DWP Worker Faces Pollution Charges
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A Los Angeles Department of Water and Power supervisor was charged Thursday with causing a cloud of hazardous smoke last September at the city’s Scattergood power plant in Playa del Rey when he allegedly ordered a worker to place paint cans and solvents in a furnace.
City Atty. James Hahn filed a two-count criminal complaint against Charles Ivan Ashbaugh, a 20-year DWP employee from Santa Ana who oversees environmental and safety coordination at the plant. He is accused of violating state laws that prohibit the illegal disposal of hazardous waste and the discharge of air contaminants that endanger public health.
Hahn said in a press release that Ashbaugh ordered a worker at the plant to place the hazardous wastes in a furnace that had been shut down for repairs. When the furnace was started, Hahn said, the waste burned and created a dense cloud of hazardous smoke.
The two misdemeanor charges are each punishable by up to one year in jail and carry fines of up to $101,000. Ashbaugh, through a DWP spokesman, declined to comment on the charges.
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