Federal prison for haz-mat violator

A 64-year-old man from Reseda, Calif., has been handed the longest sentence for a hazardous-waste case in the state’s history.

Edward Wyman will serve five years in federal prison for storing illegal toxic and explosive hazardous material in his back yard, according to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency press release. Wyman was also ordered to pay $800,000 for a 47-day cleanup that involved seven separate calls to the Los Angeles Police Department Bomb and Arson Squad to handle explosive material.

Wyman was originally charged in June 2009 after his house caught fire, resulting in several explosions. Investigators subsequently discovered a large cache of corroded ammunition, hundreds of pounds of old gunpowder, M6 cannon powder and industrial solvents that contained trichloroethane and tetrachloroethyene—hazardous substances under federal law.