Businesses Urged to Play Role in Writing ‘Inevitable’ Toxic Disclosure Regulations

Calling it “almost inevitable” that industry will be required to reveal details about toxic chemicals, a representative of an Anaheim chemical firm Monday proposed creating an Orange County business task force to help ensure that disclosure regulations be fair and effective.

“It is almost inevitable, due to the recent chemical fire in Anaheim, that local and state governments will pass laws requiring industry to disclose information on its toxic chemicals,” said Thomas R. Confer, environmental safety manager for Narmco Materials Inc.

Confer said Monday that he will propose this week that the recently formed Industrial Environmental Coalition of Orange County form such a task force from among its members.

“Business will only hurt itself if it does not take a positive approach and work alongside of government agencies to make sure that these laws will be fair as well as effective,” Confer said.

Industry in general, and the chemical industry in particular, has opposed mandatory disclosure regulations in the past on the grounds that such ordinances could make the most guarded of trade secrets, such as perfume formulas, available to competitors.

But Confer said last month’s toxic chemical fire at the Larry Fricker Co., an Anaheim agricultural supply warehouse, has made it clear that disclosure regulations are needed for fire and safety reasons and that local governments will impose them with or without the aid of industry.

“It’s like an earthquake,” Confer said. “You know it’s going to happen one day. But until it does, you don’t really know what the impact will be.”

The Orange County Board of Supervisors last week unanimously endorsed expanding its computerized program for tracking hazardous materials into countywide regulations to be enforced by all local governments, rather than imposed in just unincorporated areas. Supervisors gave their staff 60 days to develop a model ordinance that cities and industry could support.

Confer’s proposal was generally greeted with favor Monday.

“There’s no question that in developing (a) disclosure ordinance, we want and need formal industry input,” said Robert A. Griffith, director of the county’s Hazardous Materials Program.

Impact on Business

Griffith said he would lean toward using groups like the Industrial Environmental Coalition, which he described as a group of companies that generate hazardous waste and those that dispose of it, and existing organizations like the Orange County Chamber of Commerce.

Griffith raised the issue last week with a chamber subcommittee on energy and the environment with positive reaction.

“Something needs to be done, whether it’s city-by-city regulations or a county ordinance,” said Barbara Noll, director of the chamber’s council activities. “Anything that is put together is going to impact business. We just want to be involved from the beginning so that it is a cooperative effort, so that everything is properly analyzed.”

Supervisor Bruce Nestande, who recently revived his nearly 2-year-old proposal for a disclosure ordinance, called Confer’s suggestion “a very positive proposal.”

“I’m going to trust that it is more than just simply a public relations approach, and say that this kind of cooperation did not exist 1 1/2 years ago,” Nestande said Monday.

“Maybe there is a recognition now that if they (industries) don’t somehow or other identify for emergency personnel what is being stored, they’ll simply be driven out of town. The community is not going to tolerate this kind of thing anymore.”

Nestande, who said he would refer Confer’s proposal to the county administrative office, added: “This issue has not been dealt with responsibly by governing bodies in Orange County. It is time we do. It is time we provide more safety for our citizens.”

Narmco, which makes structural materials and adhesives from epoxy resins and carbon fibers, itself was a target of class-action suits over the alleged release of toxic vapors and drainage into the neighborhoods surrounding its former home in Costa Mesa.

The controversial subsidiary of the New York-based Celanese Corp., which relocated to Anaheim in 1982, is also under the supervision of the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board to clean up solvent contamination of soil and ground water at its Anaheim plant.