- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday ordered a local firm to pay up to $37,500 a day retroactive to October for abandoning thousands of pounds of electronic waste.

Monterey Park-based ZKW Trading - which buys goods and sells them for a profit overseas - defied an EPA order in September to remove its 38 pallets of cathode ray tubes from the Port of Long Beach, the agency said.

The cargo - part of a shipment of nearly 32,000 pounds of tubes - was sent back from Hong Kong, which rejected the material because of health concerns, said EPA enforcement officer Jim Polek.

But under U.S. law, ZKW Trading was violating environmental requirements by not properly disposing of and managing the material, which was essentially abandoned, Polek said.

"They bypassed the whole process," he said. "They just said, `No we don't want them.' They just abandoned them."

The EPA requires all exporters of e-waste for recycling to notify the agency or the country receiving the waste.

The company had its chance to comply.

EPA officials notified the firm's owner, Robert Pang, in September, giving him 30 days to remove the cargo, and 45 days to submit a plan to the EPA detailing how it will re-use, recycle or discard it.

It was difficult to reach Pang. A Web site under the business' name was "under construction." Polek said it may be difficult to reach him because he's in Hong Kong much of the time.