Firm to Pay Illegal Dumping Fine : $100,000 Settlement in Disposal of Hazardous Waste

SAN BERNARDINO —  A La Palma paper products firm has agreed to pay $100,000 to San Bernardino County as settlement of a civil suit resulting from an illegal hazardous waste dumping incident in Fontana, a deputy district attorney said Thursday.

Two executives of Orchids Paper Products and the man they hired to arrange the dumping also entered no contest pleas to charges of unauthorized hazardous waste dumping, added Karen Bustos, San Bernardino County deputy district attorney.

The settlement package, agreed to after lengthy negotiations and entered Wednesday in San Bernardino County Superior Court, is believed to involve one of the biggest payments to date in a California hazardous waste dumping case, Bustos said.

3 on Year’s Probation

According to Bustos, the three defendants, Orchids Vice President Robert Everett, company warehouse supervisor Roger Livermore and Frank Orlando, who was hired by the firm to arrange the dumping, each entered no contest pleas to two misdemeanor charges of unauthorized hazardous waste dumping in an unlicensed location.

Judge Phillip Morris placed the three on a year’s probation and ordered them and the company, which also was a defendant in the case, to place an advertisement in a Fontana newspaper apologizing for the incident, Bustos said.

A no contest plea is neither an admission nor denial of guilt but is treated as a conviction for purposes of criminal liability.

Livermore, reached Thursday, said the company would not comment on the case.

Officials are concerned that deserts will become illegal dumping targets.

As part of the settlement, the defendants also agreed to pay about $14,000 in laboratory analysis and cleanup costs, according to Bustos. She said the cleanup was not very expensive because the dumping had been stopped while in progress.

Bustos said San Bernardino officials sought the large settlement because they are increasingly concerned that the county’s large stretches of empty desert will become a prime target for illegal “midnight dumping” of hazardous chemicals.

The dumping occurred Dec. 20, 1983, in a vacant lot in Fontana; a driver for Orlando was arrested at the site where 29 barrels containing toxic materials were being dumped, Bustos said.

The barrels contained mostly glue and paper but also had small quantities of a carcinogenic chemical that had forced the closure of some wells in the San Gabriel Valley and the Glen Avon area in Riverside County, Bustos said.

The district attorney’s office sought the civil settlement to recover damages strictly for San Bernardino County, Bustos said, explaining the county would have received only a share of the money if the defendants and the firm had been fined on criminal charges.

Bustos said Orchid Paper Products is “absolutely not” a habitual hazardous waste offender. The dumping incident occurred because the firm, which regularly hires a licensed toxic wastes hauler, was removing the 29 barrels from its lot at the request of La Palma officials and could not get its regular hauler to remove the metal drums, Bustos said.

Robert Washington, the driver of the truck, is expected to enter no contest pleas to three charges next Tuesday, according to Bustos. She said he probably would receive lighter penalties than the other three defendants because he was unaware of what was in the barrels.