Detergent Maker Tries to Clean Up Its Image for Anaheim Neighbors

The neighbors in Anaheim are upset, regulators have taken away the operating license and officials for the Stepan chemical company acknowledge that they’ve got a public relations problem.

So Saturday, at a small park bordering the Stepan Co.’s detergent manufacturing plant in north Anaheim near the Riverside Freeway, the company held a “community meeting to show that we are a good neighbor,” spokeswoman Evelyn Eman said.

The problem started Feb. 4., when an electrical pump failed at Stepan, releasing about 6,000 cubic feet of potentially toxic sulfur trioxide into the air. Fumes spewed over the neighborhood of modest frame and stucco homes. About 100 people suffered breathing problems, nausea, and eye and throat irritation.

At Saturday’s meeting were three managers from Stepan’s corporate headquarters in suburban Chicago, the manager of the Anaheim plant and two representatives from the company’s Chicago-based public relations firm.

To handle health questions, Stepan had hired a toxic-chemicals specialist from UC Irvine Medical School. To translate all this into Spanish for the predominantly Latino audience of 40 people, Stepan brought in a man from the Berlitz Language Center.

Taking notes was Newport Beach personal injury attorney Wilbert Christian. He said he would use the information being provided by the company Saturday for a lawsuit he plans to file against Stepan on behalf of 11 people in the neighborhood.

But company officials said they were not concerned about Christian now. Saturday was their day to “get as much information out as possible,” said company spokesman Eman.

The Feb. 4 accident occurred when the electrical pump of the exhaust fans on a new $1.9-million sulfur trioxide processing machine failed, said plant manager Don Rehms.

“We understand some people were hospitalized as a result of the exposure,” Rehms said. “Anybody with medical bills can send them to our office at 1208 North Patt, and the company will pay for the bills.”

Charles R. Riley, the Stepan vice president who had flown in from the suburban Chicago headquarters of the company, said the company had been a “good neighbor since we opened this plant here in 1969.”

He bristled at charges by a young man in the audience that Stepan “didn’t care about the people in this neighborhood getting sick.”

Riley said: “My heart goes out when people are hurt. . . . This company is very concerned with safety, and we have an enviable record at our plant here and the three others we operate in the country.”

Several people said they still were sick and wondered about the long-term health effects of the fumes.

Dr. Philip Edelman, medical director of the Poison Control Center at UCI Medical Center, told them that the burning eyes, sore throats and other health problems that affected some of the residents were temporary and should clear up completely in another week.

Following the meeting, Lorraine Rodriguez dismissed it as a “whitewash.”

Rodriguez, a clerical worker who has two children who became ill from the fumes, said: “I don’t agree with what was said about people who got sick. Right after the accident we were told that we would get over the effects in a day or two.

“Well, now that a lot of people are still sick, we’re being told that it takes two weeks. I think we’re being told a lot of different stories.”

Rodriguez would not say what street she lived on because “I’m trying to sell my house.”

Company officials insisted that Saturday’s meeting with neighborhood residents was not meant to influence the South Coast Air Quality Management District to give the detergent manufacturer its operating license back.

“Their decision will be based upon purely technical, engineering matters,” Riley said.

Since the accident, the AQMD has prevented Stepan from making the sulfur dioxide that it uses in the detergents it makes. So it has been forced to ship the chemical from its Joliet, Ill., plant, 1,500 miles away. Riley would not say how much the machinery shutdown is costing the company, which has annual sales of $288 million.

He also would not say if the plant would be shut down if the AQMD does not restore its operating permit at a Tuesday hearing.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” he said.