Wide-Ranging Controls Will Be Costly : Clean Air: Businesses Not Breathing Easily

Oliver Coury was beating a path around hangers of dry-cleaned clothes.

“My family’s been in this business since 1907,” he said, looking over his shoulder and leading a visitor to his dry-cleaning machine. The machine, purchased in 1962, turns out 120 pounds of clothes every hour.

It also throws off more chemical fumes than air pollution officials can tolerate. The South Coast Air Quality Management District wants to force Coury & Son Dry Cleaners in Redondo Beach--and others like them throughout the four-county basin--to buy new machines that produce less pollution.

Coury doesn’t want to spend the money--as much as $70,000. Nor does he like what he calls the district’s “political coercion.”

Oliver Coury is like a lot of businessmen--big and small--who are only now beginning to understand the implications of a massive clean air plan approved March 17 by the AQMD. The plan calls for tough new controls, not only for traditional targets like oil refineries and auto makers, but “mom-and-pop” operations like Coury’s and many consumers.

The proposals are not without controversy. Before voting against the entire plan, Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich heaped derision on several of the proposals, including one to build an electric train to transport garbage out of the basin and another to ban the use of lighter fluid on back yard barbecues.

“Use a barbecue, go to jail,” Antonovich deadpanned into television cameras at a press conference shortly before the March vote.

Air quality officials admit that banning charcoal lighter fluid won’t have much of an impact on air pollution. Nonetheless, it appears to have been effective in bringing home the idea that everyone has a stake and a role to play in the fight against air pollution.

“I don’t want to take it out of the plan because it sends a message that we all have to do our share,” AQMD Executive Officer James M. Lents told The Times.

Little in everyday life is left untouched by the new plan. Underarm antiperspirants and deodorants and other household goods, gasoline-powered lawn and garden equipment, drive-through restaurant and bank teller service, even the kind of tires on the family car are all marked for controls to be phased in in three stages over 20 years.

Stage One relies on readily available air pollution controls such as those that would be imposed on Coury’s dry-cleaning establishment. It covers the first five years of the plan. Stage Two would require significant technological advancements in controlling mainly motor vehicles and producers of coatings and solvents. Most changes would be in effect by the year 2000. Stage Three relies on ambitious long-range breakthroughs in technologies not now commercially available, such as advances in solar cells and superconductors. Stage Three would end in 2007.

Each of the rules must be approved by the 12-member board after public hearings. Rules covering emissions of smog-creating organic compounds already have been approved for two kinds of businesses: automobile spray paint shops and manufacturers of adhesives.

Impressive Gains

Although impressive gains have been made over the last several decades to meet federal clean air standards, the controls on motor vehicles and major sources of pollution have not been enough.

The South Coast Air Basin remains the smoggiest urban area in the nation. Health-threatening ozone is often three times higher than the federal standard. The basin is the only area in the nation that still fails to meet the standard for nitrogen dioxide. It also exceeds limits set for carbon monoxide.

Under the new plan, the district would meet the nitrogen dioxide standard by the end of 1996, the carbon monoxide standard by the end of 1997 and the ozone standard by the end of 2007.

Individuals and businesses have expressed mixed reactions to the new rules.

Coury, who operates the family dry-cleaning store, acknowledged that air pollution is a problem. He said he is willing to do his part but would like to have more time to comply.

“We all contribute to air pollution, so we don’t know who is doing what to what. I believe in everybody tightening up, but within limits of the equipment and costs we can afford. But they’re pushing the little people more than the big people,” Coury said.

The problem with Coury’s equipment, the AQMD said, is that clothes are cleaned in one machine and dried in another, much like clothes are washed and dried in homes. When the washing is done, workers must unload the cleaning machine and move the clothes to a dryer. During the transfer, emissions of smog-forming volatile organic compounds escape into the air from the cleaning solvent, perchloroethylene--which has been shown to cause cancer in animals.

One-Machine Plan

The AQMD wants dry cleaners to install machines that both clean and dry without having to transfer the loads from cleaner to dryer.

“They’re great,” said Coury of the new designs. “I’d like to have one, just from the simplicity standpoint. But it’s a question of timing and of economics.”

About one-third of the dry cleaners in the four-county South Coast Air Basin already have the “dry-to-dry” designs. But if the proposals take effect, even smaller dry cleaners, which now are exempted from controls, would need to get permits.

“It complicates our job. We have to get a lot of permits,” said Simon Oh, who operates Palace Cleaners in Glendale. But, he said, he is not bothered that much. Over the long run, he said, more-advanced dry-cleaning systems with closed loops that recycle solvent will save money while reducing air pollution.

Don Burns, a lobbyist for the swimming pool and spa industry, echoed the concerns of many businessmen about what they see as the AQMD’s unrealistic demands. Burns said his industry is especially concerned about requiring solar panels to heat pools and spas. This could add $12,000 to $14,000 to the price of a pool, he said.

Quoting Will Rogers, Burns made light of what he suggested was the AQMD’s practice of generating broad pollution goals and then leaving it up to industry to figure out how to meet them.

‘Boil North Atlantic’

“I have a solution for the elimination of the German submarine menace in the North Atlantic,” Burns quoted Rogers as saying. “Gentlemen and ladies, boil the North Atlantic and they’ll pop right up.”

“Rogers said: ‘I can tell by the looks on your faces that you think I should come up with more than just that. Well, I am the idea man. I leave it to your technician to solve the minor details.’ ”

R.E. Robinson of the Southern California Paint and Coatings Assn. said his industry doesn’t know how to produce paints and other coatings that are as low in volatile organic compounds as the district wants and would still protect homes and other things that are painted.

“We obviously don’t know how to do that or how it’s going to be done right now. But who knows what’s going to happen in 10 or 20 years,” he told the AQMD board.

The district proposes, for example, to impose extra charges on manufacturers that turn out products with high emissions. The idea is to speed research and development into low emission paints, lacquers and other coatings.

Sandra Burton of the Barbecue Industry Assn., like many touched by the proposals, said the trade group is all in favor of clean air. “However, we are concerned with the specific aspect of the plan which targets charcoal starter fluid,” she said. She said the industry could not reformulate the product to give off fewer emissions, as one proposal would require.

Smuggling Problem

AQMD officials say there would be little smuggling of lighter fluid. But critics aren’t so sure. They note that determined back yard barbecuers could always go outside the four-county basin to purchase lighter fluid.

At Van de Kamps bakery on San Fernando Road in Los Angeles, not much thought has been given to proposed new rules to limit emissions of ethanol from bakery ovens. The AQMD has said that while fresh baked bread may be pleasing to the smell, it also contributes to smog formation.

Local plant officials said they have heard of no planning to meet the new rule if it is put into effect. But the American Bakers Assn. said there is a serious question whether controls on ethanol would have any favorable impact on air pollution.

Studies in the Bay Area show that ethanol is far less reactive in the atmosphere than other pollutants. “This low reactivity in the Bay Area shows that there will be absolutely no improvement in air quality as a result of controls,” association attorney Patrick Cafferty has told officials.

Auto spray paint shops are among the small number of businesses that already face the new rules. One, to be phased in over six years, requires auto spray paint shops to use less-volatile paints and improved nozzles that blow more of the paint onto the car and less into the air.

“It’s going to be difficult, there’s no denying that. Most everyone is going to have to reformulate their paint,” said Ray Poulin, who supervises five Earl Scheib shops in Los Angeles. “It’s going to be expensive changing equipment we already have, like spray guns.”

Price Would Rise

Poulin said it is too early to say how much the cost of a paint job might go up. They range from $99.95 to about $250. “I know the boss doesn’t want to go over $100 on his regular paint jobs,” Poulin said.

But the AQMD said the rule could result in some savings for spray paint shops, particularly with new spray guns that run at lower pressure and waste less paint.

Like Coury of the dry-cleaning shop, Poulin said he believes the fight against smog should be directed at bigger polluters. “In all honesty,” Poulin said, “it seems they ought to go after truck drivers and buses. You get behind a city bus and some of those things will choke you to death.”

In fact, diesel buses are targeted. State-imposed limits on emissions take effect for the 1991 model year and the district proposes to meet those standards by switching from diesel to a cleaner-burning fuel, like methanol or propane. The Southern California Rapid Transit District has plans to purchase about 30 methanol-powered buses later this year. Several methanol-powered buses are being used in Riverside and San Francisco on a trial basis.

The first of the 30 methanol buses are scheduled to arrive in late May and five buses that run on compressed natural gas are due in late July or mid-August, the RTD said.

“We’re working with the AQMD, the state Air Resources Board and all kinds of organizations in the (methanol bus) testing program,” RTD spokesman Rick Jager said.

Protest Over Costs

During development of the district plan, oil companies and electrical utilities protested about the costs involved in further reducing pollution. But the AQMD said a compromise announced last week between its staff and Southern California Edison Co. on emissions from steam boilers could point the way to similar accords with other industries that reduce compliance costs while still achieving air quality goals within the 20-year deadline established by the AQMD plan.

The toughest of the new rules cover nitrogen oxides, a major ingredient of photochemical smog that is more expensive to control than hydrocarbons. Thus, the AQMD’s plan has raised special concerns.

In Edison’s case, the utility would be allowed an additional seven years to meet emission limits on nitrogen oxides, but those limits would be stricter than originally proposed. Moreover, Edison would be permitted to meet the limits by averaging its nitrogen oxide emissions from all its boilers. Edison would thus avoid the necessity of installing expensive controls on all its boilers.

Edison now believes it can get the job done.

Much the same is being said by Chevron U.S.A. Inc., which operates a major refinery in El Segundo.

That doesn’t mean it won’t be difficult or expensive. Nitrogen oxide emissions are now limited to 0.14 parts per million of British thermal units (p.p.m./BTU). By 1991-92 that will be tightened to 0.06 p.p.m./BTU and then to 0.03 p.p.m./BTU by the end of 1995.

Continued pressure on oil companies to lower nitrogen oxide emissions has led to a number of demonstration projects. One approach involves low-NOX burners. The principle is fairly simple. Instead of a hot, large flame over a small area, the burner covers a larger surface area enabling it to heat at lower temperatures. Chevron said the lower temperature is not high enough to form NOX in the first place.

“It’s expensive and we still haven’t calculated the cost,” refinery General Manager Dave O’Reilly said of controls called for during the next five years. “But we think most of it is doable.”

Clean Air Plan Calls for Major Changes

The South Coast Air Quality Management District has approved a sweeping plan to clean up Southern California skies and bring air quality up to federal standards by 2007. The proposals would change the way companies do business, government agencies operate and individuals go about their daily lives. Two proposals, dealing with adhesives and spray paint, already have been adopted by the district. Here are the major new requirements called for in the plan:

Industrial

COMPUTER DISCS:

Equipment to capture emissions from chemicals used to coat and clean magnetic data storage discs.

FOAM CUPS:

Devices to capture or burn smog-producing reactive organic gases (ROG) produced in manufacturing of foam packaging, thermal insulation, cushioning, food containers, drinking cups and other foam products.

COMPUTER CHIPS:

Rules to reduce emissions of gases emitted in manufacture of semiconductors by using processes already available or by adding pollution-control devices to existing manufacturing lines.

ADHESIVES:

New formulas to reduce emissions from solvent-borne adhesives, or the substitution of non-solvent- borne adhesives used in making glues, mucilage, paste and rubber cement. Solvents are used to transfer the adhesive materials to what is being glued and are used mainly in manufacturing cars, airplanes, boats and furniture.

PAINTS AND OTHER COATINGS:

Require manufacturers of paint products containing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to pay charges to the AQMD based on amount of emissions from each product. Proceeds used to finance research and development into low-VOC products.

PAPER, FABRIC AND FILM COATING:

Further tighten rules to limit VOC emissions during coating of products such as adhesive tapes, book covers, post cards, office copier paper, pressure-sensitive tape and vinyl fabric sheets for wall paper.

GRAPHIC ARTS:

Extend current limits on VOC emissions to small firms that emit less than 20 pounds of VOCs a day.

CLEANUP SOLVENTS:

Extend to all firms rules requiring cleaning solvents to be water-based or to emit fewer VOCs.

Commercial

AUTO PAINT SHOPS:

Require neighborhood shops, chains, new-car dealers and others to use paint that emits fewer smog-producing fumes. New formulas would be required for primers, finish coats and solvents used to clean spray-painting equipment and new equipment to prevent spray paint from becoming airborne. Currently, no rules specifically cover auto paint shops.

LAWN & GARDEN EQUIPMENT:

Require commercial lawn and garden equipment to be electric-powered, or require modification of gasoline engines to lower air pollution emissions. Long-range proposal calls for methanol-powered engines.

DRY CLEANING:

About 1,760 dry cleaners in South Coast Basin use perchloroethylene, which contributes to smog. Dry cleaners would have to use equipment that eliminates transfer of clothes from washer to dryer, during which “perc” leaks into air. New equipment to capture emissions would be installed, and exemption from rules for small dry cleaners would be eliminated.

CLEAN VEHICLE FLEETS:

Public and private fleets of more than 15 vehicles would be converted to cleaner-burning fuels, such as methanol. By the year 2000, 15% to 30% of vehicles in these fleets would run on electricity, compressed natural gas, methanol, propane and butane.

COMMERCIAL PESTICIDE APPLICATIONS:

Pesticides would be reformulated with regulations on how and when they can be applied. Pesticides might be applied in dry form instead of liquid form. When spraying is required, nozzles could be redesigned to reduce leakage.

BAKERIES:

Appealing aromas wafting from bakeries come from compounds--primarily ethanol--that cause air pollution. Officials propose requiring special equipment on ovens to reduce the gases. Only bakeries producing more than 100,000 pounds of bread per day would be affected by the rule.

BUSES:

Diesel buses emit nitrogen oxides and microscopic particles that reduce visibility and contribute to haze. Air quality officials propose converting of all or part of the existing transit bus fleet from diesel to cleaner-burning fuels. Taking a lead from Seattle, San Francisco and other cities, officials also propose replacing diesel buses on frequently traveled routes with electric buses or trolleys.

BREWERIES:

Three large breweries and a number of smaller ones turn out more than 18 million barrels of beer each year--and in so doing spew ethanol and other polluting compounds into the air. Controls would include installation of filters to capture pollutants.

RESTAURANTS:

About 2,500 restaurants in the basin use char-broilers to cook steaks, hamburgers, chicken and other food. Grease falling into flames or high onto temperature surfaces creates reactive organic gas and microscopic particles that reduce visibility and cause respiratory problems. Proposals would require more efficient exhaust hoods on stoves, devices in the hoods to collect pollutants and grooved cooking griddles that funnel grease away before it burns.

PARKING LOTS:

Impose “parking charges” to discourage single-rider commuters. The new charges would be in addition to any parking fees already paid. Employers attracting more than 1,000 motor vehicle trips a day (that’s 500 vehicles in and out) would be responsible for collecting the money and passing it along to the South Coast Air Quality Management District. The funds would be used to subsidize ride-sharing programs and the use of local transit.

COMMUTING:

Require firms employing 25 or more workers to offer incentives to ride-share or to use public transit. Currently, firms that employ more than 100 workers are required to do so.

Consumers

DEODORANTS:

Change product formulas and eliminate certain propellants used in underarm antiperspirants and deodorants that contribute to air pollution.

OTHER AEROSOLS:

Require new formulas and bans on use of certain reactive aerosol propellants. Household products release large amounts of reactive organic compounds into the air--more than oil refineries and equal to 7.5% of ROG from all sources in the basin. They include paints, insecticides, cleaning solutions and automotive and personal care products.

BARBECUES:

Ban sales of barbecues that use starter fluid, or require that starter fluid used to light charcoal, campfires and patio torches be reformulated with less smog-producing ingredients. Also, restrict use of starter fluid on heavy summer smog days. Starter fluid currently is made of petroleum distillate that includes photochemically reactive organic compounds.

WATER HEATERS:

Require installation of solar collectors on all new and replacement water-heating systems. Conventional water heaters would be used to back up solar collectors. There are 3.3 million natural gas-fired water heaters in the basin, with average life-spans of about 10 years. Combustion of the gas gives off nitrogen oxides, a major ingredient of photochemical smog. Since 1983, new hot water heaters sold in California have had to comply with limits on NOX emissions. The solar panels would save about 52% of the energy needed for a given water-heating system with an average annual savings of $113 on gas bills. A solar panel costs about $4,000.

TIRES:

As tires wear, they give off small particulate matter that reduces visibility. Proposals would ban sale of bias-ply tires for light-duty passenger vehicles and require radial tires, which cost more but last 50% longer. Radial tires emit less particulate matter. They also contribute to better gas mileage, which reduces engine emissions.

DRIVE-THROUGH LINES:

Cars waiting in drive-through lines at banks and fast-food restaurants account for much of the carbon monoxide that spews into the air each day. Emissions go up as motorists turn off their engines, then restart them. Proposal would limit the number of drive-through facilities and design them to reduce idling time. One plan would require two drive-up windows at fast-food restaurants, one for paying and one for receiving the food, which some restaurants now use.

VEHICLE REGISTRATION:

There are 5.7 million cars and light-duty trucks in the South Coast Air Basin and by 2010 that number is expected to grow to 7 million. Proposals would limit the number of cars each household could register. Also reductions in registration fees would be given to owners of vehicles using cleaner-burning fuels.

PLEASURE BOATS:

New outboard and inboard engines sold in the basin would have to meet tougher air pollution control standards. Possible measures include installing catalytic converters, modifying engines, installing electronic controls and using methanol fuel. Vapor recovery systems like double-hoses at gasoline station pumps would be required at marinas.

Government

MUNICIPAL DUMPS:

Garbage and trash buried in landfills decomposes and gives off various gases like methane that contribute to smog. Since the early 1980s, landfills have been required to collect the gas and burn it off. But this creates other air pollutants. New proposals include shipping all trash and garbage out of the basin on non-polluting electric trains rather than trucks.

SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANTS:

Residential and industrial waste water contains volatile organic compounds that can vaporize during the treatment process and contribute to smog. One proposal limits types and amounts of waste containing VOCs that can be discharged into sewer systems. Another calls for new controls at treatment plants to capture VOC emissions using carbon canisters and scrubbers.

Agriculture

LIVESTOCK WASTE:

Decomposing waste releases such volatile organic compounds as methane, ethane and ammonia. About 500,000 dairy animals in the basin produce 620,000 tons of solid waste each year. Rules may require waste to be rotated frequently and exposed to air to limit the production of organic gases. Other proposals include hauling it out of the basin, or putting it in tanks to speed formation of methane, which can be used to generate electricity.