March jet fueling firm charged with violations
A company that fuels the commercial cargo planes that fly from March Air Reserve Base and its parent development company were charged Thursday with 11 misdemeanor counts for allegedly mishandling the storage and disposal of jet fuel and putting people at the base at risk.
The companies -- March International Logistics Center, which does business as March Global Port, and its fueling division, Global Port Fueling Services -- faced scathing criticism in early 2006 after site inspectors discovered the fueling company was storing jet fuel in water tanks and did not have a permit to store the fuel.
Investigators also discovered that fuel was leaking from some of the tanks, which were not properly vented to prevent explosions. The leaks allegedly were never reported to hazardous-materials or emergency-services officials in the county, which is required by law.
March Global Port’s general manager, Mark Yeager, said Thursday that the company paid $7,000 in fines because of the violations and that the fueling company, which stores jet fuel for the shipping company DHL, briefly ceased operations on the orders of the county Fire Department.
With the charges by the Riverside County district attorney’s office, the companies could face fines of up to $1 million. The charges include handling hazardous waste “with reckless disregard for the risk of fire or explosion,” improper storage of combustible materials that put the property’s occupants at risk and failure to report the leak of hazardous materials.
The general manager of Global Port Fueling, Joseph Behling, could face up to a year in jail, a district attorney’s office spokeswoman said.
Yeager said he had not seen the charges Thursday, but he said the company immediately fixed the problems in early 2006 after getting notice of the violations from county officials.
“It’s a very good company; they just made a mistake with the fueling,” said Yeager, who became general manager last fall.
Yeager said the fueling company -- which began operating in 2005 at around the time DHL started commercial flights from the base -- began using the water storage tanks on the advice of a consulting company.
“We went to a worldwide fueling company for advice, and they were the ones that instructed us how to do it,” Yeager said. “It didn’t work the way they had promised.”
*
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
