Local merchant says toxic overflow was a mistake
The owner of a local furniture-stripping shop apologized Saturday for dumping toxic chemicals into the city’s sewers.
Michael Miller, owner of Stripper Herk on Main Street, said he didn’t know methylene chloride, which is commonly used as a paint stripper, was seeping into a drain on the floor of his workshop.
Miller said he has since sealed the drain and gotten rid of 20 unmarked barrels of the paint-eating chemical that he was illegally storing.
The FBI searched Miller’s shop on Thursday. Federal investigators were tipped off to the alleged dumping when Vincente Valenzuela, a worker on the Main Street sewer project, fell unconscious and went into cardiac arrest after crawling through the coffee-colored discharge.
Miller, who was cited by the city in 1992 for dumping the same chemical, said a metal cap that plugged his drain had rusted out last fall. In its place, Miller said he shoved a rubber ball into the pipe and thought it held.
“I’ve been here for 23 years,” said Miller, adding that he kept the water level in the drain well below the sewer overflow. “I was born and raised in Santa Monica. I swim in that bay. I’m not going to dump anything in there, not knowingly anyway.”
“I swim in that bay. I’m not going to dump anything in there, not knowingly anyway.” — — MICHAEL MILLER Stripper Herk owner
Gil Borboa, the city’s utilities manager, said the sewers on Main Street flow to the L.A. County Hyperion Wastewater Treatment Plant just north of Manhattan Beach. Ninety-four percent of the treated sewage is pumped into the ocean out of a five-mile-long pipe. The remainder is recycled for irrigation uses.
Dumping toxic substances and storing them without permits are both felony offenses and violate the Clean Water Act.
As a matter of policy, the FBI doesn’t comment on its investigations. Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office, confirmed Monday that the investigation is on-going and said no charges have yet been filed.
Miller said all of his company files and all four of his employees were subpoenaed by federal investigators.
An apologetic Miller took full credit for mistakenly allowing the methylene chloride into the sewer overflow, but said the substance wouldn’t have the “attacking effect” Valenzuela experienced. He said none of his employees, who work with the substance in its undiluted form, have ever had adverse reactions.
The liquid that went into the sewer already had gone through a full recycling process that Miller implemented after the 1992 citation, he said. He called the discharge “dirty rinse water.”
Gary Welling, the city’s industrial waste services coordinator, said the city monitors Miller on an annual basis. Miller installed a “zero discharge” recycling system in 1992 and hadn’t had any further violations, Welling said.
That was until last month. After Valenzuela went into cardiac arrest, Welling said he was transferred to the UCLA Medical Center and later to the Grossman Burn Center. At the burn center, Valenzuela underwent skin surgery for burns on his back.
“This is an unusual situation,” Welling said. “These were pretty serious burns.”
While Miller apologized for the discharge, he said he kept the 20 55-gallon drums of methylene chloride “sludge” on his property for financial reasons. It costs about $500 per barrel to have the chemical materials hauled away, Miller said, adding that other needs kept presenting themselves, like his leaky roof.
“It’s just money,” Miller said. “I know it’s a weak excuse. But hell, I’m just hanging on trying to do this stuff.”
Since Thursday, when FBI investigators raided his business, Miller said he has straightened up his operation. The barrels of sludge have been hauled off. The drain on his work shop floor has been cemented closed. Customers still come and go from his shop and Miller said he plans to keep his business going while the investigation continues.
“I got every notice the city sent (about the Main Street project),” a resigned Miller said during a break between customers. “If I were to be illegally putting something down the drain, I wouldn’t be doing it when the guys are working in the sewers. C’mon.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 15, 2003. Read the original PDF.