Use of 2 Ozone-Depleting Chemicals Up By 26%, Group Says : Environment: Coalition, in publishing report, hopes to raise support for Big Green initiative.

A organization of environmentalists released a report Thursday that shows a 26% increase in the use of two ozone-depleting chemicals by San Diego County companies in 1989.

The Environmental Health Coalition’s study, based on figures reported to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency by industry, showed a 48% increase in the use of Freon 113 and a 21% increase in methyl chloroform use.

Industry representatives said that the gain came from increased production and better record keeping over previous years. Joy Williams of the environmental group agreed with the assessment.

“I don’t think that anybody is changing processes to ones that require more of the solvents than they are using,” Williams said.

The two chemicals are solvents used in industrial cleaning and de-greasing of metals.

“We don’t invent the chemicals here. We’re dependent on the chemical companies that invent these things,” said Al Skiles, manager of environmental regulatory affairs for General Dynamics in San Diego, which is a major user of both Freon 113 and methyl chloroform.

“In our three divisions in San Diego we have had a pro-active program to test substitutes for chemicals that are of concern,” Skiles said.

While companies have found substitutes for the ozone-depleting chemicals in the study, Skiles said, General Dynamics uses them for a broad range of activities and has not yet found a substitute for those varied applications.

Skiles agreed that the increase in use of the chemicals is the result of increased production.

“The more parts that you clean, the more use you will have for these chemicals,” Skiles said.

Methyl chloroform and Freon 113 are both slated to be phased out of production by 2005, according to an international agreement reached in Montreal and revised earlier this year.

The environmental coalition, in publishing its report, hoped to raise support for Proposition 128, a broad environmental protection initiative that would, among other things, speed up the phasing out of the use of these chemicals to 1997.

But a spokesman for Rohr Industries, which the coalition named as the No. 1 user of methyl chloroform in the county, said that the proposition would do more harm than good.

“We believe that the downside damage from this initiative would far outweigh the possible benefits,” said Rohr’s Roger Renstrom of Rohr.

Renstrom said that methyl chloroform, while it may be ozone-depleting, does not contribute to photosynthetic smog and that industry is under great pressure from federal regulators to reduce smog.

“There are many instances where the federal regulators encourage us to avoid things that cause air pollution,” Renstrom said.