Firm to Pay $800,000 Fine in Gas Accident

The operators of a now-defunct paper recycling plant in Vernon where a worker was killed by toxic hydrogen sulfide gas three years ago were ordered Wednesday to pay $800,000 in fines for illegally disposing of hazardous waste.

The fine, to be paid by Domtar Gypsum Inc., an Ann Arbor, Mich.-based firm, is the second-largest payout of its kind in the nine-year history of the district attorney’s Environmental Crimes Unit, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Delaney.

However, attorneys for the company and then-plant manager Roland Johnson, 47, of La Verne said that the firm and the manager had entered no-contest pleas because the fine was less costly than litigation would have been.

In addition to the monetary punishment, Johnson was sentenced to three years probation and ordered to perform 350 hours of community service for the July 23, 1991, incident.

The Vernon plant made headlines in 1991 after a cloud of hydrogen sulfide gas enveloped an underground storage tank, killing a worker who had gone inside to clean it, and injuring at least 38 others.

The vat in which the accident occurred was used to store pulp material--churned up paper and water--that is recycled into paper used to cover the company’s wallboard, marketed under the trade name Gyproc.

Malachi Nash, 53, of Compton was overcome by fumes and died inside the tank; two other workers who went in to rescue him were left semiconscious and required hospitalization. Dozens of employees, paramedics and firefighters suffered nausea and skin irritation from the gas during rescue efforts.

Later, investigators found that reused plant water from a storage tank had been used in the tank, and had not been treated with a required antibacterial solution, Delaney said. As a result, the water contained organic material that fostered the rapid growth of bacteria that generated the lethal gas.

The prosecutor said Domtar and Johnson were aware of the serious health risks created by the generation of the gas, but failed to take steps to protect the plant workers.

Raymond C. Marshall, a lawyer for Domtar, said the company viewed the incident as “an unfortunate accident which neither the company nor Mr. Johnson had any reason to believe would occur.”