143 



Toxic scam is first fed cleanup in Nevada 



i $280,000 Superfund 

 i project at Wells site 



, By Doug MeWlllan/au*n»vkium« 



ij WELL2 — TV Superfund is coming to 

 Nevada to clean up what environments] 

 authonlies call a "dauic chemical 



1 (lumping scam " 



Northem Nevada's Hrst taxic-cbemi- 

 cal cleanup finaoced by the U.S. 



„ Environmental Protecboo Agency's 



^ Superfund is scheduled lo start Monday 

 at Wells- The EPA is spending 1380.000 



I to decontaminate a site polluted two 



t yean ago on the northem outskirts of 

 the KmaU Elko County city by Poly-Carb 



: Industries Inc. of Medlord. Ore. 



i Michael Wilwerding, representing 



himself u Poly-Carb owner, promised 

 in late 1964 to bring up to 1,200 }ob9 to 

 Wells - a number equal to its entire 

 population — if City Council members 

 would help him open a waste recychng 

 plant there. 



What he left, said state and federal 

 environmental ofOcials. was 9.000 gal- 

 lons of organic chemicals soaking mto 

 the ground, uphill from the municipal 

 water supply. 



Lou Dodgioa, administrator of the 

 state Environmental Protection 

 Agency, said the chemicals — creoaol 

 and phenol — could threaten the city's 

 wells, if left to migrate underground 



Creosol, a relative of creosote, is used 

 in the production of synthetic resins for 

 plastics Phenol, a component of creo- 

 sol, was formerly used as a disinfectant 



In hospitals Both can bum the skin or 

 cause lung problems if inhaled. 



They "are vay soluble in water." 

 Dodgion sakL "Over a period of time, 

 they can work their way Into the water 

 table " 



"They both are extremely toxic, dan- 

 gerous chemicals," said Rot>ert Man- 

 oell, regional administrator of the fed- 

 eral EPA in San Francisco 



Mandeil said the case appears to be a 

 classic chemical dumpmg scam An 

 out-of-town "inventor" dangles the pros- 

 pect of hundreds of )obs m front of a 

 small, economically depressed commu- 

 nity to persuade Its officials to give him 

 permits for a waste disposal plant. For 

 a hefty payment, he takes a load of toxic 



' 8m feds, pmm 20A 



20A— Reno Gazette-Joumat 



Sunday. Juna 21. 1987 „ 



Feds to begin cleaning up 

 toxic-cliemical site in Wells 



From paoa 1A 



chemicals off the hands of a company 



trying to get nd of them illegally Then 



be brings the stuff to his new "waste 



reprocessing plant" where he leaves it 



In tanks or. woree yet. dumps it on the 



ground. 



Then he skips town. 



Wilwerding has not been seen or 

 heard from since Poly-Carb filed for 

 bankruptcy m Oregoa Mandeil said, 

 although EPA agents and several states 

 have been trying to find him. 



"He's in hiding." said a Poly-Carb 

 employee in Medford "NotxxJy knows 

 where he's at He can't be found." 



The employee said he was unpaid and 

 was still staffing the Poly-Carb office in 

 the hopes of salvaging what he could 

 from the bankruptcy. 



Wilwerding appears to t>e the consum- 

 mate con artist, in more ways than one. 

 •uthonties say 



lo late I9H, he hauled a 10-foot scale 

 model of his machine, which resembled 

 'a large still, to demonstrations in Wells 

 and Reno While be fed shredded fdm, 

 flakes of rubber and pine chips into a 

 Tiery red furnace at one end. a small 

 valve at the other end Titled coffee cans 

 with a gooey, blade liquid that Wilwerd- 

 ing said contained chemicals that could 

 be recycled by the petroleum industry 



However, be never brought the much 

 larger working model be said was t>eing 

 assembled ui his Medford plant to 

 Wells 



WhJe he wai convincing WeUs ofH- 

 cials to let him set up his operations 

 there, he was selling stock allegedly ille- 

 gally m Poly-Carb to would-be investors 

 in other states. 



SecunUes officials in Oregon and 

 Montana want Wilwerding for allegedly 

 selling unregistered shares of Poly-Carb 

 stock there. 



The Cascade County District Attor- 

 ney's Office at Great Falls, Moot . has 

 (lied sii stock-fraud charges against 

 Wilwerding. including two counts of 

 omission, giving false and misleading 

 ■Latements in selling Poly-Carb stock, 

 two counts of failing lo register as a 

 stockbroker, dealer or salesman, and 

 two counts of selling unregistered 

 secuntles 



An accomplice in the Montana sales. 

 Clifford Lee Allen, was arrested and 

 convicted for similar charges last tall 

 Allen received a lO-year state prison 

 sentence, but nine years of the terra 

 were suspended on the condition he 



reimburse Montana Investors the 

 M9.000 they had paid for Poly-Carb 

 stock 



The two counts charging Wilwerding 

 with omission say he faded to inform the 

 buyers he was previously convicted for 

 murder and armed robbery 



Accordmg to Mono County, Calif, 

 records, Wilwerding killed a Chico, 

 Calif . man with a shotgun outside of 

 Bridgeport m Octotier 1960 after the 

 roan threatened to turn Wilwerding over 

 to police for parole violations Wilwerd- 

 ing had been arrested for armed rob- 

 buies m Oregon, Utah, Idaho and Min- 

 nesota 



No taw enforcement sources could say 

 bow long Wilwerding was in prison 

 before he was paroled, but they are 

 trying to return him there. 



A Montana Judge has issued a warrant 

 for Wilwerding's arrest and a federal 

 warrant also has been issued, charging 

 Wilwerding with unlawful flight to avoid 

 prosecution. 



Leon Bellville, a securities examiner 

 for the Corporations Division of the Ore- 

 gon Department of Commerce, said Wil- 

 werding IS under investigation for sell- 

 ing unregistered securities in that state, 

 loo 



When a toxic spill was discovered in 

 WeUs on Memorial Day weekend 19S&, 

 Wilwerding claimed vandals broke into 

 a metal sned he erected north of the 

 city's mam intersection on U S High- 

 way 93 and opened the valve on his 

 9,000-gallon tank, draining the chemi- 

 cals 



Wells Police Chief Chris DInsmoore 

 could Hnd no physical evidence of saba- 

 toge, however 



And that still left unanswered the 

 question of what Wilwerding was doing 

 with toxic chemicals His recycling 

 Invention was supposed to process only 

 non-toxic wastes such as old movie film, 

 plastics, tires, agricultural refuse and 

 pinyon scraps 



iW state Environmental Protection 

 Division had given him an air emissio'i 

 permit, but he had no authority to han- 

 dle hazardous wastes 



Under civil orders from the division, 

 Wilwerding returned to town in August 

 1965 to bulldoze the conLamif)ated 

 ground into a plastic lined trench on the 

 Bile, but disappeared before state offi- 

 cials could gel Viim (o haul it away 



That left 84-year-old properly owner 

 Judith Birdzell of Washington state 

 "holding the bag," Mandeil said Under 



DEMONSTRATION: In this December 1984 file photo. Michael Wilwerding 

 feeds waste material mto a recycling machir^ He said the device would produce 

 chemicals lor use in the petroleum industry .^ . • 



federal law, the former Wells resident 

 could have been held liable for the 

 cleanup, but EPA officials decided there 

 would be no point in taking action 

 against an innocent victim 



Although Wilwerding entered an 

 escrow to buy her land, "she never got a 

 dime" for the five months be used it, 

 Mandeil said. 



liiie state Hied a civil action against 

 Wilwerding that could fine him up to 

 $10,000 a day. Dodgion said, and he also 

 could be subject to criminal penalties of 

 up to $25,000 a day, plus cleanup costs, 

 under criminal statutes 



The EPA has filed a claim in the Ore- 

 gon bankruptcy proceeding for the 

 $380,000 cleanup costs, but Mandeil 

 admitted that the prospects of recov- 

 ering that kind of money from the bank- 

 ropt company were almost nil. 



Whoever gave Wilwerding the waste 

 also could be held liable for the cleanup 

 costs, Mandeil said, but the source of 

 the chemicals would be very hard to 

 trace, especially since they leaked Uito 

 the ground 



EnvironmenUI Services Inc. of Port 

 land. Ore , the company doing most 

 West Coast Superfund cleanune. ttill lit- 

 erally wash the 4O0 cubic yarta cf cor*a- 

 minated dirt 



lliis week, a crew wiU dig ■ W Iwle 

 and build a doubU-lir^d treatment -es- 

 er.oir wbere ■' viil s^nnhlc the sell 'o 

 !«ch not the creoso! and p*y«)l r>'en 

 thr cooLdmim'led waUr wil! be fUlerbti 



through activated charroaJ Rlten, 

 which will be incinerated at a bazard- 

 ous-waste disposal site. 



Original plans called for sim[dy haul- 

 ing the soil to a hazardous waste laod- 

 fUT. Mandeil said, but the EPA decided 

 to be more innovative "Otherwise, we'd 

 be accused of a shell game. Just moving 

 waste from place to place" 



The >ob should be done by about 

 Tlunksgiving 



I>odgion said Wells ofricials should 

 consider themselves fortunate to have 

 gotten Ihe Superfund to come to Wells. 

 He commended former Mayor Hike 

 Nannini, City Councilwoman LJada 

 Beller and CJty Manager Dave Martin 

 for working hard to get the cleanup 

 funds 



Wells officials say they probably will 

 be more careful in tryiiig to check the 

 background of new business prospects. 

 but the experience has not cooled their 

 ardor for trying to attract o*^ indus- 

 try 



The whole ;ity was cnthir*'asbc ebotit 

 yoly-CArb. not just the City Council. 

 Mia Councilman Mike Enxsen 



"I'm no* so su4e that, if the lame type 

 0* guy came along . . . -we'd protwbly ne 

 recrptiv* to it." *»e Mid. "Bu» we'd 

 probfMy take a CKMr ionk at U," u ik- 

 sen auiied I uuxik -e'rt • UUle U.tt::x 

 xiCictt-^i lei./. 



"W; were dsf"Ut»»7 "sed snd ahi-^en. 

 tVc're hnpeiill tt wmi't cva iikt<pEu h&« 

 asain. 



ATTACHMENT A 



