Man Arrested, Accused of Dumping Chemicals Into Sewer : Environment: Co-owner of Sun Valley metal-plating firm faces charges that his company put cyanide and other possibly lethal waste materials into public system.

The co-owner of a Sun Valley metal-plating firm that has contracts with large aerospace companies was being held in lieu of $555,000 bail Tuesday on felony charges that his company dumped potentially lethal amounts of cyanide and heavy metals into the Los Angeles sewer system.

Jack Meltzer, 53, and his company, Quality Processing Inc., face 17 counts involving discharging waste from an illegal pipe connected directly to the sewer system, said Head Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Delaney.

“This is a very serious case, in part because there was such a serious threat to the public,” Delaney said.

The alleged discharge of extremely high levels of cyanide, in particular, could have caused an explosion or a cloud of vapors that would have threatened employees of nearby businesses and residents of a trailer park, authorities said.

Meltzer’s lawyer, James E. Black, said the company takes responsibility for the illegal discharge, but claims it was human error.

“One of the employees, who was unauthorized to do so, occasionally was disposing (the chemicals) into the sewer line,” Black said Tuesday evening. “That is no longer happening.”

Black said the employee has been reprimanded and has been instructed on how to properly dispose of the waste.

Meltzer became a suspect earlier this summer after city Department of Sanitation workers performing routine sewer monitoring found “extremely dangerous and hazardous levels of untreated cyanide and toxic levels of chrome and zinc solutions” in the sewer system near the company, said Delaney, who is prosecuting the case.

Eleven of the charges are felonies, each of which carries a minimum three-year prison sentence and $25,000 fine, authorities said.

Meltzer and his wife, Myra, both of Canoga Park, own the company together, but only Meltzer was arrested Monday because he is the on-site manager. Meltzer is scheduled to be arraigned Friday, when he will ask to be released on his own recognizance, said Black, adding that Meltzer has no criminal record and is a reputable businessman with roots in the community.

Quality Processing performs large-scale metal electroplating and etching of commercial and aerospace parts for companies, including Lockheed Corp., Litton Guidance and Control Systems, Hughes Aircraft Co. and General Dynamics, Delaney said.

The defense firms are not expected to be held liable for the Sun Valley discharge, but Lockheed itself received a $460,000 federal fine last week for discharging untreated waste water into the sewers.

Plating firms use cyanide in various ways during the electroplating process, said Deputy City Atty. Vince Sato.

Quality Processing’s trouble started last fall when Meltzer informed the Department of Sanitation that he was shutting off the company’s connection to the sewer system. The arrangement had allowed the business to legally dispose of potentially hazardous waste through a heavy-regulated industrial sewer system, Delaney said.

One of Meltzer’s business partners, who declined to be identified, said Meltzer had purchased $750,000 worth of equipment to dispose of the toxics himself. Authorities confirmed the presence of the equipment at the Sun Valley business.

But in May, three days after the city began monitoring sewer discharges in the industrial area where the company is located, Department of Sanitation investigators discovered an illegal emission, Delaney said.

Other toxic discharges were detected in the early morning hours between May 9 and June 1, authorities said.

When a city-county task force raided Quality Processing on June 14, authorities said, the company--which has 35 employees--was discharging cyanide into the sewer from the illegal pipe.

“That was kind of the smoking gun,” Delaney said. “(Meltzer) had directed this. This was not a case of negligence. This was willful. There was every indication that this was a conscious choice.”

Investigators estimated that about 1,000 gallons of waste water with a cyanide level of 2,500 parts per million had entered the sewer from the business.

Of particular concern to investigators was the possibility that the zinc cyanide being released could change into extremely hazardous hydrogen cyanide if it came into contact with acids, which were also being released by the company at about the same time, Sato said.

Hydrogen cyanide is considered hazardous at the level of five parts per million, authorities said.

The charges against Meltzer and his company allege six felony counts of illegal disposal of hazardous waste, five felony counts of water pollution and six misdemeanor counts of illegally disposing of waste water.

Each felony count of illegal disposal carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison and a $100,000 fine. Each felony water pollution count carries a possible term of three years in prison and a $25,000 fine. And each misdemeanor count carries a possible sentence of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.