2 Held in Hazardous Dumping

SAN DIEGO —  In what the defendants called a play by the federal government to appear tough on environmental issues along the border, two Lancaster men were charged Friday with conspiring to dump hazardous materials in Mexico.

Daryl Westerfeld, 60, president of A & W Smelter and Refiners of Mojave, and company chemist William Snavely, 67, were indicted in U.S. District Court on eight counts in connection with an alleged plan to dump 345 tons of mining slag in Baja California. The slag allegedly contains hazardous levels of lead.

Prosecutors said the case was the government’s first enforcement action relating to unlawful dumping of hazardous mining waste.

But Matthew Nasuti, a San Francisco attorney representing Westerfeld, accused the government of entrapment and said the indictments resulted from a government sting and cover-up. According to Nasuti, a government informant arranged the alleged dumping.

Nasuti said the charges were politically driven, reflecting the federal government’s desire to take a tough environmental enforcement stance “on both sides of the border” in light of the pending North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Melanie Pierson responded that her office “has been prosecuting cases involving transboundary shipments of hazardous waste long before the concept of a NAFTA.”

The charges carry a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison and fines of more than $750,000 for each man, said U.S. Attorney James W. Brannigan. Westerfeld was released on his own recognizance, and Snavely posted a $50,000 bond.