Foundry in Torrance Reopens
A Torrance foundry, which closed temporarily last week because of excessive emissions of airborne lead, has reopened after a judge’s decision to relax an earlier court restriction on its release of pollutants.
The Martin Brass Foundry, at 2341 Jefferson St., started up Tuesday after Los Angeles Superior Court Judge John Zebrowski ordered it to keep its lead emissions below 3 micrograms per liter of air.
The federal standard for lead particles in ambient air is 1.5 micrograms per liter. But foundry attorney Charles Ivie successfully argued in a court hearing Tuesday that the threshold is meant to gauge airborne lead levels in large geographical areas, not at individual plants.
On Aug. 16, Zebrowski ordered Martin Brass to keep its lead emissions within the 1.5-microgram range, after the South Coast Air Quality Management District detected airborne lead concentrations near the plant of up to 20 times the federal standard.
The foundry has shut down twice in the last month to repair the vacuum system it uses to control lead dust. The most recent AQMD samples, taken Aug. 21, showed that the plant was emitting airborne lead in concentrations of 3 micrograms per liter, officials with the air quality agency say.
