Glendora : Plato Applies for Variance

Plato Products Inc., a Glendora metal plating firm, has filed for a temporary variance after being denied an operating permit last week by the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

Officials for the firm, which was cited for emitting a carcinogenic form of chromium at concentrations 30% above AQMD standards, are scheduled to appear before the air quality district’s five-member hearing board today at Ontario City Hall.

If a variance is not granted, the firm would have to lay off about 45 of its 80 employees immediately, according to a statement filed with the hearing board by Plato President George M. Kent.

The plant, at 2120 Allen Ave., next to Arma J. Shull Elementary School in San Dimas, was found to be emitting hexavalent chromium in quantities of .00009 micrograms per cubic meter at the point of greatest concentration, AQMD officials said.

Such quantities could cause 13 cancer cases per million people over a 70-year period, 30% higher than the 10 cases per million considered acceptable by the AQMD, agency spokesman Ron Ketcham said.