Many O.C. Industries Fail to Cut Toxic Air Pollution

By MARLA CONE

Dec. 1, 1991 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Despite growing national efforts to reduce toxic air pollution, Orange County industries have had little success in weaning themselves from chemicals that emit hazardous fumes or damage the Earth’s protective ozone layer.

A Times analysis of 1990 toxic emissions reports filed by local manufacturers shows that most have failed to reduce the tons of pollutants they release into the air. In many cases, Orange County companies are switching from one environmentally unsafe substance to another while they struggle to find new, safer chemicals or other permanent solutions that will enable them to comply with future laws.

The county’s industries reported releasing about 10.3 million pounds of toxic chemicals into the air in 1990, a 15% increase over 1989. Nearly the entire increase was attributed to a switch in chemicals at one foam manufacturer that converted from one ozone-depleting chemical to another.

Many of the Orange County companies that reported less pollution last year cited reasons of the economy, not the environment. Due to the recession, they were forced to shut down operations or cut back production.

For example, Hughes Aircraft Co. in Fullerton, a defense contractor that is the county’s largest employer, cut emissions of ozone-depleting chemicals by 40% last year primarily because the company’s military contracts were down substantially.

Every year, under the nation’s 5-year-old “right to know law,” industries must report the volumes of chemicals they have emitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The manufacturing plants are required to estimate their emissions of 340 chemicals specified by Congress.

The data provides little if any insight into the health risks of the fumes, since that depends on such variable factors as prevailing winds and potency of the chemical. But the goals of the program are to inform the public about sources in their neighborhoods and, through publicity, pressure the companies to hasten their efforts to control pollution.

“It’s a good way to focus company attention on these issues. A lot of companies, including ourselves, didn’t look at this as closely as we should have,” said Jim Heiser, a spokesman for Aerochem Inc. in Orange, the third-largest source of emissions in Orange County. The company will soon install pollution control equipment to comply with new smog rules.

“We had been seeking measures to reduce” emissions, he said, “but we probably would have taken a longer period of time to do so.”

While Orange County has few obvious “smokestack” industries, it has many major aerospace, electronics and other manufacturing firms that use large volumes of cleaning solvents, particularly ones that harm the ozone layer, the data shows.

Last year, the county was home to a company that was the largest source of industrial air emissions in all of Southern California and the third biggest in the state. Great Western Foam Products Corp., an Orange manufacturer of polyurethane foam that is used in packaging and furnishings, reported over 1.6 million pounds of ozone-depleting emissions in 1990.

While environmental laws are forcing companies to find safer techniques, the EPA data reveals that progress is slow and regulations don’t always have the intended effect. Also, quirks in the law and conflicts between regulatory agencies can present companies with dilemmas.

For example, popular industrial solvents such as Freon 113 and other chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, that deplete the ozone layer are disappearing from the market under the Montreal Protocol, a 1987 international agreement that phases out their use by the year 2000.

The phaseout has tripled the cost of CFCs and made them increasingly difficult to buy, so as a temporary solution, many manufacturers have substituted 1,1,1-trichloroethane. Known as TCA, the solvent isn’t as destructive as CFCs but it still harms the ozone layer.

Environmentalists say the chemical substitution is shortsighted since TCA will be banned too. Instead of waiting for safer materials to be developed, they say, industries should convert assembly lines to cleaner processes already available, such as use of water-based solvents.

“There’s not much vision in this transition. These companies are not taking a long view,” said Jim Jenal, clean-air programs director for Citizens for a Better Environment, a national environmental group. “They’re merely looking at short-term economic gain as opposed to a long-term understanding of the true environmental benefit.”

Representatives of companies admit that juggling of chemicals is just a stopgap measure, but they say they aren’t trying to skirt the laws. They say the early ‘90s are a transitional period in which they are searching for permanent solutions. So far, they say, there are no viable substitutes for some of the most widely used chemicals.

“I know the intent (of the regulations) is to put pressure on companies, but right now we have to wait for technology to come up with something new. That can be a slow process, and it’s going to take time,” said Waino Taipale, environmental engineer at Steelcase Inc., a major office-furnishings manufacturer in Tustin.

The most startling increase in reported emissions was at Great Western Foam’s plant in Orange, which rocketed to the top of Southern California’s list of air polluters for 1990.

The company reported 17 times more emissions in 1990 than in 1989--but what looked like a huge increase in pollution was actually just a reporting change brought on by the company’s conversion to TCA.

The figure that Great Western Foam reported in 1989 was low because it used CFC 11, an ozone-depleting chemical that did not have to be reported under the law at the time. But last year, the company replaced it almost pound-for-pound with TCA. Since TCA has to be reported, Great Western Foam’s reportable pounds jumped substantially.

A leading West Coast foam supplier for over 25 years, Great Western Foam switched to TCA, which is used as a blowing agent, because it has “extremely low ozone-depletion potential,” said Feyyaz Baskent, the company’s vice president.

Ironically, Baskent said, while 1990 looked like a bad year at Great Western Foam in regard to emissions, it was an improvement over 1989 because TCA is about 10 times less destructive to the ozone layer than CFCs.

Baskent said the company five years ago spent about $200,000 voluntarily stopping use of methylene chloride, which has been linked to cancer. When it stopped using CFCs because they were too dangerous for the ozone layer, it spent another $300,000 converting to TCA, he said.

Now the company is working with Dow Chemical and other chemical manufacturers to find better substitutes, and is also researching seven technologies which might prove to be safer. The company expects to find one in the next few years, Baskent said.

Other Orange County companies made similar switches last year from one ozone-depleting chemical to another.

Future Foam Inc., another foam manufacturer, which operates plants in Fullerton and Anaheim, jumped to near the top of emitters in Orange County last year because it began using TCA instead of CFCs. McDonnell Douglas in Huntington Beach previously used Freon 113 as a solvent, but that ozone-harming chemical is being phased out, so the company now uses TCA.

Companies can find themselves caught in the cross-fire of various regulations aimed at curing different environmental problems. While some chemicals are restricted in the Los Angeles Basin because they form smog, others are banned nationally because they harm the ozone layer.

Twenty years ago, CFCs and TCA were considered miracle chemicals because they have low toxicity and don’t cause smog. But while the compounds are generally stable and safe on the ground, scientists discovered in 1974 that they react in the stratosphere and consume the ozone layer that shields the Earth from harmful ultraviolet light.

So now, the challenge for industries is to find alternatives that are benign to both the stratosphere and urban air quality.

Steelcase, which needs adhesives to manufacture furniture, switched last year from an adhesive that contains TCA to one containing a solvent that contributes to smog. This year, however, it changed back again to the ozone-damaging chemical because the solvent has been restricted in the Los Angeles Basin since Jan. 1. Within a few years, it must find something else, because TCA will be banned.

“We have dealt with nine different adhesive manufacturers, and they don’t have anything else that will work. But we’re continuing to look,” said Steelcase’s Taipale.

Production of TCA will be phased out in the United States beginning in 1995, and will be prohibited by 2005. Also, the Los Angeles Basin’s air-quality agency has set a goal of banning it in 1997.

“We know TCA adhesives are just a temporary solution, a stopgap measure,” Taipale said. “We hope we have an answer for that question by the time 1997 rolls around. I feel that when research catches up, (chemical manufacturers) will find a substitute.”

Jenal of Citizens for a Better Environment said many companies are stubbornly sticking to old techniques, partly because of the cost of conversion.

“Everybody wants the magic bullet,” Jenal said. “They want the substitute that has no side effects and entails no conversion costs. That would be great if it were there, but how long do we want to allow people to keep on emitting tons of these ozone-depleting chemicals? We’ve known since 1974 that CFCs deplete the ozone layer.”

But many manufacturers are planning construction of multimillion-dollar pollution-control systems and experimenting with new assembly processes.

For example, McDonnell Douglas Space Systems in Huntington Beach plans to begin installing new manufacturing equipment and pollution controls next year to use solvents more efficiently, with a goal of eliminating 90% of emissions by 2000. The plant was No. 4 on Orange County’s list of air polluters for 1990, releasing 392,705 pounds of mostly ozone-depleting chemicals into the air--about a 10% increase from 1989.

While most of the county’s industrial leaders had a poor showing in reducing emissions last year, some smaller companies had success stories, and some even saved money at the same time.

Everest Electronic Enclosures in Anaheim cut emissions of ozone-depleters about 75% because it switched to water-based substances. Kwikset Corp., which manufactures lock parts in Anaheim, cut emissions in half by switching from PCE to soap for cleaning some parts.

Other companies, such as Mallinckrodt Anesthesia Products in Costa Mesa, are now using robotics to maintain a clean assembly process instead of using CFCs as cleaners.

Willard Marine Inc. in Anaheim stopped using acetone, a toxic chemical, and now uses a substance that doesn’t evaporate as easily. Much of the reason the company switched was economic: Southern California industries are required to pay air-pollution fees for every pound of smog-causing fumes they emit.

Economic forces are at work elsewhere too. Unocal Chemicals Division in Brea for years was the county’s No. 1 source of air emissions because of ammonia fumes from producing fertilizer. But the company is getting out of the fertilizer business and is shutting down the Brea plant.

Baxter HealthCare’s Bentley Laboratories in Irvine, previously the No. 2 source of toxic emissions, halved them last year and now says it will have nothing to report because manufacturing was shifted to Puerto Rico.

Northrop Corp. had perhaps the most drastic solution for emissions at its Anaheim plant:

“Basically there’s nobody there doing anything anymore,” said spokeswoman Sally Korris, explaining that the firm’s operations were consolidated. “The site has been leveled.”

Times correspondent Tom McQueeney contributed to this report.

Orange County’s Top Air Polluters

These companies were the largest sources of toxic air emissions in Orange County in 1990. Federal law requires manufacturers to report the volumes of 340 chemicals they release into the air each year. Some of the chemicals are toxic poisons or are linked to cancer, while others damage the Earth’s protective ozone layer.

1. Great Western Foam Products / Orange

1990: 1,600,520 pounds

Four chemicals, mostly 1,1,1-trichloroethane (damages ozone layer)

2. Unocal Chemicals Division / Brea

1990: 1,176,813 pounds

Two chemicals, mostly ammonia (toxic)

3. Aerochem Inc. / Orange

1990: 423,520 pounds

Three chemicals, mostly perchloroethylene (toxic, carcinogen)

4. McDonnell Douglas Space Systems Co. / Huntington Beach

1990: 392,705 pounds

Seven chemicals, mostly 1,1,1-trichloroethane (damages ozone layer)