Latest L-Bar Chapter Ends In Probation General Manager Sentenced; Ex-Workers Still Await Back Pay

Prosecutors chalked up another paper victory Thursday in their 3-1/2-year quest for culprits in the burial of 80 mostly empty barrels of sulfuric acid sludge at the L-Bar Products plant near Chewelah, Wash.

Former L-Bar General Manager Paul Ortman was sentenced Thursday to six months of unsupervised probation on two misdemeanor counts of failing to report the use of the acid and the sale of fertilizer made with the acid.

Felony charges of illegally dumping hazardous waste were dropped.

U.S. Magistrate Cynthia Imbrogno took note of Ortman’s record of civic activism and his lack of any criminal record. She directed the weeping Ortman, a former Chewelah city councilman who will turn 70 next month, to continue his public service in the Lions Club or other organizations.

Plant manager Stan McCurdy also received a light sentence last month in another plea bargain. McCurdy admitted ordering the illegal waste disposal and said he had told Ortman after the work had been done, a claim Ortman disputed.

McCurdy was sentenced to three years of probation and six months of partial home confinement.

McCurdy’s immediate boss, Jim Halle, wasn’t charged, although a witness said Halle was present when McCurdy ordered the illegal burial.

Nor were charges filed against L-Bar’s parent company, Reserve Industries of Albuquerque, N.M.

Instead, prosecutors appear to be focusing on the L-Bar bankruptcy estate. They have proposed a plea bargain that could put the federal government ahead of workers and other creditors for the limited cash in the bankruptcy estate.

Fifty-six former employees fear the proposal will leave them with nothing but worthless IOUs for about $90,000 in unpaid wages.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Harrington and Jerry Ackerman, an assistant Washington attorney general representing the state Ecology Department, said the threat to the employees is speculative. They declined to spell out their intentions.

Bankruptcy trustee Bruce Boyden, a Spokane attorney, said prosecutors have been “totally silent” about whether they will seek restitution from L-Bar. He said Thursday he has received no response to a Dec. 6 letter in which he attempted to negotiate a better deal.

So far, Harrington and Ackerman are offering only to keep silent on the question of fines if the company pleads guilty as charged to eight counts of violating federal hazardous-waste regulations.

Boyden told L-Bar’s creditors he tentatively planned to accept the deal, figuring that any fine would go to the bottom of the list for payment under federal bankruptcy laws. But Rebecca Coufal, attorney for the former employees, said courtordered restitution for the cost of digging up the acid barrels and storing them could be moved to the top of the list.

Boyden said he was unaware of that possibility because he is not a criminal attorney.

The employees’ chances of being paid already is threatened by L-Bar’s largest creditor, Northwest Alloys. That compnay, which sent magnesium waste to L-Bar for recycling, claims it should get all the money now in the bankruptcy estate - about $220,000.

, DataTimes