$3,400 Fine Paid for Pollution Near School : 70 Firms Pay $21,390 to Air Board

Air-pollution fines totaling $21,390 were paid by 70 firms in the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys in the last quarter of 1986, according to a summary of enforcement actions released by the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

Custom Home Spas Inc., a manufacturer of hot tubs, paid the largest single fine, $3,400. The fine had been assessed in 1985 after the firm pleaded no contest to charges that fumes from a plant it once operated in Van Nuys had affected students and teachers at nearby Sylvan Park Elementary School in 1983 and 1984. The company has since closed the Van Nuys manufacturing operation.

Pacific Lighting Energy Systems, which generates electricity by burning methane gas produced in decaying garbage at landfills in the region, was fined $1,000. Routine tests of gases emitted by a flare at Pacific Lighting’s gas-to-electricity plant at the inactive Penrose Pit Landfill in Sun Valley detected excess emissions of carbon monoxide, according to the report.

23 Odor Citations

Pacific Lighting also received 23 citations for odors emanating from its Penrose facility, which opened in early 1986. The plant, which can generate enough electricity to serve 9,000 homes, has been closed since November, when the air-quality district ordered the firm to modify the plant to eliminate the odor problem.

Pacific Lighting has spent $2 million to reduce the odor problem, said Jim Birakos, deputy executive officer for the air-quality district. The plant is expected to resume operation in June, he said.

Quality Finishing Inc. in Pacoima paid a $1,000 fine for applying metal part coatings that contained levels of hazardous solvents that exceed legal standards, the report said.

Many of the other fines were levied on service stations for having faulty fume-collection traps on gasoline pump nozzles, Birakos said. In the Los Angeles area, those rubber shields collect about 65 tons of hydrocarbons a day that would otherwise enter the atmosphere, he said.