EPA Sues 5 Firms, L.A., Burbank Over Sewage : Pollution: Case involves hazardous waste that was supposed to be treated by companies.

In a national crackdown on water polluters, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and a regional water board filed suit Wednesday against Los Angeles, Burbank and five businesses in Los Angeles County that allegedly dumped toxic wastes into city sewers.

The lawsuit charges that the five companies failed to treat their hazardous waste properly before releasing it into the sewer system and accuses Los Angeles and Burbank of neglecting to ensure that industries complied with treatment requirements.

“These actions serve notice that cities and industries will be held accountable for failures to treat industrial waste at its source, further degrading the Los Angeles River and Santa Monica Bay,” said Daniel W. McGovern, the EPA’s western regional administrator.

Of 241 industries in Los Angeles that are supposed to treat their waste, 56% violated federal standards at least once in 1989, according to the EPA. In Burbank, at least 21% of 61 industries broke the law at least once that year, the EPA said. Because Burbank failed to monitor its industries properly, the number could be even higher, officials said.

Hugh Barroll, an EPA attorney in San Francisco, said the agency did not sue more companies because “we don’t have the resources to take all on.” He said the five targeted were selected because they were “significant violators.”

They are Chevron U.S.A. of El Segundo, Teledyne Industries and Continental Can Co. of Los Angeles and Stainless Steel Products and Zero Corp. of Burbank. In addition, the EPA filed actions against three other municipal agencies and a private corporation in New Jersey, New York, Louisiana and Texas.

“We’ve had a national strategy for the last two years to take on toxic waste in the sewers,” Barroll said. “It is one of the biggest causes of toxics going into the environment that we regulate, and pretreatment is the way to get toxics out of the environment.”

Richard A. Harris, assistant executive officer of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, a partner in the suit, said the cities and companies violated federal clean water laws.

Los Angeles operates a series of sewage treatment plants that receive both household and industrial waste. But because the plants cannot properly handle industrial waste, the city is supposed to ensure that industries treat it before putting it into the sewerage system, Harris said. Treated waste water from Los Angeles and Burbank is then dumped in Santa Monica Bay, Los Angeles Harbor or the Los Angeles River, he said.

The waste, which could be harmful to marine life, contains toxic solvents and such heavy metals as cadmium, chromium and lead. Barroll said the cities face potential penalties in the tens of millions of dollars and the companies in the hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars.

Del Biagi, director of Los Angeles’ Bureau of Sanitation, said treatment requirements have changed over the years, and the city has had difficulty “reshuffling” its sewage program on the time schedule demanded by the EPA.

“The city is moving rapidly to get in full compliance with EPA’s program as it is written, chapter and verse,” he said.

Carolyn Barnes, assistant city attorney for Burbank, said Los Angeles and Burbank had trouble enforcing treatment regulations in the mid-1980s because of an inordinate number of polluting industries located there.

“In the last two or three years, our performance has improved drastically in terms of enforcing our regulations,” she said. “Unfortunately the lawsuit goes back to ’85 and ’86 for violations. Hopefully, they will consider we have improved.”

The lawsuit stems from an administrative order issued by the EPA last summer to the cities and the industries requiring that the illegal disposal be stopped. Although the cities and companies have been trying to meet the requirements of that order, the EPA wanted to press the point further, Barroll said. A lawsuit will enable the agency to ensure compliance and collect penalties.

The EPA has sued Los Angeles in the past for failing to treat sludge and for putting it into the ocean. The city now burns its sludge or sends it to other locations where it is used in a variety of processes.

Rod Spackman, a spokesman for Chevron, said the company was “disappointed” and confused about why it was included in the lawsuit. Spackman said Chevron has a waste water facility and puts no industrial sewage into the city system.

“Their contention is that somehow we might have something in (the sewers) and we’re going to try to demonstrate that is clearly not the case,” he said.

Berkley Baker, an assistant to the president of Teledyne, said the company had not yet seen the suit and could not comment on it. “We are really out in the dark on this,” he said.

The other companies could be not reached for comment.