Halaco Sentenced To Fine, Probation For Polluting

Halaco Engineering Co., an Oxnard, Calif.-based metals recycling company, accepted three year's months probation at a sentencing hearing in Superior Court Sept. 24th and agreed to pay a fine of $7,500.

In August, a jury found the metal recycling company guilty of three misdemeanor counts of polluting the air around Ormond Beach in Oxnard.

"This was a good result for air quality in the county," Mitchell F. Disney, senior deputy district attorney with the Consumer & Environmental Protection Division, said Wednesday.

Prosecutors accused the metal recycling company of violating its air-quality permit by releasing a "blue-gray" plume of noxious smoke into the air on Jan. 8.

The smoke got out without going through Halaco's emission control system, which was turned off.

The company also failed to put a fume hood on its furnace when smoke was being released, prosecutors said.

Under the terms of the probation, the company must install monitoring equipment including a leak-detection device in its dust-control unit. Data collected by the equipment must be maintained for a year and made available to the Air Pollution Control District. The company must also put a similar device on its acid gas neutralizing monitor.

The company must hire URS of Santa Barbara, a consulting firm, to review its operating procedures. Consultants will make recommendations for operations, training and the company's operating signage.

Environmental groups and government regulators allege that the recycling company has been polluting the air, water and wetlands around Ormond Beach for years. Ventura (California) County Star