Workers Find Toxic Waste at Anaheim Park

Landscapers working Tuesday in Yorba Regional Park found a discarded pile of plastic containers and garbage bags filled with hazardous chemicals used to manufacture drugs, fire officials said.

The Landscape West employees discovered the dumped chemicals about 2 p.m. in an area of the park near the 5700 block of East La Palma Avenue, about a mile east of Imperial Highway, said Tabby Cato, a spokeswoman with the Anaheim Fire Department.

The workers left about a dozen five-gallon containers in the park but gathered up the bags and hauled them to their office at 950 N. Tustin Ave., where one of the landscapers opened a bag and told officials he was overcome by a strong chemical odor.

“He also felt some tingling in his hands,” Cato said. “But he washed them and did not need to be treated by paramedics.”

Members of the department’s hazardous-materials team went to both locations to inspect the containers, Cato said.

After determining there were dangerous chemicals inside, the hazardous-materials crew cordoned off the area and called officials from the Anaheim Police Department, Orange County Health Department and state Department of Justice to help with cleanup and disposal.

Officials suspect the unidentified chemicals had been used in a drug lab and later dumped in the park.