Cyanide Dumping Cited at Jewelry Mart

In one of the largest enforcement actions ever taken by the city, the Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation closed an industrial sewer line Thursday at the huge St. Vincent’s Jewelry Mart that jewelry makers allegedly were using to illegally dump deadly cyanide.

The action came after city inspectors recorded 25 violations of an industrial waste law that forbids the dumping of cyanide except in the most minute quantities. Cyanide is used by jewelers to extract gold from low-grade metals.

“This stuff is very dangerous, lethal,” said Chuck Ellis, a spokesman with the city’s Department of Public Works. “If it gathers around a manhole and a city worker gets a burst of it, it could injure or kill.”

At one point, Ellis said, samples taken from the sewer line showed 423 milligrams of cyanide per liter. The legal limit is 2 milligrams per liter.

Ellis said the city severed and capped the industrial sewer line at the downtown mart but kept open a sanitation line.

“Our challenge now is to make sure that they don’t take the cyanide and dump it into the toilet or the sink,” Ellis said. “We will be monitoring them.”

The action is not expected to halt operations at the mart. Aram Davidian, the building manager, said jewelry makers will now dump the cyanide into plastic drums that will be picked up each day by an industrial waste management firm. Davidian said a contractor already has been hired to build a permanent waste treatment system, which could be completed by the end of the month.

“We want to cooperate with the city,” he said. “We are willing to go to whatever expense to make it right.”

Once a permanent treatment system is in place, Ellis said, the city will reopen the line and reissue a permit.