Air Quality Managers, GM Draft Pact to Curb Odors at Van Nuys Plant

General Motors and South Coast Air Quality Management District officials Tuesday filed a proposed agreement setting deadlines to reduce paint odors from GM’s Van Nuys assembly plant and raising penalties for future violations of air-quality regulations.

The draft agreement was presented to an air-district hearing board. The district’s staff had requested an order that would force GM to stop auto painting or otherwise eliminate the paint fumes that for five weeks have drawn bitter complaints from some people living immediately downwind of the plant.

The hearing board, which can either accept or modify the draft order, put off action at least until today to give other witnesses a chance to speak. The hearing is scheduled to resume at 11:30 a.m. today at air-district headquarters in El Monte.

75 at Hearing

About 75 people turned out for the hearing Tuesday, most of them residents of the neighborhood around the plant or GM officials and consultants.

Since late August, the district has cited the auto maker 14 times for excessive odors and other alleged violations associated with the company’s conversion to a new painting process. Air district officials said at least 23 residents of Lorne Street and Tilden Avenue north of the plant have complained about chemical odors, and some complained of headaches and nausea from the smell.

The new paint process, called “base coat/clear coat,” imparts a deep shine. GM officials say they had to adopt the superior but malodorous process to keep in step with foreign competition.

The GM plant, at 8000 Van Nuys Blvd., employs 5,000 workers and produces Camaros and Firebirds.

The negotiated order, if approved by the hearing board, will not affect resolution of the 14 violation notices, each punishable by a fine of up to $1,000.

However, under the proposed abatement order, each future odor violation would be punishable by a fine of up to $6,000.

The draft order also would give GM until Nov. 1 to finish raising vent stacks in an effort to increase dilution of paint emissions in the air. By the same date, the company would have to inspect any leaks in duct work or paint-drying ovens that may be contributing to the problem.

GM would also have until Nov. 15 to submit a detailed study describing all odor sources and outlining steps to eliminate them.

Air district officials conceded that the proposed order formalizes some steps GM began taking on its own. But Bill Freedman, deputy counsel for the air district, said the order would require GM to eliminate the odors rather than “leaving it up to their own discretion.”

GM officials say they have spent about $12 million so far to attack the odor problem.

In opening remarks, GM attorney Mark H. Penskar said the company came before the hearing board “in a posture of cooperation and conciliation.” Since late August, Penskar said, GM on its own has made great strides by raising vent stacks and taking other steps.

Although the company intends “to go the extra mile,” Penskar asserted, “many people in the neighborhood do not believe that the plant is an odor nuisance.”

Penskar offered as evidence a stack of signed declarations by about 40 neighborhood residents, saying that they did not smell the plant or that the smell did not bother them, or crediting GM with making headway in reducing odors.

A Lorne Street resident in the audience, Edward D. Chaja, leaped to his feet, shouting that he couldn’t “listen to all this” and charging that “half of those people are employees” of GM. He was immediately ruled out of order by hearing board Chairman Coralie Kupfer.

Most who signed the declarations gave addresses on Lanark Street, which is farther from the plant than the areas that have spawned most complaints.

4 Confirmed as Employees

Ernie Schaefer, plant manager for GM, later said that only four of the signers work for GM.

Nadia Miller, a Tilden Avenue resident who does drafting work from her home, told the board that she has suffered headaches from the fumes since late August. Miller said her main concern is the health of her 19-month-old daughter.

“I quit my 40-hour-a-week job to stay home because the health of my daughter was suffering at child-care facilities. Now, there is a distinct possibility that my daughter’s health may be suffering” from staying at home, Miller said.

Lorne Street resident Charlotte Carroll, 33, who suffers from allergies and is confined to a wheelchair because of a bone disease, told the hearing board that GM paid to send her to a motel for several days in late August because the smell was so bad.

“I resent this intrusion in my airspace,” Carroll said, her voice cracking with emotion. “I’m asking for justice. I’m asking for the right to enjoy my home.”