KENT – An auto wrecking yard owner who illegally dumped gasoline, oil and other hazardous materials has been fined $1 million and sentenced to nearly three years in prison.
Wei Guo Huang pleaded guilty last month to eight felony and misdemeanor charges, including illegal hazardous-waste disposal, polluting nearby waters and wrecking motor vehicles without a license.
He asked for leniency at his sentencing hearing in King County Superior Court on Friday, saying he had made a “mistake.”
But Judge Ronald Kessler said “mistake” isn’t the right word for an action that’s done repeatedly and deliberately. “He was warned and willfully continued to despoil the area,” Kessler said.
Huang, 35, improperly disposed of hazardous waste at three wrecking yards in Seattle and Kent. He left crushed and broken automobile batteries on the ground, stored oil and other toxic fluids in unmarked and unsealed containers, and intentionally dumped more than 500 gallons of gasoline into a hole he dug in Kent near the Green River, according to court documents.
The worst pollution was found at Japanese Auto Wrecking in Kent. Investigators said fluids drained from vehicles at the wrecking yard eventually leaked into a plume that is within 100 feet of the Green River and a nearby aquifer that remains contaminated.
Cleanup costs for the area are estimated at $5 million.
“We basically have a very large gasoline plume in both the soil and groundwater,” said Shawn Blocker, an environmental scientist and enforcement officer with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “In one hot spot we found over a foot of gasoline sitting on top of the groundwater.”
Between 1999 and 2003, the site was inspected by the EPA, Huang’s landlord, an environmental consulting firm, a King County water specialist, the county health department and the State Patrol.
Huang was told of various violations and instructed on how to clean the site, but officials said he disregarded the notices and warnings.
When the state shut down Japanese Auto Wrecking Yard, Huang started another business nearby, Japanese Auto Sales. He went on to open a third illegal wrecking site in Seattle.
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