Firm to Pay Penalty for Hazardous Burning

A high-tech manufacturer lured to the city with a $6-million subsidy package has pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to three felony counts of illegally burning hazardous waste at its former plant in Newhall.

Special Devices Inc., which makes explosive triggers used in air bags and the aerospace industry, will pay a $1.5-million fine--$1 million of which will go to the National Park Foundation for environmental projects, said Assistant U.S. Atty. William Carter. Under a settlement agreement approved Tuesday, the company also will submit to three years probation.

Carter said employees at Special Devices burned thousands of pounds of explosive waste from 1997 to 1999 at the Newhall facility. The company began moving operations to Moorpark in December 1998 after a drawn-out bidding war that involved several state officials, including then-Gov. Pete Wilson.

A multimillion-dollar package of tax breaks and reduced fees helped convince Special Devices to build a new 331,000-square-foot manufacturing and office facility in Ventura County rather than move to Arizona.

“It’s shocking to me that at the same time they were bringing City Council members out to the facility, explaining how they were a model of efficiency, that they’d be burning hazardous waste,” said former Councilman Chris Evans, who voted to approve the August 1996 deal that brought the company to Moorpark.

Thomas W. Cresante, president and CEO of Special Devices, said in a written statement that the environmental violations were “largely inherited” from previous management and ownership.

Since the company became aware of the investigation in August 1999, Cresante said it has conducted environmental audits of its Moorpark and Mesa, Ariz., plants. Company leaders also have overhauled management, particularly in the environment, health and safety department, Cresante said.

“Having expended substantial resources to put our house in order, we are optimistic that our environmental problems are behind us,” he said.

The $1 million for national parks will be used to enhance enforcement of environmental and wildlife protection laws, company officials said. Carter said $250,000 will go to the Channel Islands National Park, $250,000 to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and the rest to the Mojave National Preserve and Joshua Tree National Park.

The settlement also eliminates any future liability for Special Devices over its operations at the former Newhall plant, Cresante said.

Carter said the yearlong investigation--which involved half a dozen federal and state entities including the FBI and Environmental Protection Agency--began in August 1999 after EPA officials visited the site and witnessed the illegal burning.

Part of the waste the employees were burning at that time was material that had been left from the move to Moorpark, Carter said.

Carter said Special Devices did not have a permit to burn hazardous waste, which must be taken off-site and disposed of at a licensed facility.

The activity “not only causes air quality problems but is a threat to employees, who could be injured or killed in an explosion,” he said.

A 1994 blast at Rocketdyne’s Santa Susana Field Laboratory that killed two people--which Carter is also prosecuting--was caused by illegally storing and burning explosive waste.

Special Devices also has a history of industrial accidents stemming from the explosive powder used in the manufacturing process. Two workers have been killed and seven others injured between 1982 and last September, when two workers were hurt in an explosion.