Vista Paint Fined $1.1 Million for Pollution Law Violations

A federal judge has ordered a Fullerton paint manufacturer to pay $1.11 million in civil penalties for violating antipollution laws with paint it sold in the 1980s.

Federal regulators had charged Vista Paint Corp. with selling thousands of gallons of paint that released chemicals at levels violating the Clean Air Act. Vista countered during the long-running case that it believed it had complied with local rules.

The penalty announced is just one-third of the record-setting $3.3 million that Vista was ordered to pay in the same case in 1991. Vista appealed that order, and a new trial followed last year.

Attorneys for the federal government on Thursday described the new penalty as significant and said they are pleased with the outcome.

“This illustrates that the government is serious about enforcing compliance with the Clean Air Act,” said Frank D. Kortum, an assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles.

But an attorney for Vista lambasted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s handling of the case and suggested the firm may appeal.

“I don’t think this fight is over. We have a client that’s very offended by the overreaching of the EPA,” said Bill Fahey, a Los Angeles attorney representing Vista. He said that prosecutors originally sought $6.4 million in penalties and called this week’s order “pretty much a resounding defeat for the government.”

The amount of the fine nearly equaled the total fines levied by the AQMD in 1995. Sam Atwood, an AQMD spokesman, said the agency settled 597 cases last year, with fines totaling $1.2 million. The order by U.S. District Judge Robert J. Timlin stems from the EPA’s charge that Vista sold gloss and semi-gloss paint and architectural coatings that, when applied, released an estimated 13 tons of volatile organic compounds per month into the air, exacerbating Southern California’s air pollution.

Vista reformulated its general line of paints starting in 1987, Fahey said. The company employs 300 people.

Times staff writer J.R. Moehringer contributed to this report.