompatible and highly reactive materials such as cyanide pellets and acids were thrown together in the bin outside ENV Inc.

Also known as Environmental Services Division, the firm is at 623 S. East St. in a commercial area of Anaheim.

If the materials had combined, they would have formed a deadly cloud of cyanide gas. Anaheim firefighters discovered the chemicals after garbage workers were overcome by fumes from an unknown chemical--apparently not cyanide--while hauling the dumpster to an Anaheim Disposal Co. site a few miles away.

Zywczak’s attorney, Charles Whisonant, says that his client is an accountant, not a technician or engineer, and knew nothing about the chemicals. Zywczak was a co-owner of the company who became its president in order to resolve financial problems after the business stopped operating, Whisonant said.