Polishing a Shiny New Image

It never would have happened without the $100,000 fine, the five months in a federal halfway house and the seven months with an electronic bracelet shackled to his ankle, but Mike Zalenski, convicted environmental criminal, has become Mike Zalenski, environmentalist.

“I wish I could tell you that it didn’t take getting caught,” Zalenski said, “but that would be a lie, and I’m not a liar.”

Three years ago, investigators discovered that workers at Zalenski’s metal polishing shop in Fresno were dumping 300-gallon tanks of toxic waste into the city’s sewer system.

Local, state and federal authorities barged into New Age Metal Finishing -- which coats motorcycle parts in shiny chrome -- with guns, handcuffs and a full SWAT team in tow. They found all the evidence they needed. The business had been dumping wastewater tainted with chromium, copper and nickel for years. Zalenski suspects that a competitor knew about the illegal dumping and turned him in.

“What he had been doing is discharging heavy metals in violation of the Clean Water Act,” said Dan Reich, an attorney for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “He probably thought he’d save a little money by pouring this stuff down the drain. But he wound up being prosecuted.”

Zalenski, 47, was by no means the first chrome plater collared for an environmental crime. But Zalenski’s contrite response -- what Reich calls his “come to Jesus moment” -- was indeed unusual.

Instead of fighting the charges, Zalenski fired his lawyer and admitted his guilt. He spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to transform his shop into a model of metal recycling and other environmentally responsible practices. Moreover, he began helping investigators from Los Angeles to San Francisco ferret out other cheaters in the business, and trying to convince fellow chrome platers that they should change their ways before they ended up convicted felons like him.

Savvy con job by a crook still on probation? Government officials do not seem to think so.

“I think he’s very sincere,” said Vincent Mendes, a Fresno County environmental health specialist. “I think he really wants to do the right thing, not just for his facility, but for others.”

For example, Mendes said, Zalenski recently devoted hours of his time free of charge to help a landlord clean up a contaminated former metal shop after the owner, a former employee, had abandoned it.

Zalenski advised environmental health officers at a statewide meeting in Anaheim earlier this year and plans to do so again in Santa Clara next year. He recently spoke before the Los Angeles city attorney’s task force on chrome platers.

EPA officials are promoting Zalenski as a reformed environmental sinner -- a model for other chrome platers to follow. But Zalenski says that few in the industry appear to be taking his advice to heart, and fewer still believe his contention that he is saving money, with reduced water and metal costs, as he cleans up his business.

Zalenski understands why. He says the reason he cut corners by dumping chemicals is that he thought the by-the-book alternative would be too expensive.

“A lot of them are skeptical. It’s that old school mentality, and I can relate, because I was that way,” Zalenski said. “They still think it’s going to cost them that new car every year.”

Dan Cunningham, executive director of the Metal Finishing Assn. of Southern California, who said he had never heard of Zalenski, insisted that chrome platers “consider ourselves environmentalists” and do everything possible to comply with a never-ending ream of government regulations. (There are 139 chrome platers in Los Angeles County.)

“Some of the old timers do feel persecuted. It’s a public relations problem,” Cunningham said. “One guy gets caught for illegal dumping and the whole industry is tarred with a broad brush. That has been happening for years.”

Government officials say the bad rap is deserved. Since launching its task force Oct. 9, the Los Angeles city attorney’s office has begun five criminal investigations of metal shops, all of which are still ongoing, a spokesman said.

Officials need to ensure that chrome platers “are compliant with the law, and more often than not, they are not,” said Luis Li, chief of the city attorney’s criminal division.

“It’s not just a leaky barrel or a puddle of contaminant. If you walk into one of these places, you will see workers with little paper masks on their face, dipping metals into acid and chromium. Obviously the effect on the neighborhood is severe, but the effect on the workers is horrendous.” Li said the masks don’t protect workers against exposure to the toxic metals.

After the bust at New Age Metal Finishing, Zalenski worried about what would happen to his workers and his business. He was especially concerned that the motorcycle makers that hire New Age to coat their new bikes would take their business elsewhere. But the manufacturers stuck by him, and New Age survived. Now, Zalenski says he is grateful for the experience.

“I guess the moral of the story is that I get to go home and put my head on the pillow and sleep comfortably,” Zalenski said. “The whole thing ended up being a blessing for me. I wouldn’t have told you that a few years ago. I thought my whole world was going to come down. But now, we are a very environmentally friendly company.”