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04- The Sacramento Bee , I As do
<br /> Pollution@
<br /> According to Assistant U.S. At-
<br /> torney Donald W. Searles, each of
<br /> ane , I xhe two Clean Water Act counts ulivhur I An"', V N, Was w
<br /> parries a maximum
<br /> ®davit Sa enalty of
<br /> three years in prison and a fine a of
<br /> im
<br /> tea ;
<br /> ® ' • J $50,000 for every day of the viola
<br /> Continued from page B1 !tions. The Refuse Act count car-
<br /> "I didn't know you could get ries a maximum one year in pris-
<br /> Accused of polluting Wetlands hammered for saving your own on and a fine of $100,000, the
<br /> ii property. I didn't know I needed a prosecutor said.
<br /> By Denny Walsh r;; permit if I was doing it with m "This is my property,and'it hap-
<br /> Bee Staff Writer _ own money." y pens to be on the river," Alegre
<br /> A prominent trucker and rancher was charged by�a ' Alegre's Stockton attorney, Jef-
<br /> said."They try to call everything a
<br /> frey B. Setness, said Friday his Wetlands these days.
<br /> federal grand jury Friday with major, long-term poi `This is not even close to the
<br /> lution of the San Joaquin River and adjacent protect;- client should have the right to re-
<br /> garbage you see up and down the
<br /> ed wetlands. claim and protect his land. `We
<br /> look forward to presenting this river huge chunks of concrete
<br /> Records from Frank C.Alegre's trucking company matter to a jury,"Setness said. with (metal reinforcement)still in
<br /> show that,even after repeated warnings,Alegre con- According to the affidavit in them. 1, used clean concrete bro-
<br /> tinued without a required permit to dump broken ke
<br /> support of a search warrant exe-
<br /> wetlands on property he owns adjacent to the river . n up in 2-by-3-foot strips. It's
<br /> concrete, contaminated dirt and other debris into like night and day.
<br /> cuted earlier this week on Alegre's „
<br /> , ranch near Tracy, his environ- I took three (San Joaquin
<br /> according to the affidavit of an Army investigator qn mental consultant was warned as County)supervisors out there and
<br /> file in Sacramento federal court. long ago as July 1989 by the state asked them if I had done anything
<br /> "Erosion was letting the river wash my ranch Department of Fish and Game wrong.They all said`No."'
<br /> away,"Alegre said Friday in a telephone intervieh+. against depositing any foreign FBI and Army agents searched
<br /> I was trying to fill the hole. Property records show material on the property. A year the Lodi premises of Alegre's
<br /> the ranch is 318 acres,but there are about 275 acres later, the San Joaquin County trucking eaevidence last summer
<br /> -
<br /> left. public health agency advised him looking for
<br /> that he was in violation of a state ous materials were being dis-
<br /> Please see POLLUTION, page B4 f law and county ordinance, and or- charged from the wash rack area
<br /> dered him to quit dumping,the af- into sewer lines and thence to the
<br /> fidavit said. Lodi treatment works.
<br /> In January 1992, the county According to the affidavit of an
<br /> Community Development Depart- FBI agent in support of the war-
<br /> ment notified Alegre that he was rant for that search, the company
<br /> violating zoning ordinances pro- was using hydrofluoric, phospho
<br /> hibiting the operation of a landfill ric and sulfuric acids, and other
<br /> without a permit, the affidavit hazardous materials, as an "alu-
<br /> said. Two months later, the chief minum brightener" in cleaning
<br /> regulatory officer of the Army the.trucks. The materials were
<br /> Colps of Engineers told him that draining into the sewer, the affi-
<br /> his ranch included federally pro- davit said.
<br /> iected wetlands, and no fill was In June, the Lodi Public Works
<br /> allowed there without a corps per- ! Department secretly installed pH
<br /> mit,the affidavit said. meters in the company's sewer
<br /> •,,The document further said cur- lines.The pH scale measures acid-
<br /> rent and former employees of Al- ity and alkalinity. Pure water is a
<br /> egre have admitted routinely neutral 7. Discharges below 5 are
<br /> dumping diesel-contaminated soil, considered highly acidic.
<br /> asphalt,broken concrete and tiles,
<br /> and other trash onto the property ,Readings over a 10-day period
<br /> from 1989 through 1992.The"cost from the Alegre meters showed
<br /> ;free" use of the wetlands for the discharges of material with a pH
<br /> disposal of solid waste was vital to of 2.5, well under Lodi's prohibi-
<br /> underbidding Alegre's competitors tion of anything less than 6.5,and
<br /> on waste-hauling contracts, the in violation of the federal stand-
<br /> employees are quoted as saying. and of 5, according to the FBI
<br /> Friday's three-count indictment agent's affidavit.
<br /> charges Alegre, 59, and his truck- ! Searles said Friday any action
<br /> ng company with dumping vari- on this matter will come from the
<br /> ous pollutants into the wetlands Public Works Department.
<br /> 'and into and along the river itself.
<br /> /t'}f from 1990 to 1993, all without a'
<br /> permit in violation of the federal
<br /> f �� Clean Water Act and Refuse Act..
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