STATE : AQMD Fines Lockheed $1 Million

Burbank-based Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Co. has agreed to pay a record $1-million fine to the South Coast Air Quality Management District for more than 6,500 instances of improper or incomplete record keeping, the AQMD said today.

The civil penality eclipses the previous record fine of $335,000 levied last October against the owner of 160 gasoline stations where gasoline pump nozzles failed to keep gasoline fumes from escaping into the air.

Lockheed spokesman Jim Ragsdale said 5,000 of the violations involved AQMD forms that were either filled out incompletely by employees or contained errors. Another 1,500 violations covered such instances as not applying approved paints or other coatings.