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PA PRESIDENT OF PUERTO RICAN FIRM PLEADS GUILTY IN WASTE CASE

Release Date: 06/21/96
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PA PRESIDENT OF PUERTO RICAN FIRM PLEADS GUILTY IN WASTE CASE

FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 1996

ABANDONMENT OF WASTE LEADS TO GUILTY PLEA FOR PRESIDENT OF PUERTO RICAN PLATING FIRM

On June 6, John Maas, former president of National Circuits Caribe Inc., a Puerto Rican electroplating firm, pleaded guilty to two felony counts of violating the Atomic Energy Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. The company, located in the Puerto Real Industrial Park in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, specialized in the production of circuit boards. The company began business in 1988 and was abandoned by the defendant in 1991, leaving behind 2273 guaging devices which contained by-product radioactive material. The site was discovered when a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) inspector noticed several persons at the facility dressed in protective clothing, including full-face respirators. Further investigation revealed that the company was also a large quantity generator of hazardous waste which had been abandoned. Thirty-four drums containing waste acids and cyanides and several baths containing waste solvents were left at the NCCI plant when the company went out of business. Many of the chemicals had been used to clean circuit boards manufactured by the company. The case was investigated by EPA's Criminal Investigation Division, the FBI and the NRC.