War on Smog May Reach Restaurants : Air quality: The county will consider regulating businesses that operate charbroilers, deep-fat fryers and kitchen griddles.

Despite producing less than 1% of Ventura County’s smog, the grease-filled fryers, griddles and charbroilers used in restaurant kitchens may be the next source of pollution targeted by air quality officials.

“I’m flabbergasted,” said Michael Wagner, who owns Andria’s Seafood at Ventura Harbor, one of hundreds of restaurants that would be affected.

“I’m just dumbfounded that the county can be so naive as to stick it to business,” Wagner said. “If they’re going after smoke from my deep-fryer or smoke from my charbroiler, what’s the alternative to cooking?”

The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday agreed to consider regulating businesses that operate charbroilers, deep-fat fryers and kitchen griddles to try to reduce the levels of smog-causing agents they emit locally each year. A recommendation to supervisors is due by August, 1995.

Local air quality officials admit that commercial kitchens are relatively small smog producers.

But they say their hands are tied by state and federal clean air laws.

“Restaurants might end up being one of the more obscure (smog) sources we’ve come up with so far,” said Keith Duval of the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District.

Although the board approved the study on a 4-0 vote, with Supervisor John K. Flynn absent, Chairwoman Vicky Howard said she worried about what its implementation would mean to restaurant owners.

“There are a lot of things we can do to clean up the air, most of them having to do with automobiles,” Howard said. “This is one of those areas we should probably back off (from) and find some other way to clean up the air.”

Howard then voted to proceed with the study.

Experts say Ventura County restaurants produce nearly 220 tons of the compounds that cause smog every year.

The majority of those emissions--about 120 tons--are produced by the area’s deep-fat fryers. Charbroilers and griddles account for another 50 tons each annually.

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Because Ventura County fails to meet federal clean air standards, local officials are required to enact measures to lower the amount of smog produced in the county.

“The federal ozone standard is a health-based standard,” Duval said. “It’s been designed to protect the public health. When we exceed that standard, there are people in Ventura County whose health is affected.”

About 30,000 tons of air pollutants--about 80 tons a day--are produced each year in Ventura County, making it one of the dirtiest metropolitan areas in the country.

In 1991, the county adopted an air quality management plan that targets the worst polluters--cars and heavy industry. A federal plan unveiled in February calls for virtually every industry to set and reach new guidelines regarding their emissions.

The smaller polluters also will be called upon to do their part.

Under preliminary discussion is the notion of limiting the amount of food a restaurant could cook or requiring owners to install costly smog-control devices for their fryers, griddles and charbroilers.

“We’re serious,” Duval said. “In one shape, form or another, we will probably be proposing something.”

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The idea does not sit well with most restaurant owners and managers contacted Tuesday. They fear government interference will threaten their livelihoods.

“It sounds very silly to me,” said Dino Papanicolaou, manager of Roxy’s Deli in Thousand Oaks. “Whether (food) is cooked at home or at a restaurant, you’re going to use a grill or a broiler.

“We can’t have everything microwaved,” he said. “It’s just one more thing that this industry would have to deal with, and that provides for a very low profit margin.”

Some restaurant owners said they understand the need for stricter regulations. But they worry that the cost of a smog device would sink their business.

“If they can come up with one that works, and they can make it affordable, then I’m all for it,” said Charles Davis, owner of the two Buster’s Barbecue restaurants in Ventura.

“But they also have to make it so that everyone has to conform to the same rules,” he said. “They need to make it economically feasible for us small guys to stay in business.”