Hazardous Waste Firm, Employee Indicted

A federal grand jury has indicted a Gardena hazardous waste trucking company and a top employee, charging them with violating the federal Clean Water Act by discharging pollutants into the sewer system, authorities said Wednesday.

Named in the indictment are Arnell Maxey, 32, of Garden Grove and Radford Alexander Corp., which also does business as Chemical Transportation Co. Inc., a hazardous-waste trucking company known as ChemTrans.

Also indicted was Avalon Environmental Management, another Radford Alexander company that treats nonhazardous waste water generated by manufacturers. Avalon is one of only two Los Angeles-area firms that treat large quantities of nonhazardous waste water in Los Angeles County.

A representative of ChemTrans said Maxey would not be available for comment Wednesday, and described him as the manager of the firm’s waste water department.

James P. Cooper III, a lawyer for Radford Alexander, had “no comment at this time,” a colleague said.

Authorities said the firms, operating at the same location, routinely discharged corrosive liquids, wastes with excessive levels of oil and grease, and sulfides directly into sewers, instead of treating them and properly disposing of them so they posed no threat to the environment.

The discharges were made over a three-year period from a facility at 14700 S. Avalon Blvd. in Gardena, where ChemTrans and Avalon are located, authorities said.

“There are strict controls on how dangerous materials can be handled and treated,” said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office. “Bypassing those laws will have a significant and detrimental effect on the environment. Nobody wants to have chemicals or other wastes draining into either the sewer system or straight into Santa Monica Bay.”

The six-count indictment, returned late Tuesday, followed extensive probes by criminal investigators with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the state Environmental Protection Agency, and other state and local agencies.

The investigation was launched after complaints by Fire Department officials and other authorities, who said they had been called to the site on many occasions since 1996 after receiving calls about foul smells. When they arrived, they later told investigators, they would see employees of ChemTrans and Avalon dumping liquids “with a heavy chemical odor” from tanker trucks into the drains, an affidavit filed by a hazardous-substances scientist working for the state EPA says.

All of the defendants were charged with three counts of violating federal antipollution laws by knowingly discharging pollutants.

They also were charged with three counts of knowingly failing to provide inspectors from the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts with access to the facility to check for violations.

The maximum penalty under federal law for each violation of the Clean Water Act is three years in federal prison and a fine of $50,000 per day of violation or $250,000, whichever is greater.

The defendants are scheduled to be arraigned Monday.