Asbestos Disposal

A father and son who ran an asbestos disposal business in San Jose face up to two years in jail and more than $1.5 million in fines as a result of criminal charges filed alleging they illegally left hundreds of bags of the toxic material in a garage. Santos Leyva, 57, and his son, Tommy, 28, left 120 cubic yards of asbestos ceiling masonry in the garage of their defunct business, Asbestos Control Co., Santa Clara County Deputy Dist. Atty. Jerome Nadler said.

A Glendale man convicted of illegally burying asbestos in Canyon Country was sentenced Tuesday to two years in state prison, which the prosecutor called an unusually stiff sentence for an environmental crime. "I really have only heard of four or five other cases where we, state prosecutors, obtained a state prison sentence," said Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Brodney, who has five years experience in his office's environmental crimes division.

Your readers' vengeful remarks about Assemblyman John Vasconcellos (letters, Feb. 11) exemplify the shortsightedness of today's public policy environment. Let's face it, term limits are bad public policy. They throw out the good with the bad. Vasconcellos happens to be a living example of why term limits will cost us all dearly. Vasconcellos' loving, sensitive, thoughtful, creative and long-term thinking will be erased in 1996 never to be replaced by any six-year, in-and-out legislator.

Los Angeles County Health Department officials have launched an investigation into the apparent illegal dumping of asbestos in a remote area of Canyon Country in the Santa Clarita Valley. Bill Jones, chief of investigations of the department's Hazardous Material Control division, said numerous plastic trash bags containing asbestos were found in the past few days in a ravine at Warmuth Road and Rolling Hills Avenue, off Sand Canyon Road.

A Glendale man convicted of illegally burying asbestos in Canyon Country was sentenced Tuesday to two years in state prison, which the prosecutor called an unusually stiff sentence for an environmental crime. "I really have only heard of four or five other cases where we, state prosecutors, obtained a state prison sentence," said Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Brodney, who has five years experience in his office's environmental crimes division.

Los Angeles County Health Department officials have launched an investigation into the apparent illegal dumping of asbestos in a remote area of Canyon Country in the Santa Clarita Valley. Bill Jones, chief of investigations of the department's Hazardous Material Control division, said numerous plastic trash bags containing asbestos were found in the past few days in a ravine at Warmuth Road and Rolling Hills Avenue, off Sand Canyon Road.

Question: My 1970s cottage-cheese acoustic ceiling has been lab-tested and found to contain asbestos. Is it legal for me as a homeowner to remove the acoustic material if I use the proper safety equipment and dispose of it per regulations? Or must I have a contractor do it? Answer: Getting rid of those dated cottage-cheese or "popcorn" ceilings is often the first thing homeowners want to do in a remodel.

Caltrans, the city of Pasadena and a contractor have agreed to pay $552,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a group of apartment renters alleging that a city sewer flooded their homes and that the subsequent removal of asbestos in the flooring was improperly completed, leading to contamination and loss of most their possessions. The sewer overflowed in January 1993, sending sewage gushing into a Caltrans-owned apartment complex in the 200 block of California Avenue.

The administrator of a federally funded youth employment program has decided not to place student workers with the Lawndale Public Works Department this summer in the wake of an asbestos-exposure controversy involving the city.

The Manville Sales Corp. has hit a snag in efforts to redevelop its 65-acre former manufacturing site in Carson, where the company recently completed a seven-month project to clean up and contain asbestos contamination. Carson City Council members say the firm must submit another environmental impact report before dividing the site into three parcels for redevelopment. But the company contends that the report is not necessary.

Your readers' vengeful remarks about Assemblyman John Vasconcellos (letters, Feb. 11) exemplify the shortsightedness of today's public policy environment. Let's face it, term limits are bad public policy. They throw out the good with the bad. Vasconcellos happens to be a living example of why term limits will cost us all dearly. Vasconcellos' loving, sensitive, thoughtful, creative and long-term thinking will be erased in 1996 never to be replaced by any six-year, in-and-out legislator.

A father and son who ran an asbestos disposal business in San Jose face up to two years in jail and more than $1.5 million in fines as a result of criminal charges filed alleging they illegally left hundreds of bags of the toxic material in a garage. Santos Leyva, 57, and his son, Tommy, 28, left 120 cubic yards of asbestos ceiling masonry in the garage of their defunct business, Asbestos Control Co., Santa Clara County Deputy Dist. Atty. Jerome Nadler said.

Los Angeles officials have expressed surprise at the scale of an illegal dumping business allegedly run by four men, including two city workers, that was uncovered last week at a municipal yard. "The sheer magnitude of it was totally unexpected," said William A. Robertson, director of the Bureau of Street Services. "It blows me away."

A few hours after the Jan. 17 earthquake, John Graham, vice president of property management at MEPC American Properties Inc., which owns the Northridge Fashion Center mall, made an urgent phone call from his Dallas office. "I'm willing to bet there's asbestos in there . . . on the floors" in the mall, Graham told Lou Magnifico, construction manager at Professional Service Industries Inc., an asbestos abatement contractor in Walnut.