TOXIC WASTE ARRESTS IN A.V. PAIR ACCUSED OF ILLEGAL STORAGE IN LANCASTER, FALSE DOCUMENTATION.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Septic-tank and hazardous waste-hauling firm operators illegally stored toxic industrial waste at their Lancaster property and falsified documents about what they did with it, state environmental officials said Wednesday.

Neighbors to Smith & Thompson Pumping Co. and its sister firm S&S Environmental and Processing, located in an industrial area north of the Antelope Valley Courthouse, have complained for more than a year of nausea, burning eyes, diarrhea and other illnesses, court papers show.

``They made the place a dumping pit,'' said attorney Anthony Patchett, a former environmental prosecutor representing 10 neighbors who, independent of regulators' action, are trying to stop the firms from dumping more waste on the land.

S&S co-owner Sherwin Smith, 41, of Tehachapi, and truck driver Marvin Dunbar, 32, of Mojave, were arrested Wednesday morning. Dunbar was charged with grand theft. Smith was charged with 36 felony counts of grand theft, illegally storing and disposing of hazardous waste, and forgery. Investigators also seized bank accounts.

Phone messages left at Smith & Thompson's office and with the attorney who represented the firm in the neighbors' legal action were not returned.

The hazardous waste included heavy metals, metal-plating byproducts, arsenic and corrosive and caustic liquids, said state Department of Toxic Substances Control spokeswoman Jeanne Garcia.

Smith & Thompson is registered as a hazardous waste transporter but is not licensed to store waste, court documents show.

A December 2004 search at the Avenue L-9 property found a 5,000-gallon tanker truck nearly full of toxic hazardous waste, and a drum containing toxic waste was used as part of a retaining wall, state officials said.

A state investigation showed 331 occasions in which the companies picked up waste but did not take it where they were supposed to. On 273 occasions, somebody forged signatures on documents indicating the waste had been delivered to disposal facilities, state officials said.

In court documents, neighboring residents and business people accused Smith & Thompson of also dumping raw, untreated septic waste on the property to avoid paying fees to dispose of it at a sewage treatment plant.

The property gives off a smell of rotten eggs - hydrogen sulfide gas from the septic waste, the court papers say.

In court papers, Patchett says he has videotape taken from neighbors' property of Smith & Thompson employees unloading liquid from tanker trucks into a pond, into metal containers and into large portable oval containers. Skip loaders mix the waste with other material to camouflage it, the papers say.

Company employees have also been seen dumping liquid in the desert outside Lake Los Angeles, the neighbors' court papers say.

Patchett said he sought the restraining order, which is due for an Oct. 11 court hearing, because he wasn't sure when regulators would act.

``There is no other location in the county that is operating a business in the same manner as Smith & Thompson Pumping Co.,'' Patchett said in the request for the court order. ``Why this is tolerated in Lancaster within courthouse view is beyond all rational thinking.''

Patchett blames his clients' illnesses on hydrogen-sulfide gas and bacteria from the septic waste, which court papers said has been dumped on the property since at least June 2004.

State officials said substances consistent with those hauled by S&S and Smith & Thompson were dumped into the Lancaster sewer system between November 2003 and November 2004, causing problems at the Lancaster sewage treatment plant.

State officials said the investigation was carried out with assistance from the Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County, which operate Lancaster's sewer system, and with the federal Environmental Protection Agency, Antelope Valley Air Quality Management District and other agencies.

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Photo:

This is the Lancaster facility of Smith & Thompson Pumping Co. and its sister firm S&S Environmental and Processing.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer