‘Some Days the Air Stinks So Bad, It’s Crazy’

Johnny Birchfield will not miss the pungent smells that sometimes invaded his former home in a neighborhood of spit-shined houses and emerald lawns next to the Lakewood Country Club--but also just across the street from Douglas Aircraft Co. in Long Beach.

The aircraft factory released more than 1 million pounds of toxic emissions last year, making it the largest single source of toxic air pollution in the Southeast/Long Beach area, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency records.

Toxic emissions include substances that cause cancer, damage various bodily organs and erode the Earth’s protective ozone layer. And they add to the health risk posed by the more ubiquitous lung-damaging smog that clings to the Los Angeles area like a brown blanket.

“You could smell the solvents, the kerosene,” Birchfield, 33, said recently as he packed some belongings in a truck and prepared to move from the house he leased for seven years on Ann Arbor Road in Lakewood. “Some days the air stinks so bad, it’s crazy.”

About eight miles northeast, on the border of Santa Fe Springs and La Mirada, a breeze carried the odor of sulfur and oil into a neighborhood next to the Golden West Refinery, another of the largest toxic air polluters in the area.

“The people in our family get sick from that smell on bad days,” said Rick Arce, 21, who grew up on Ramsey Drive in La Mirada, a stone’s throw from the refinery. “We’ve had upset stomachs and headaches.”

Many of the manufacturers that discharge toxic pollutants into the air are in industrial areas, a good distance from homes and parks. But others, such as Douglas Aircraft and Golden West Refinery, are next to residential neighborhoods.

Some residents close their windows at night to keep out the odors. Children say the smells have forced them to halt neighborhood football games. Residents such as Birchfield have packed their bags in search of cleaner air. Others contemplate moving.

But other residents say they get along just fine, hardly noticing the pollution that comes from their industrial neighbors. And few of the residents interviewed by The Times said they worry about the health effects. After all, many said, air pollution is a reality of life in Southern California.

Recent studies indicate, however, that people living downwind from the plants face a potentially serious health risk: a slightly increased chance of contracting cancer.

Workers at Douglas Aircraft will have produced more than 170 commercial aircraft for delivery by the end of this year. Work also is continuing on the new C-17 military transport jet, but no deliveries are expected until 1992.

Founded in 1940, the plant spreads over 420 acres along Long Beach’s border with Lakewood.

Two industrial solvents--methylene chloride and 1,1,1-trichloroethane--accounted for most of the 1.37 million pounds of toxic emissions released by the plant last year, according to reports filed with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Methylene chloride is a probable carcinogen, and 1,1,1-trichloroethane depletes the Earth’s ozone layer. Douglas Aircraft uses the solvents for cleaning and degreasing.

In accordance with state law, the South Coast Air Quality Management District has required Douglas Aircraft--and nearly 400 other firms--to produce studies that forecast the health risk such emissions pose to area residents.

The Douglas Aircraft study, submitted to the AQMD earlier this year, projects that someone who spends a lifetime in a house subjected to the greatest exposure faces a risk of contracting cancer of 620 in 1 million. That point of greatest exposure is near Birchfield’s former residence. Theoretically, if 1 million people were to spend 70 years at that location, 620 would develop cancer as a direct result of emissions from the plant.

Douglas Aircraft contracted with the Radian Corp. of Austin, Tex., to perform the study, which the AQMD is reviewing for accuracy.

Air quality officials may eventually require firms such as Douglas Aircraft to reduce their toxic emissions.

The risk posed by Douglas Aircraft may seem small, but it would be unacceptable for a new firm wishing to move into the area. As a rule, the AQMD does not allow new firms to operate if they pose a cancer risk of more than 10 in 1 million. As an existing facility, Douglas Aircraft is exempted from that AQMD regulation.

The residents downwind and closest to the plant face the largest health risk, but the impact of such large volumes of toxic emissions is widespread. The emissions from Douglas Aircraft increase the cancer risk by as much as 1 in a million for residents as far north as Downey and more than 20 miles to the east, past Anaheim Hills in Orange County, according to the study.

But those health risks are projections based on computer modeling. There have been no comprehensive studies of residents living near Douglas Aircraft.

Long Beach health officials and Lakewood city officials say they have received no reports of illness attributed to emissions from the plant.

None of about 20 residents interviewed by The Times attributed health problems to emissions from Douglas Aircraft. But some said the plant is a nuisance.

Lakewood resident Russell Bittola, who lives about a block from Douglas Aircraft, said he closes the windows of his house two or three times a week to keep the smell of solvents from disturbing his sleep.

“It gets aggravating,” said Bittola, a father of two who lives on Green Meadow Road in Long Beach, northeast of Douglas Aircraft.

But on the other side of the street, a 41-year-old resident had no complaints. The man, who asked not to be identified, said some pollution is a fair price for the jobs and tax revenue the aircraft factory provides.

“It’s a lesser of two evils,” he said. “You can’t drive industry out. You’ll have potholes, not libraries. Douglas has not been a bad neighbor.”

In an effort over the past three years to reduce emissions, Douglas Aircraft has installed some new equipment and changed some of the paints it uses, said spokesman John Thom, who declined to provide the cost of those improvements. “We want to be a good neighbor,” Thom said. “We know it’s a good idea to cut emissions.”

Nevertheless, the plant released about 20% more toxic emissions in 1990 than it did in 1989, according to EPA records. Thom attributed the increased emissions to higher production of aircraft.

The amount of emissions is likely to be greater this year because of further increases in production, Thom said. But the trend should be reversed in 1992. Because of declining orders, Douglas Aircraft will produce about 25 fewer planes next year than in 1991.

The children in Frontier Park, across the street from the Golden West Refinery, wrinkled their noses when asked about the refinery on a recent afternoon.

In the background, the refinery’s stacks reached for the clouds and steam rose with a whoosh from tanks.

“It smells, dude,” said Rafael Estioco, 11.

“It gets in your head and gives you a headache,” added Devin Elliott, 12.

The comments were typical of residents who live closest to the Golden West Refinery, which covers 260 acres on the east side of Santa Fe Springs. The refinery was founded in 1938 and has been expanded and upgraded over the years.

Golden West produces gasoline for the local chain of Thrifty stations. It also produces diesel fuel, fuel oil, liquefied petroleum gas and asphalt.

The refinery released 122,709 pounds of toxic substances into the air in 1990. Xylene and toluene, which exist in crude oil and are produced during refining, account for much of those emissions. They can damage the liver and the central nervous system.

The emissions also included about 10,000 pounds of benzene, a cancer-causing pollutant, and 448 pounds of hydrogen fluoride, a highly corrosive chemical that can cause eye and skin irritation, lung damage and even death in higher concentrations.

Prevailing winds tend to push the pollutants from Golden West into a La Mirada neighborhood to the east. Residents there say they have been bothered by the emissions from the plant for years. But most say the odors do not come as often as they once did, and that they are not as strong.

Neighborhood children say that their eyes sting on occasion, and that they sometimes have to stop playing football and other sports in the streets or in Frontier Park.

The Arce family keeps the doors and windows shut when the smell is bad.

“The people around here get used to the smell, but on some days you can really smell it,” Rick Arce said.

The Manuputty family lives one street away, on Dufield Avenue, but they plan to move soon after spending seven years as a neighbor of Golden West. “I think it’s a health hazard,” said Anthony Manuputty. “They should put up a sign and not let residents live here, or move the plant.”

The AQMD has fined Golden West numerous times in recent years for violations of the agency’s pollution control rules. The AQMD recently announced it had fined Golden West $11,000 for odors that created a public nuisance between November, 1989, and January, 1990. The AQMD has alleged additional violations by Golden West, including excessive emissions that may or may not involve toxic substances, officials said.

Golden West Refinery spokesman David J. Dragt said equipment breakdowns were responsible for most of the violations.

Dr. Paul Papanek, a toxics expert with the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, said there is no evidence linking illness to emissions from the plant. But Papanek said emissions of nontoxic sulfur compounds commonly released by refineries have been known to cause headaches and upset stomachs.

Nevertheless, toxic emissions from the refinery do pose a slight cancer risk, according to the health risk study Golden West submitted to the AQMD.

That study, by ENSR Consulting and Engineering of Newport Beach, projects a cancer risk of at least 39 in 1 million for a person who would spend a lifetime in the residence closest to the refinery. The AQMD also is reviewing that study.

Refinery spokesman Dragt said the refinery has spent about $300,000 in recent years on improvements that reduce toxic emissions.

As a result, the refinery cut its toxic emissions from 239,436 pounds in 1989 to 122,709 in 1990, Golden West reported to the EPA.