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Man Strikes Plea Deal In Connection With 2014 Explosion, Fire At Ventura County Toxic Waste Facility

November, 2014 explosion and fire at Santa Clara Waste Water facility near Santa Paula

A supervisor for a company which handles hazardous wastewater in Ventura County entered a guilty plea over charges stemming from an explosion at the facility.

Ventura County prosecutors say Kenneth Douglas failed to warn employees about dangerous chemicals at the Santa Clara Waste Water Company plant near Santa Paula. They say the Ventura man also tried to impede the investigation after the November, 2014 blast, by moving some chemicals to another site.

A number of people including firefighters were sickened, or had to be checked for exposure to toxic chemicals from the explosion, and fire it started.

Douglas could face up to 270 days in jail, is banned from working as a supervisor in the industry for five years, and has to pay restitution to victims as a result of the plea deal.

Lance Orozco has been News Director of KCLU since 2001, providing award-winning coverage of some of the biggest news events in the region, including the Thomas and Woolsey brush fires, the deadly Montecito debris flow, the Borderline Bar and Grill attack, and Ronald Reagan's funeral.