Consolidated Pharmaceutical Group and its owner agreed Monday to pay $250,000 in fines, never again own a business in Maryland and sell its long-dormant Brooklyn Park penicillin-making site as part of a plea to criminal charges stemming from abandoning the plant, where officials said acids and toxic chemicals were leaking.
When the company ceased production in 1999, it "shut the door and just left," said Michelle Barnes, an assistant attorney general.
But the plant still held more than 50,000 gallons of hazardous chemicals, including some that, under certain conditions, could have combined into deadly cyanide gas, she said, adding that "the danger to the community was significant."
"If this stuff had caught on fire … it would have been very deadly," Barnes said.
A 2007 investigation by federal, state and local officials said that among the chemicals left behind in drums and other containers were hydrochloric acid, acetone, liquid nitrogen and solvents. Fire officials said the fire alarm did not work and the sprinkler system was questionable. State and federal environmental agencies demanded a cleanup.
"The plant and grounds were cleaned up," said Andrew Jay Graham, one of the company's attorneys.
Under terms of the plea to 50 counts before Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Paul F. Harris Jr., charges against the owner, Mehmet Tunc Turgut of Lutherville, were dropped. Among conditions of the plea, the company agreed to three years' probation, during which the company must try to sell the Brooklyn Park site. Another $250,000 fine can be imposed if terms of probation are not met. The company still exists on paper but is not operating.
The site's troubles date to before Consolidated Pharmaceutical took it over in 1994 from Kanasco Ltd. State enforcement records show an 18-year history of unauthorized dumping into storm drains and public sewers at the site. A hazardous spill in 1988 sent 10 families to the hospital. Kanasco was the subject of a grand jury indictment over a spill and storage of hazardous materials. The indictment was dropped when the plant was sold to Consolidated.