NCD980602163_19890823_Warren County PCB Landfill_SERB C_News & Observer article - U.S. seeks foreclosure of firm in PCB-dumping case-OCR

;=·,Tft:~;,,;~,;::~~~1if'~~/);:/:ii:';~~: ,:<iY;·_ --.. ""'·"""''••;.J[,~ ~ · Al:hr--.:k:.!.-some coca Is grown ln,remote jungle regions, '· ' · •· ·· · .· .. · · · · Cobmbia's major role is in th_e refining of the coca f::; leaves from other countries 1ike Peru. and Bolivia : ' '> ....... ,, ...... . .. _.· ~ .. . ~ . [ ~-; ~~titi ---~~ :. !:; ~ ,!;·qj_f~'";'\~1;-;Tf't?'\ :~•"<:' '~ rrr;;t:Lf:;~·.:, ;;-~: .;,i}r] <!:;_ ~• ; • , ' • '-; -~-, • I I I. ~11 < ; ~o<,~ ';: 1..,.:.,;.i:..4.~.,,.~~~'1• .. ..,,_,:ii.~ -., . ~~., .. ~ ~~ ,,!' ""'---'"ll'IW 1. Farmer sells c6ca leaves, ground into paste, for an Marijuana to average of $46'0 a pound of leaves. the U.S. 2. Processor spends about $2,270 a pound, including The percent of price of coca paste, to make cocaine and sells it U.S. marijuana wholesale for more than $10,000 a pound. supply from 3. Street dealer sells rocaine for more than $38,500 a Colombia pound (or $85 a gram, an amount commonly bought by users} Sources: U.S. State Department, Drug Enforcement Administration Embassy of Colombia, National Narcotics Intelligence Cons11T1ers Committee. National Geographic R Cl (e 14 J, 37% .•. [] ~: I p .,., . .J .. JS» ~, ... , ....... . 33%.' 1986 1987 1988 do 8-~3-tf9 Associated PrHS end Knight Ridder Tribune News ero, known as the finance minister of the notorious Medellin cartel, were filed with the U.S. Embassy in Bogota and with the Justice Ministry, said Col. Oscar Carmo-·na, chief of the national police · force's judicial investigation divi-sion. (Meanwhile, · police said they arrested five suspects Tuesday night in the assassination Friday of leading presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan at a campaign rally, The Associated Press re-ported. Police identified them as Armando Bernal Acosta, Norber-to Morillo Charalca, Pedro Zem-brano Delgado,· Luis Gonzalez Chacon and Jubis Hazvumb.] An Atlanta federal grand jury indicted Mr. Martinez in a $1.2. Wt\..U.!6 UU L.U\,; \..al l.\;.l.>. _ But the U.S. drug expert, wht spoke on the condition of anonymi ty, warned that unless the U .S request is expedited, Mr. Marti nez might be released. Under th, emergency decrees, drug traffick ing suspects can be held for sever days without charges. Mr. Marti nez was arrested Saturday anci faces no . criminal charges ir Colombia. In Washington, Attorney Gener-al Richard L. Thornburgh listed <' dozen Colombian drug trafficken whom the United States wants f01 prosecution in the wake of Mr. Barco's emergency decree. The 12 included the leaders or the Medellin and Cali cocaine See COLOMBIA, page BA U.S. seeks foreclosure of firm in. PCB-dumping case By C.E. YANDLE Staff writer State and federal -officials have initiated foreclosure proceedings against Ward Transformer Co. Inc. iri Morrisville. They say the company still owes the govern-ment about $2.9 million for remova ing toxic PCBs dumped on more than 200 miles of state roads. A public hearing on the foreclo-sure request is scheduled for Monday in the Wake County Courthouse. If the request is ap-proved, government officials are expected to begin selling proper-ties owned by Ward Transformer until the debt is paid. Court records say Ward Trans-former owes about $2.5 million to the U.S. government and a bot.it $440,000 to the state. Government officials in 1981 removed soil from about 240 miles of roadways in 10 Tar Heel counties that had been contaminated in 1978 with oil containing PCB, a cancer-causing agent. All of the oil previously had been stored in facilities at sites owned by Ward Transformer. Kathryn J. Cooper, an assistant Polish party drops power· demands _after phone call from Gorbachev. By FRANCIS X. CLINES New Yort,. Times News Ser,tce WARSAW -. Polish Commu-nists retreated Tuesday from threats not to share responsibility in the new coalition government after Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev spoke to their leader ror 40 minutes by phone. . . Soon after the talk, a spokes-nan for Mieczyslaw · Rakowski, he Polish Communist leader, em• ,h:1"-ized that the party was intent on "partnerlike cooperation" with Solidarity, the movement that is about to assume power in a new government after decisive elec-tion victories over the Commu-nists. Mr. Gorbachev generally en-couraged the Polish party to take part in the new government, said Jan Bisztyga, spokesman for the Polish Communists. . . The dramatic change in lan-guage and tone by the Polish · party leadership suggested con-cern by Mr. Gorbachev that Po-land's attempts at economic re-covery through political reform not be obstructed by party policy. After demanding substantial powers in the coalition, the Com-munists were warned Monday by Lech Walesa, the Solidarity lead-er and architect of the coalition government, to "stop rocking the boat" with "threats and black-mail.", The fact that Mr. Gorbachev apparently. followed this up with See CORBACHEV. page 1 OA state attorney general, said feder-al and state officials hoped they would not have to foreclose on Ward's headquarters on Mount Herman Road near Raleigh-Dur-ham International Airport. She said the value of a 64-acre tract of vacant land that Ward owns on Lumley Road in Durham County should at least equal the amount of money owed by .Ward. Inside A 1985 appraisal of the property said it was worth $2.9 million. "We're going under the assump-tion that will satisfy the indebted-ness," she said. "If that property doesn't satisfy it, however, we will go after the Ward Transformer Co. site itself.'' Mark E. Fogel, a Raleigh law-See PCB. page 8A .j Science/medicine A husband-and-wife team at N.c: State University has developed an alternative to some live animal experiments that mimic the effects of drugs and toxic chemicals on human skin. Page 12A. Ryan breaks record Nolan Ryan strikes out his 5,000th batter, becoming the first to reach that milestone by fanning Oakland's Rickey Henderson in the fifth inning. Page 1B. ·· The weather
y, August 23, 1989 ----------------------------------------------i..----}onzalo Rodriguez ties said. -z and the others 1 a company, La .!d to launder bil-in cocaine profits. irgh's list included 39, Mr. Ochoa, 40, 1, 42. Three reputed ,f the smaller Cali e being sought for the UnitedStates-Rodriguez Orjuela, 1gel Rodriguez Or-id Jose Santacruz ramie Raul Orjuela , an alleged Cali r, is also on the list. eputed members of cartel are being ,io Ochoa Vasquez, David Ochoa Vas-· 1 brothers of Jorge 1squez; Gustavo de 1 Rivero, 42; and :ada, 42. Jose Ivan 37, a former police-n the list.
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ghway Commission
te Dan K. Moore,
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: Mr. Davis said he
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PCB debt leads U.S .. to foreclose · Continued from page IA yer who represents Ward, said the company did not plan to fight the foreclosure. He said Ward hoped the Lumley Road property would pay the remaining debt. · "Should it not pay all that is owed, we're in the process of reviewing what alternatives we · have," he said. · Ward Transformer buys, re-builds and sells electrical voltage transformers. During the 1960s and 1970s, many of those trans-formers were built using PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency eventually banned the chemical, which has caused labo-ratory animals to develop liver cancer and nervous disorders. In 1978, Ward hired a business associate, Robert J. Burns of New York, to dispose of about 40,000 gallons of PCB-laden oil that was stored on-site at Ward Transform-er. · Mr. Burns and his sons disposed of about 20,000 gallons in landfills in Pennsylvania and New York. ' But the remaining 20,000 gallons were dumped along roadsides by Mr. Burns and his two sons. The EPA stepped in to remove the toxic chemical, which eventu-ally was stored in a Warren County landfill in, 1982 amid pro-tests from residents. They said their county had been chosen for the landfill site because of racial and political considerations. War-ren County is a small, rural county with a large black popula-tion. Robert E. "Buck" Ward Jr., who was president of the company · until 1980, eventually was sen-tenced to 21/2 years in prison and · ordered to pay a $200,000 fine for his role in the dumping. He served some time in a federal prison in Connecticut. In addition, Ward Transformer and two other companies -Norry Electric Co. Chicago and Liberty Motor and Machinery Co. in Roch-ester, N. Y. -were ordered in 1986 to pay $3.4 million to the federal and state governments. That was the amount spent. to remove and store the oil. a'year. suppose -orat The c mentar ·plans . t West, a He ac has file Ward's the gov .Ward's ople The bulk of the fine was aimed at Ward Transformer, which was told to pay $3.2 million. Ward was supposed to repay the govern-ments over three years at an annual interest rate of 8 percent. The first two years, Ward had to pay only the interest payments, . which amounted to about $200,000 · a year. But on .. July fa,'Ward waa supposed to pay the balance ow~ -or aboµt $2.9 million. The company missed that pay-ment and has shown no sign that it · plans to pay, -~.µd . Stephen A. West, an assistantU.S. attorney. · He added that ·:.Vhile his office has filed for foreclosure on all of Ward's properties, the last thing the government wants is to close Ward's plant, where about 70 people are employed J
. .. "We don'~ warit to)hut down the
·: business_," . he . said.,: ~,;'That would
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