Air Experts Urge Delay in Phasing Out Chemical
Responding to industry concern, regional air quality experts are recommending that bulk use of the acutely hazardous chemical hydrogen fluoride be phased out more gradually than originally proposed.
Last April, the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s board set Dec. 31, 1994, as a tentative deadline by which four oil refineries and a refrigerant manufacturing plant in Los Angeles County would have to stop using the chemical. But in a proposed rule released Tuesday, the AQMD staff recommends that the deadline be Jan. 1, 1998, for the refineries--operated by Mobil, Ultramar, Golden West and Powerine--and Jan. 1, 1999, for the refrigerant plant, operated by Allied Signal.
AQMD spokesman Bill Kelly said the change is intended mainly to give industry time to try to develop safer forms of hydrofluoric acid, which vaporizes at room temperature and can create a deadly, ground-hugging cloud.
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