Company Pleads Guilty to Dumping of Toxic Waste : Environment: Pesticide firm agrees to pay $100,000 fine and cost of cleaning up Imperial County site.

In the first federal conviction for dumping hazardous waste in Imperial County, a major pesticide firm pleaded guilty Thursday to dumping dirt contaminated with cancer-causing substances near the polluted New River.

Although law enforcement authorities would not say if more indictments are imminent, an FBI agent said the agency has just opened an office in El Centro and made illegal dumping a priority.

“I hate to use this pun,” said William J. Esposito of the FBI’s San Diego office, “but it (Imperial County) is a fertile area for environmental crimes as far as the FBI” is concerned.

Environmentalists have warned that Imperial County is vulnerable to illegal dumping because of its sparse population, open space and paucity of enforcement.

In federal court, PureGro Co., a major distributor of pesticides, fumigants and fertilizers, pleaded guilty to illegal dumping and agreed to pay a $100,000 fine and the full cost of cleaning up the dump, which could run as much as $2 million. More than 2,000 cubic yards of dirt have been removed.

The company was charged with dumping contaminated dirt in an unfarmed area in Calexico adjacent to the notorious New River. The trucks did their dumping at night, with the company logo covered up.

The dirt, taken from beneath storage tanks at the firm’s facility in the Imperial Valley town of Heber, was said to be laced with ethylene dibromide, dichloropropane and trichloropropane, all of which are carcinogens. The illegal dumping was reported to authorities by a company employee.

In its guilty plea, PureGro said the dumping was against company policy and was ordered by the manager of the Heber facility, who has been fired.