Local News in Brief : Costa Mesa : Times to Pay $5,000 Fine After Accidental Spill
Without admitting guilt, The Times Orange County Edition has agreed to pay a $5,000 fine in connection with an Oct. 27, 1988, chemical spill at the newspaper’s Costa Mesa plant, a company spokeswoman said Thursday.
“There was a chemical spill, a discharge of chromium, that was contained in the water in the computer room cooling system in Orange County,†said Laura Morgan, Times spokeswoman. “We began a cleanup procedure and contacted the fire department.â€
The chromium was accidentally discharged with 300 gallons of waste water at the Times, 1375 Sunflower Ave., into a storm drain that flowed into the Greenville-Banning Flood Control Channel, Times attorney Rhonda Heth said.
The California Regional Water Quality Control Board, Santa Ana Region, filed a complaint against The Times seeking a fine of $5,000 and alleging that a report had not been filed prior to the spill, Heth said. Companies that plan to discharge waste are required to file a report before they do so. But in this case, The Times said, the discharge was accidental.
The Times has reached a tentative agreement with the water quality agency in which the newspaper will pay $5,000 and the Regional Water Quality Control Board will drop the term negligent from the complaint, Morgan said.
“By agreeing to pay the $5,000, we are not acknowledging wrongdoing or violation of the law,†Morgan said. “We are merely trying to resolve this in the most expeditious way possible.â€
Heth said the Regional Water Quality Control Board is expected to approve the agreement at its March 10 regular meeting.
A spokesman for the Regional Water Quality Control Board could not be reached for comment Thursday.
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