‘Watershed’ Order on Air Pollution Issued : Oil Companies, Furniture Manufacturers Told by AQMD to Cut Emissions Up to 90% by 1996
In what was described as a “watershed” in air pollution control, major oil companies and furniture manufacturers were ordered Friday to slash their emissions by up to 90% by 1996 in the four-county South Coast Air Basin.
The actions, taken by the South Coast Air Quality Management District board, represented the largest single reduction in emissions ordered from industrial sources since the late 1970s.
By Jan. 1, 1996, 10 major oil refineries in the four-county South Coast Air Basin will have to reduce emissions of smog-forming nitrogen oxides by 70% from existing levels, and 85% from pre-1985 uncontrolled levels. Current emissions are 34.9 tons daily.
Emissions Deadline
Wood products manufacturers must reduce their emissions of hydrocarbons, which are found in paints and varnishes, by 90% by July of 1996. Current emissions are 22 tons a day. By contrast, the area’s oil refineries combined spew less than 16 tons of hydrocarbons a day.
Excluding motor vehicle emissions, the cuts in nitrogen oxide emissions from the refineries account for nearly 10% of all nitrogen oxide emissions currently released in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
The cuts by furniture makers would trim basinwide hydrocarbon emissions by 3.3%.
Nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons are the key ingredients of ozone, a health-threatening pollutant that makes up 95% of what is known as photochemical smog.
The two pollutants also contribute to poor visibility and small particulate matter in the nation’s smoggiest region.
The votes were seen as a major test of the AQMD’s oft-stated determination to get tough on polluters. The district is working to comply with federal Clean Air Act standards by late this century.
AQMD Executive Officer James M. Lents emerged from the district’s El Monte headquarters smiling broadly after the votes.
“How many days do you get that large of a reduction from rules. It’s a good sign for air quality,” Lents declared.
Mark Abramowitz of the Santa Monica-based Coalition for Clean Air, said: “It’s been the biggest day in terms of air quality reductions I’ve ever seen. It’s a real watershed victory for clean air advocates.” He added, however, that he believed the AQMD should have been even more stringent and at one point accused the board of “caving in” to “big industry and big bucks.”
The 8-1 vote for the wood products industry controls and the 6-1 vote for the nitrogen oxide controls on oil refinery heaters and boilers came despite concerted lobbying by industry to turn back the proposed rules.
After the vote, however, Michael D. Wang of the Western Oil & Gas Assn., said, “We’re going to try and do it.” He and other industry officials said they were not persuaded, however, that suggested control technology could achieve the emission reductions demanded by the AQMD.
The rule adopted Friday represented a compromise between a tougher proposal advanced by an AQMD hearing panel and a more lenient plan urged by industry.
Wang estimated the cost of the refinery controls at between $899 million and $1 billion. The AQMD’s estimate was $412 million.
The AQMD’s efforts to control those emissions have been marked by a history of confrontation. When the original nitrogen oxide controls were first adopted in 1984, the Western Oil & Gas Assn. took the AQMD to court and succeeded in overturning the rule on grounds that the AQMD had failed to do a required environmental impact report before putting the rule into effect.
10 Refineries Involved
The 10 refineries covered by the rule are Arco, Chevron, Mobil, Texaco, Union, Shell, Golden West, Union Pacific Resources, Fletcher and Powerine. They have a total of 197 large boilers and heaters that are affected by the rule.
To achieve those reductions, the refineries must turn to either more efficient heaters and boilers, or install costly selective catalytic reduction systems.
Meanwhile, previously agreed to amendments to controls on hydrocarbon emissions from wood products manufacturers met most of the industry’s objections. But furniture makers said they remained concerned that the new lower emission wood coatings such as paints, stains and lacquers would not be ready by the district’s deadline.
Attorney Sharon F. Rubalcava, representing the California Furniture Manufacturers Assn., said: “The uncertainties may just push them over the edge. . . . This is a very iffy technology right now.”
If the new coatings are not available in time, furniture makers said that despite assurances from the AQMD and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, they feared they would be forced to resort to costly technological controls that would force them out of business and their employees out of jobs.
One such warning was lodged by Roger Benvenuti, sales manager for Reliance Universal Inc., which makes coatings.
Dire Predictions
“If you approve (this) plan . . . you may be approving the demise of the furniture industry in Southern California with all of its financial and social impact,” Benvenuti said.
The industry reports annual sales of $1.3 billion and employs 63,000 workers.
The predictions of dire consequences brought a blistering rejoiner from AQMD board member Larry L. Berg.
Berg charged that furniture makers were among the biggest polluters in the South Coast Air Basin. He said that four of the top 10 industrial polluters in 1988 were wood products manufacturers. In 1987, he said six of the top 20 polluters who paid the highest penalties for violating air quality rules were wood products manufacturers.
Berg, an appointee of Assembly Speaker Willie L. Brown (D-San Francisco), cast the only vote against the controls on oil refineries, on grounds they didn’t go far enough.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich was the only board member to vote against the wood products rule, warning that it would cost “American jobs.” Antonovich left the meeting before the vote on refinery emissions.
