L.A. Plans to Computerize Toxicants File

The Los Angeles City Fire Department unveiled plans Tuesday for a two-year, $2.7-million program designed to build a computerized file of the city’s largest commercial users of dangerous chemicals, and to hire as many as 42 inspectors and support personnel to better enforce toxic waste laws.

The computerized data--listing which firms use which chemicals--would help fire officials trace chemical gas leaks or illegal toxic discharges to specific firms, according to Battalion Chief Jim Young, who helped draft the proposal at the City Council’s request.

The data also would aid firefighters in determining how best to extinguish chemical blazes by arming them with information on the types of chemicals that are stored at specific commercial or industrial sites.

If the proposal is endorsed by the City Council and Mayor Tom Bradley, the program will take shape July 1 with an initial staff of 13 members, Young said.

By the end of the year, he said, the Fire Department plans to mail requests for information to 56,000 of the city’s 268,000 businesses, primarily those industial and manufacturing firms that use heavy volumes of chemicals. Those firms will be asked to report all potentially dangerous chemicals they use, including pesticides, acids, gasoline and other petroleum products, and cleaning solvents.

Firms that do not reply to the requests will move to the top of the department’s existing inspection list for all city businesses, Young said. That action, he said, is expected to persuade companies to comply.

To Share Information

A contemplated new ordinance would give the city authority to provide its computerized information to other government agencies and to the public, Young said.

“Let’s say, for example, that you live next to a small industrial park and a cloud of something goes drifting across your backyard,” he said. “If you can get the address (of the business) . . . and come to us, we can tell you what you might have been exposed to.”

Information-request fees of perhaps $5 would help support the program, which may be expanded in two years to include all businesses in Los Angeles, Young said. Businesses would be assessed fees of $15 to $100 for permits to use hazardous chemicals, he said, and firms that fail to respond to the city questionnaire could face inspection fees of perhaps $250.

Those fees would help finance the program, Young said.

‘Reasonable Approach’

Hy Weitzman, executive director of the California Liquid and Hazardous Waste Management Assn., a trade organization of about 50 toxic-waste handlers and generators, called the proposal a “reasonable approach” to dealing with a complex problem. In an interview Tuesday, Weitzman said his only objection to the program may be plans to expand it to small businesses such as auto wrecking yards and gasoline stations.

“It might be overkill to include them,” he said, noting that wrecking yards sometimes contain small amounts of petroleum waste. “But, basically, I think the thrust is in the right direction. We’ve got too many people trying to dump (toxic wastes) down sewers and into various canyons. The only way to stop it is to register where it came from.”

John Hart, operations manager for North American Environmental Inc., a Wilmington firm that handles highly toxic PCBs, praised the proposal for the additional safety it could create for firefighters. Some chemical fires, for example, must be extinguished with foam because water only makes them worse, he said. Computerized data could tell firefighters when they are dealing with such a fire, Hart said.