A man from Chico, California, has pleaded guilty to three charges relating to an incident in February last year, during which investigators determined he transported asbestos from his own commercial buildings and dumped the waste on his residential property.
Richard Parks pleaded guilty to transporting hazardous materials without a permit and improper disposal of hazardous materials, in addition to a misdemeanour charge of endangering a state waterway.
The case came about after a nearby resident alerted the California Department of Fish and Wildlife over “suspicious” waste dumping activity.
A Fish and Wildlife warden contacted Parks several days later while Parks was dumping the contents of a dump truck into a large hole on his property which appeared to be recently dug. The warden noted several bags were marked as ‘asbestos’ inside the hole, and he contacted the local District Attorney’s office and their environmental crimes investigators to look into the matter.
Subsequent testing by environmental scientists showed the bags contained asbestos, and the property was shut down and marked as a crime scene by law enforcement.
The investigation by the Department of Fish and Wildlife, the California Department of Toxic Substance Control in Sacramento and the District Attorney’s Office found that Parks had removed the asbestos from other buildings he owned and transported it to his residential property. However, he did not have any permits or the authorisation the state requires to transport asbestos.
The asbestos was found to have been dumped in a way that presented airborne risk and was also a risk to nearby residents.
Parks was required to utilise professional environmental cleanup services to clean up all the ACM at the site. The process took months, and subsequently cost Parks more than $230,000.
Parks is also responsible for the fees for testing neighbouring properties that were potentially exposed, in addition to any necessary clean up costs that arise from that testing.
Mr Parks was sentenced to formal felony probation, with 120 days in prison (yet to begin) and a $100,000 fine in addition to the clean up fees already paid.
District Attorney Mike Ramsey explained that if Mr Parks had disposed of the asbestos correctly and legally, the total cost would likely not have exceeded $10,000.