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Board OKs fines for liquid waste
| Tuesday, Nov 6 2007 9:40 PM
Last Updated: Tuesday, Nov 6 2007 9:46 PM
Fines continue to mount against a local company accused of illegally storing liquid waste over groundwater banks that supply drinking water to Bakersfield residents.
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County supervisors on Tuesday approved a $30,000 fine and an additional $1,000 in daily fines against Hondo Chemical for receiving and storing industrial wastes -- primarily from oil fields -- without a permit.
The company, on Stockdale Highway near Enos Lane, also faces $23,000 in fines and late fees for not complying with a May order from the county Environmental Health Services Department to stop receiving the waste and to provide information on it.
The waste has been stored in unlined pits at the facility and may pose a threat to groundwater, Environmental Health officials said.
Hondo's owner, Jess Karr, told supervisors the waste was primarily produced water from oil fields but a list he provided to the county showed "liquid latex" and "leachate" from a transfer station were also accepted, along with other liquid wastes in recent years.
Hondo mixes the produced water with fly ash from local coal-burning power plants to make a cement-like product used by dairies and other companies to control dust, Karr said. However, the market for the product has virtually disappeared in recent years, Karr said.
The company is allowed to store fly ash but it must have a permit to accept oil-field wastewater, county officials said.
Karr told supervisors he would move fast to remove the waste but said he was never told by investigators who regularly inspect his facility that he was doing anything wrong.
"(Officials) have done many inspections over the years," Karr said. "I wasn't hiding this from anyone."
The situation has raised concern among water officials, who said the high salt content in oil-field water could degrade the groundwater in banking projects near the site.
"It's basically like a big bed of sand out there," said Ken Bonesteel, of the Kern Water Bank Authority, which stores water for municipal and agricultural water districts beneath more than 30 square miles west of Bakersfield.
Tests to detect contamination in the water bank are not complete yet, Bonesteel said, but "this entire area, including where Hondo is, is very porous."
Karr said the oil-field wastewater was being stored in fly ash berms to prevent permeation into the ground. Fly ash is a fine material that compacts over time, making it nearly impermeable, he said.
Karr estimated cleanup costs to be more than $300,000 and asked that the fines against his company be scaled back so he can use the money for remediation.
Supervisors approved the $30,000 fine but agreed to levy just one fine, instead of separates fines against Hondo and Unico LLC, after it was revealed that both companies were owned by Karr.
"My first responsibility is to protect the public, and this is the public's water," Supervisor Mike Maggard said. "If someone is endangering it, then we have to take swift and appropriate action."