THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 7, 1996 TAG: 9603070486
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
The president of Fine Petroleum Co., whose warehouse went up in toxic flames last year in one of Norfolk's largest fires in decades, has been indicted on bribery charges for allegedly paying two city trash collectors $10 a week to illegally dump chemical wastes.
The criminal case against Milton H. Fine, 74, a longtime Norfolk businessman with a history of environmental trouble, stems from an investigation launched three years ago, according to local officials and court records.
From March to May 1993, authorities say, Fine paid two city haulers a small weekly stipend to take dozens of containers of old solvents, paints and other potentially hazardous wastes to a Norfolk way station. The materials were later buried at a regional landfill in Suffolk, officials said.
The landfill is licensed to hold basic household garbage. Toxic wastes, which can seep into groundwater and contaminate soils in unprotected landfills, are supposed to be handled by special contractors. Their task of safely disposing of such materials is expensive and closely regulated.
Evidence in the case includes a videotape, filmed by federal investigators, of the elderly Fine handing cash to the two garbage collectors, who then placed several bags and canisters into the back of a city trash truck, local and federal officials said.
The two trash haulers - identified in the indictment as McClenney Davis and Cedric Moore - admitted to taking the money and resigned in July 1993 after supervisors confronted them, said Lewis Jordan, superintendent of the city Solid Waste Department.
``We gave them the opportunity to resign or face additional action for accepting bribes,'' Jordan said. ``They both decided to resign.''
The case against Fine is scheduled for trial April 8 in Circuit Court in Norfolk, according to the criminal indictment, handed down by a state grand jury in December last year.
The commonwealth's attorney's office in Norfolk, which is prosecuting the case, said Fine, if convicted, could face two to 10 years in jail and could be fined up to $100,000.
Fine, who has since moved his company to Chesapeake, is out of town until mid-March and could not be reached for comment, a company staffer said.
His attorney, Franklin Swartz, did not return phone calls this week. But when asked previously about the investigation into alleged payoffs and illegal dumping, Swartz said: ``That was never provable, and Milton denied that he ever did anything like that.''
Jordan could not say how much material the two city trash haulers accepted from Fine, only that they would stop by his warehouse each week and take ``a can or bag or two'' in exchange for $10 in cash.
``The old joke was that you could put a six-pack of beer out on the curb and get anything you wanted dumped,'' Jordan said. Now, he said, crews are warned that even if they receive a glass of water or a cookie, they should provide equal service to all customers.
Fine was ordered to pay $12,500 last year by a Norfolk General District Court judge in the wake of the May 20 blaze at Fine Petroleum Co.'s warehouse on St. Julian Avenue. The ruling was appealed and still is pending in court, records show.
The massive fire, which consumed hundreds of unlabeled chemical canisters, sent toxic fumes into neighboring communities and required the intervention of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
It also led to a city crackdown on the storage of hazardous materials, and spurred the city fire marshal's office to toughen local fire and building codes.
In 1993, the EPA spent $1.5 million to clean up improperly stored chemical drums and containers on Fine Petroleum's grounds, court records show. The action occurred after the EPA determined the site posed an imminent threat to public health and the environment.
A year earlier, Fine pleaded guilty to illegally disposing of hazardous waste without a permit after being spotted throwing chemical containers into a trash bin at a public housing project, records show.
KEYWORDS: TOXIC WASTE BRIBERY INDICTMENT by CNB