NEWS IN BRIEF

-- S.J. Cahn

A Newport Beach man this week was indicted, along with his business

partner and brother, by a federal grand jury for illegally storing and

disposing of toxic waste in the Mojave Desert.

Donald Wayne Unrein, 47, co-owner of Wheel Specialties in Anaheim, is

accused of paying people to transport to the desert drums of solvents and

acids used to remove paint from automotive wheels. The waste was then

dumped illegally.

Also indicted were Unrein’s partner, Leonard Louis Stahl, 43, of Lake

Arrowhead, and Unrein’s brother, Dennis Eugene Unrein, 39, of Lake

Elsinore.

Dennis Unrein owned Wheel Technix Inc. on East Mira Loma Avenue in

Anaheim, where the waste allegedly was moved prior to being sent to the

desert.

All three are charged with violating the federal Resource Conservation

and Recovery Act. Wheel Specialties did not have any of the permits or

licenses required to handle hazardous waste, said Assistant U.S. Atty.

Joseph Johns.

Among the chemicals allegedly dumped was hydrofluoric acid, which is

known as a “bone seeker” because it can burn to the bones of a victim.

Each faces a maximum of five years imprisonment and/or $250,000 fine for

each of the eight counts leveled by the grand jury.

According to the indictment, the drums of waste were temporarily stored

at a residential property in Apple Valley, Calif., and some of the waste

was dumped in a parking lot of a Vons supermarket in Victorville, Calif.