California IN BRIEF : FULLERTON : Pollution Violations Cost Firm $3 Million

A paint manufacturer was ordered by a federal judge to pay $3 million in civil penalties for violating air pollution laws--the largest such fine ever imposed on a Southern California company, regulators said. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had charged Vista Paint Corp. with violating the federal Clean Air Act for 578 consecutive days, claiming that the company had manufactured and sold tens of thousands of gallons of pollution-causing paints. The EPA estimated that the oil-based paints, as they dried, released 176 tons of smog-producing chemicals in Orange, Los Angeles and San Diego counties between December, 1985, and October, 1987.