Apartment Owners Face Criminal Charges in Oil Spill
Owners of a Hancock Park apartment complex that allegedly was the source of crude oil that flowed into a storm drain last year and polluted Ballona Creek more than seven miles away will face criminal charges, authorities said Thursday.
Owners of the 168-unit Wilshire Renaissance Apartments on South Masselin Avenue are named in a misdemeanor criminal complaint filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, said City Atty. James K. Hahn.
Named are Wilshire West Partners, AIA Investments Corp., Amakasu Investment America Inc. and Amakasu Investment Ltd.
The spill last October--which totaled about 285 gallons of crude oil--fouled about 4,000 gallons of water that spilled into the environmentally sensitive creek through storm drains, authorities have calculated.
In May, the apartment owners were given a $354,000 fine, the largest such penalty ever assessed by the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board.
Water quality officials say sump pumps that were supposed to collect naturally occurring oil and tar that ooze from the ground at the apartment site near the La Brea Tar Pits were improperly maintained.
Patricia Bilgin, a city prosecutor, said pollution from the spill Oct. 11, 1999, extended to Marina del Rey.
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