175 Companies Told to Inventory Air Pollutants

More than 175 of Southern California’s biggest corporations were ordered Thursday to assess the potential risk to the public of the smog-forming or toxic air pollutants they emit.

Acting under a state law approved in 1987, the South Coast Air Quality Management District said the firms--from Disneyland to oil and aerospace companies--will have five months to complete the assessments.

“We don’t know if any of the facilities pose a significant risk and won’t know until the health risk assessments are complete. Any suggestion otherwise would be speculation,” AQMD Executive Officer James M. Lents said in a prepared statement.

The law, authored by Assemblyman Lloyd G. Connelly (D-Sacramento), requires industry and government facilities that emit any of more than 400 air pollutants to prepare an inventory of their emissions.

In the first phase of the reporting program, 400 companies prepared such inventories. Of those, 176 are being asked to prepare health risk assessments because of the amounts and types of air pollutants they reported as well as their proximity to residential areas. The facilities are located in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Those facilities ultimately found to pose what the AQMD considers a “significant risk” will be required to notify surrounding residents beginning in November.

After the assessments, which eventually will involve many more companies, the AQMD said it may consider new rules to lower health-threatening emissions.

“If there is a risk, we will not sit in silence. . . . We will take steps to reduce that risk,” AQMD Deputy Executive Officer Pat Nemeth told reporters.

Kym Murphy, vice president of environmental policy for the Walt Disney Co,, said Thursday that even though Disneyland was directed to undertake a risk assessment, it ranked at the low end of emissions.

“Disneyland will comply fully with the AQMD’s request for information and initiate all corrective measures necessary,” Murphy said.

Douglas Elmets, a spokesman for Arco, whose Carson refinery is the second largest in the region, stressed, “Undertaking an assessment does not necessarily mean that there is a risk.” But, he said, the company would take whatever mitigation measures are needed if a problem is identified.