PROVO — The Utah Attorney General's Office accuses the owner of a defunct medical-waste incineration company of dumping dangerous levels of lead and zinc directly into the Orem City water system over a three-year period.
According to charges filed in 4th District Court against David Ioane Kali, the "quenching fluid" from the burning of medical waste at Aseptic Services Inc. was so acidic it had eaten away at the city's concrete drainage pipes.
Kali is charged with five counts of unlawful discharge of pollutants, all third-degree felonies. If convicted, Kali, who operated Aseptic Services from 1998 to 2001, faces up to five years in prison.
The charges came as the result of a joint state and federal investigation involving the U.S. Department of Environmental Quality, the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the Utah Department of Environmental Quality.
According to a probable cause statement filed in court, workers at Kali's company would hose down the incinerator after burning medical waste on a weekly basis. Investigators allege that the untreated waste water was then routed to a pipe that fed directly into Orem's water system.
State investigator Ken Farnsworth said city water-department workers soon began detecting high levels of heavy metals, including zinc and lead, in the waste water.
Farnsworth said heavy metals can kill the micro-organisms the city uses in their tanks to process waste water, allowing potentially dangerous substances to be released into the environment.
City workers reportedly managed to trace the source of the contamination directly to Aseptic Services. Yet despite being warned, investigators say Kali still continued to dump into the water system.
According to a statement by a former company employer, Kali continued to burn medical waste in an unsafe manner as late as November of last year, despite having been cited for safety violations by state environmental quality officials.
Investigators say an inspection of Kali's operation showed one of the most rudimentary facilities they have seen, lacking in any sort of environmental safety devices for both air and water quality.
In addition, investigators say Aseptic managed to gain federal contracts to burn medical waste with the Veterans Administration in Utah and Idaho, was well as Indian Health Services in Arizona.
Kali is fighting the charges. But his defense attorney, John Walsh, asked a judge Wednesday to put court proceedings on hold.
Walsh said his client has been in Hawaii for months, recovering from a heart attack.
Kali has not been present for the last two court hearings to face the felony charges against him. Walsh told Judge Anthony Schofield that his client has been too ill to travel back to Utah.
Schofield scheduled another hearing for Sept. 3 but ordered Walsh to produce a doctor's letter detailing exactly what ails Kali.
Farnsworth said Kali's company is no longer in operation.
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