Prison, fines for dumping

Ellen Miller, Special to the News

Saturday, September 30, 2006

The operations manager of a Grand Junction company was sentenced to five months in a federal prison and five months' home detention Friday for negligently discharging a hazardous pollutant into the city's wastewater system that injured a public works employee.

Albert Hajduk, 44, who lives in Fruita, was sentenced in Denver by Chief U.S. District Judge Lewis T. Babcock for releasing chemical solutions into the Grand Junction sewer system. Hajduk and the company pleaded guilty June 8.

The company, Luxury Wheels O.E. Plating Inc., was ordered to pay a $40,000 fine and restitution of $350,000 to the city employee who was hurt by toxic fumes.

They were convicted of violating the Clean Water Act by discharging hazardous chemicals into the city sewer system, trying to hide the discharges and interfering with city wastewater workers who tried to sample the company's wastewater.

A secretary at Luxury Wheels said the company had no comment.

Luxury Wheels, an electroplating business near downtown Grand Junction, uses various chemicals including acids and chemical solutions containing metals. It maintains a waste- treatment plant on its site to treat some of the waste.

The company was allowed under a Grand Junction permit to discharge wastewater into the sewer system under tight conditions, which prohibited discharge of toxic gases, vapors or fumes.

The indictment said that Hajduk and the company conspired and agreed to violate the Clean Water Act by knowingly discharging pollutants into the sewer system.

The company and Hajduk also hired an outside plumbing business to remove chemical-sludge blockages between the company's plant and the city sewer line to conceal the illegal discharges, the indictment said.

The injured city worker, Scott Williams, could not be reached for comment Friday.