IRVINE : Boat Firm Fined for Waste Violations

A former boat manufacturing company has been ordered to pay a $295,000 fine after health inspectors found 98 abandoned containers of hazardous waste and other violations, including chemical contamination in the soil, state officials said Wednesday.

Ericson Yachts Inc. manufactured a popular line of boats, including racing fleets, at 1931 Deere Ave. in Irvine from 1971 until last May. Ericson was cited for seven violations of state hazardous waste laws, including abandonment of waste and illegal disposal.

“It is one of the larger fines we’ve attempted to levy in the last several years,” said Allan Hirsch, a spokesman for the state Department of Health Services’ toxic-substances division in Long Beach.

The fine targets Eugene Kohlman and his company, which went out of business last year. But the order also names the property owners who leased the property to Kohlman as responsible for cleaning up the waste.

Kohlman said Wednesday that he has filed an appeal with the state health department.

“We were shocked (by the order) because we assured the health department it would be taken care of,” he said. “There has been no abandonment. Whatever was there is basically not there any more. The property owners removed most of it. The thing is mostly cleaned up.”

Kohlman said the drums, pails and cans of waste were left after his company went out of business, “but (they were) properly stored and in the process of being disposed of properly. I don’t know why they issued this order.”

The company shut down production in May, auctioned off equipment in July and left the site in August without removing the waste, Hirsch said. Some of the drums have since been removed by the property owners, he said.

Kohlman said his corporation is insolvent and that “the assets were taken over by secured creditors and the bank.” He said his financial state is why the property owners are performing the cleanup.

Health officials said they are imposing a large fine mainly because Kohlman’s company failed to obtain pollution liability insurance for five years. State law requires companies to have insurance if they produce hazardous waste.

Kohlman, however, said that his company had the insurance and that state health officials “never asked us for it before.”

The chemicals are mostly industrial solvents used to thin, clean or remove paint. The drums were not leaking, but some were open and in rusting condition, Hirsch said.

Three solvents--acetone, ethyl benzene and methylene chloride--were found in soil at the site in 1985 when the company’s three underground chemical tanks were removed, according to the Orange County environmental health office.

Tests conducted in November and December detected small concentrations of chemicals in the soil but no ground-water contamination, said Jeff Benedict, supervising hazardous waste specialist at the county health office.

“At this point, we don’t have any evidence of an immediate health risk,” Hirsch said.

State and county health officials said they have had difficulty getting the yacht business to investigate the contamination, clean up the site and remove the drums, so they have turned to the property owners, Joseph Manson, Robert Dickermann and Louis Miller.

The owners, eager to lease their land again, have hired a consultant to take samples and develop a cleanup plan, Benedict said.