Re-Reported Under New Law : Toxic Waste Tips Up, but Not Really

The toxics control initiative approved by California voters last November has led to a big increase in tips about possible illegal discharges of hazardous wastes, Orange County’s public health officer said Monday.

L. Rex Ehling said his office has received about 600 such reports since Jan. 1. The tips do not represent an outbreak of illegal dumping, Ehling said, but are the result of an obscure section of the initiative, which was known as Proposition 65. The law became effective Jan. 1.

Section 4 of Proposition 65 says a state or county employee “who obtains information in the course of his official duties revealing the illegal discharge or threatened illegal discharge of a hazardous waste within the geographical area of his jurisdiction and who knows that such discharge or threatened discharge is likely to cause substantial injury to the public health or safety must, within 72 hours, disclose such information to the local Board of Supervisors and to the local health office.”

The section adds that “no disclosure is required . . . when the information is already general public knowledge. . . .”

Most of the 600 reports filed with Ehling’s office since the first of the year are about pollution suspicions that are generally well known, but government employees, to be safe, are re-reporting these items, Ehling said.

“This essentially represents another batch of reports,” Ehling said. “We’re continuing to investigate these reports, but there’s nothing so far that we feel is hazardous.

“Once these reports come to us, Proposition 65 says we must report them to the public without delay. We felt the best way to let the public know is to issue press releases about the reports in general.”

Ehling said that anyone can come to the Environmental Health Office, 1740 West 17th St., Santa Ana, to look over reports of possibly hazardous discharges. The office is open on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Health officials have noted that the intent of Section 4 of Proposition 65 was to encourage “whistle-blowing” by government employees in the field. The measure requires that government workers bypass regular paper work channels and send their suspicions directly to their county public health officer.