Metals Business Shutters In Pollution Settlement

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Palace Plating Inc., a small chrome-plating and metal-finishing business in South Los Angeles, will close by the end of the year as part of a pollution settlement with the city.

The City Attorney’s Office accused the company, located across the street from an elementary school, of dumping chromium and other pollutants into the sewer system. Under the settlement, Palace will close by Dec. 31 and pay $750,000 to the Los Angeles Unified School District to cover the cost of contamination at the school.

The deal prevents the company’s owners and an employee from facing criminal charges, said Palace’s attorney, Charles Pomeroy of McKenna Long & Aldridge LLC.

“Basically, this was a trade. (The city) got rid of the (charges against) individuals, and (the family) shut the company down,” Pomeroy said. “The only way this could get resolved was to shut the facility down.”

The city sued Palace in 2007 after tests in late 2006 showed the company, located at 29th and San Pedro streets, had released illegal amounts of chromium into the sewer system.

Pomeroy said he couldn’t fight that charge.

“It’s not hard to make mistakes. I have no defense for it. It’s a strict liability issue. If (the chromium) is there, you’re guilty,” he said.

The company, which had been in businessmore than 50 years and had 15 employees, has been previously convicted of disposing and storing hazardous amounts of cadmium.

Bigwig Board

Montebello blimp maker Aeros is bringing in more military brass, recruiting retired Army Gen. William Tuttle to join its advisory board.

Tuttle was commanding general of the U.S. Army Materiel Command, the army’s logistics branch, from 1989 through 1992. He joins other Pentagon and aerospace industry bigwigs on Aeros’ board, including a former secretary of the Air Force, a former undersecretary of defense and a longtime director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

The advisory board, put together this summer, aims to help the company develop and market the Aeroscraft – a massive airship designed to carry huge amounts of cargo – to both the military and civilian markets, as well as to help the company secure federal funding to continue developing the craft.

Tuttle is a fan of the Aeroscraft’s potential use by the military. In a 2008 article in the Defense Transportation Journal, he wrote the the military should look to airships like the Aeroscraft to move supplies and troops across Afghanistan and other countries where there aren’t enough roads and runways.

“As commander of the U.S. Army Materiel Command, Gen. Tuttle has a forward-thinking expertise in logistics, not only for the war fighter but also humanitarian relief efforts,” said Edward Pevzner, Aeros’ manager of business development.

The company is about $12 million short of the $45 million it projects will be needed to build the prototype for testing next year.

Done Deal

Xebec Realty Partners has completed the planned purchase of a Torrance manufacturing plant from aluminum can maker Ball Corp. for about $20 million.

The plant, at 500 Crenshaw Blvd., made aluminum cans for beverages, but the Broomfield, Colo., can maker shut the plant in September and moved production to Texas and Canada. About 120 employees lost their jobs.

Xebec, a Seal Beach real estate investor, plans to demolish part of the Ball plant and develop 440,000 square feet of Class A industrial space at the 20-acre property.

Xebec officials said in September that they would like a manufacturer to take the space, but South Bay brokers say there will be greater demand from warehousing and distribution companies.

Xebec’s real estate portfolio includes a warehouse and distribution center in Long Beach and another outside of Dallas, as well as industrial parks in Fort Worth, Texas, and El Monte.

Xebec did not return calls for comment.

Staff reporter James Rufus Koren can be reached at [email protected] or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 225.

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