The Alameda County District Attorney charged Radius Recycling, formerly known as Schnitzer Steel, with 10 environmental crimes related to a fire last August at the West Oakland steel recycling facility that blanketed parts of the East Bay in toxic smoke. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)
Radius Steel and two company leaders were charged with 10 environmental crimes for a fire that broke out last August at the large scrap metal processing plant near the Port of Oakland, Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price announced Tuesday.
The charges allege that Radius Steel, Daniel Woltman and Dane Morales recklessly managed hazardous materials and later engaged in a cover-up. The company and the two men are also charged with violating local air quality regulations and state toxic substance control laws.
The charges are the first ever filed by an Alameda County district attorney for environmental crimes committed by a corporation, according to Price.
“This administration will not allow corporate criminals to poison our community recklessly and just walk away having made a profit and get off with a slap on the wrist,” she said at a press conference.
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On Aug. 9, 2023, the fire at Radius Recycling, formerly Schnitzer Steel, sent plumes of gray, toxic smoke over the East Bay. Price announced an investigation into the Oregon-based company days later. The charges were filed at the end of June following a grand jury indictment and unsealed this week.
Smoke rises from a fire burning at Schnitzer Steel in Oakland on Aug. 10, 2023. (Nik Altenberg/KQED)
If found guilty, Radius would be liable for between $625,000 and $33 million in criminal fines, according to Price’s office. Woltmann and Morales could face up to three years in county jail, in addition to financial penalties.
“We believe that Radius has often shrugged off the regulations when it was convenient to them, treating minor administrative fines and civil penalties as the cost of doing business,” Price said. “There is a new day in Alameda County and we intend to hold people accountable. No one is above the law, and we will no longer have a double standard.”
In a statement, Aaron Dyer, an attorney for Radius, said the company does not treat or store hazardous waste, and it did not hide or destroy any evidence.
“We are fully confident that the company’s actions will be proven to have prioritized public safety and compliance with the law,” he said.
Michael Hunt, a spokesperson for the Oakland Fire Department, said the fire started in a pile of scrap metal and was likely caused by a lithium battery. The facility shreds cars and other large appliances. The size of the scrap pile prevented firefighters from reaching the source of the fire for hours, according to Hunt. County and city officials advised residents near the Port of Oakland to avoid Jack London Square and to keep windows closed.
“The most impacted areas were immediately downwind of the fire. So that was East Oakland, West Oakland and other areas along the I-80 corridor, which are historically overburdened communities that kind of experience a disproportionate impact and exposure to poor air pollution already,” Michael Flagg, principal air quality specialist at Bay Area Air Quality Management District told KQED in August 2023.
Environmental justice advocates have long called for the facility to leave the city, citing harmful smoke from frequent fires. The facility was the site of large fires in 2009, 2010, 2018 and 2020.
In 2020, the Oakland A’s sued to have the waste materials created by the plant reclassified as hazardous, alleging that five smaller fires had occurred at the facility since 2018. The A’s lost the legal challenge.
Past investigations by the Alameda County DA and the California Department of Toxic Substances Control found that the facility released particulate matter contaminated with hazardous metals such as lead, cadmium and zinc. The investigations were cited in a 2021 settlement between Schnitzer and the state Department of Justice over “the release of toxic air contaminants and hazardous particulates” in West Oakland and across the Oakland estuary.
While Price called the number of fires significant, the Oakland Fire Department said fires at the facility “are not frequent” compared to other fire sources the city responds to.
“Awareness and interest in fires at Schnitzer has grown over the last few years,” Hunt said, adding that frequent fires at homeless encampments, which often include burning plastics, pose a more daily source of local air pollution.
Margaret Gordon, the co-founder of the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, an environmental justice organization, said pollution from trucks, ships and fires in and around the Port of Oakland, as well as fires at nearby homeless encampments, contribute to the poor air quality in her West Oakland neighborhood.
“I’m glad that they saw the impact and investigated with the depth that they did,” Gordon said.
The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office is requesting anyone who was impacted by the fire to contact its consumer justice bureau by email at askcjb-da@acgov.org.
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