Waste Handler Ordered to Prison

A hazardous waste handler was sentenced Wednesday to 37 months in federal prison and ordered to pay a $1.29-million fine for conspiring to violate federal environmental laws, authorities said.

Hormoz Pourat, 45, of Encino was also prohibited from engaging in any business dealing with hazardous waste for three years, Assistant U.S. Atty. Gen. Thomas L. Sansonetti said.

Pourat and his partners illegally collected, stored and shipped hazardous waste from AAD Distribution and Dry Cleaning Services Inc. and Right Choice Inc., both based in Vernon, to illegal storage facilities in Chino.

“Mr. Pourat engaged in long-term and elaborate schemes to hide his violations from city and state inspectors so that he and his partners could make a profit at their customers’ expense,” Sansonetti said.

According to Sansonetti, AAD charged dry-cleaning businesses to pick up, treat and arrange for disposal of the hazardous dry-cleaning compound perchloroethylene, or PERC, a cancer-causing contaminant that has been detected in Southern California groundwater. AAD was one of California’s largest handlers of dry-cleaning waste until authorities closed it down in January 2001, Sansonetti said.

Similarly, Right Choice collected and arranged for disposal of hazardous and flammable solvents from auto repair shops and other businesses, Sansonetti said. According to court documents, AAD continued to pick up hazardous waste containers filled with PERC between Jan. 1, 1999, and July 19, 2000, even though it had exceeded the number of containers it could legally store, Sansonetti said.

To hide these permit violations from inspectors, Sansonetti said, Pourat and his partners loaded drums filled with PERC waste onto trucks before inspections, falsified the drums’ contents on shipping manifests, shipped the drums off site and then kept them at other facilities that were not permitted to store hazardous waste. Pourat pleaded guilty to a similar scheme at Right Choice, Sansonetti said.