Owner, VP of Union City Hazardous Waste Disposal Firm Sentenced

The former owner and vice president of a Union City hazardous waste disposal firm were both sentenced to jail time today for defrauding customers, falsifying records and transporting waste without a license.

Kirk Hayward, the former owner of Clearwater Environmental Management, Inc., was sentenced to one year of county jail and five years of formal probation on a felony conspiracy charge, while former vice president Charles Seaton was sentenced to four months in county jail and five years of formal probation, according to the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office.

Hayward was also ordered to never own, manage or consult for a hazardous waste company again, while Seaton was given a similar order covering only the next ten years.

“The defendants’ intentional and repeated crimes not only cheated Clearwater’s customers, but wholly undermined the integrity of environmental laws designed to protect public health and the environment,” Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley said in a statement today. “We will not tolerate hazardous waste crimes, including the falsification of hazardous waste records.”

Clearwater was hired by customers including BART, Closure Solutions, Pape Machinery and Recology to legally transport and dispose of hazardous waste and accurately document disposal. However, the firm had lost its license to transport hazardous waste in 2007 after Hayward was criminally convicted in a previous investigation by the state Department of Toxic Substances Control and ordered to serve 60 days jail time and pay $70,000 in fines, officials said.

The company continued to transport both nonhazardous and hazardous waste after Hayward’s conviction by using the identity and license of another firm in customer paperwork, a new state investigation found. It also frequently falsified the disposal site location, claiming to dispose of waste in Silver Springs, Nev. when it was actually consolidated and stored or disposed of elsewhere.

“Our criminal investigation unit worked in close partnership with the Alameda County District Attorney to stop Clearwater’s reckless mismanagement of hazardous waste and to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” said Barbara Lee, director of the Department of Toxic Substances Control. “These partnerships are tremendously effective and we will continue to support local environmental prosecutors.”

By Bay City News

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