dumped pool chemicals<\/a> down a rooftop drain last year, causing several people to become ill, the U.S. attorney\u2019s office announced. <\/p>\nOn Jan. 18, 2009, a maintenance worker poured chlorine and muriatic acid into a storm drain atop the trendy hotel, located at 550 S. Flower Street. <\/p>\n
The mix of chemicals created a cloud of noxious gas found its way\u00a0into a nearby Metro station\u00a0about 6:30 a.m. the following day. <\/p>\n
At least two people became ill\u00a0from the fumes, and an L.A. County sheriff\u2019s deputy reported experiencing a burning sensation in his eyes and lungs. The intersection of 6th and Flower streets was closed for several hours as gas continued to escape from the storm drain system. <\/p>\n
Authorities at first were concerned about a possible terrorist attack, but then traced the gas to a drain outside the Standard and discovered two empty 50-gallon drums of chemicals near the hotel\u2019s rooftop pool. <\/p>\n
FBI agents said\u00a0employees eventually acknowledged emptying the majority of the contents of both drums down the drain. <\/p>\n
HotelsAB Downtown Employees LLC filed a plea agreement Tuesday in U.S. District Court in connection with\u00a0the misdemeanor charge and will pay a criminal fine of $200,000 and make a $150,000 community- service payment that will go to the National Fish and Wildlife Fund for environmental initiatives. <\/p>\n
The corporation has also agreed to pay a total of $20,283.56 in restitution to the hazardous materials division of the L.A. County Fire Department and the watershed protection division of the city of Los Angeles. <\/p>\n
— Corina Knoll <\/p>\n
Photo: The rooftop of the Standard Hotel, shown in May 2002. Credit: Al Seib \/ Los Angeles Times<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Operators of the Standard Hotel in downtown Los Angeles agreed Tuesday to plead guilty to a charge\u00a0of negligent discharge of pollutants and pay more than $370,000 after a hotel employee dumped pool chemicals down a rooftop drain last year, causing several people to become ill, the U.S. attorney\u2019s office announced. On Jan. 18, 2009, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4135,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-463004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4135"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463004\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}