It never would have happened without the $100,000 fine, the five months in a federal halfway house and the seven months with an electronic bracelet shackled to his ankle, but Mike Zalenski, convicted environmental criminal, has become Mike Zalenski, environmentalist.
"I wish I could tell you that it didn't take getting caught," Zalenski said, "but that would be a lie, and I'm not a liar."
Three years ago, investigators discovered that workers at Zalenski's metal polishing shop in Fresno were dumping 300-gallon tanks of toxic waste into the city's sewer system.
Local, state and federal authorities barged into New Age Metal Finishing -- which coats motorcycle parts in shiny chrome -- with guns, handcuffs and a full SWAT team in tow. They found all the evidence they needed. The business had been dumping wastewater tainted with chromium, copper and nickel for years. Zalenski suspects that a competitor knew about the illegal dumping and turned him in.
"What he had been doing is discharging heavy metals in violation of the Clean Water Act," said Dan Reich, an attorney for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "He probably thought he'd save a little money by pouring this stuff down the drain. But he wound up being prosecuted."
Zalenski, 47, was by no means the first chrome plater collared for an environmental crime. But Zalenski's contrite response -- what Reich calls his "come to Jesus moment" -- was indeed unusual.
Instead of fighting the charges, Zalenski fired his lawyer and admitted his guilt. He spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to transform his shop into a model of metal recycling and other environmentally responsible practices. Moreover, he began helping investigators from Los Angeles to San Francisco ferret out other cheaters in the business, and trying to convince fellow chrome platers that they should change their ways before they ended up convicted felons like him.
Savvy con job by a crook still on probation? Government officials do not seem to think so.
"I think he's very sincere," said Vincent Mendes, a Fresno County environmental health specialist. "I think he really wants to do the right thing, not just for his facility, but for others."
For example, Mendes said, Zalenski recently devoted hours of his time free of charge to help a landlord clean up a contaminated former metal shop after the owner, a former employee, had abandoned it.
