Top Air Pollution Penalties

The South Coast Air Quality Management District has responsibility to control air pollution. It can seek court-imposed fines against polluters of $25 to $25,000 a day based on such factors as the extent that emissions exceed legal limits, potential danger to the public, whether the violation was intentional, accidental or caused by negligence and the company’s history of violations. These are the six companies that incurred violations resulting in penalties of $2,500 or greater in April: COMPANY: Union Oil Co. of California, Wilmington TYPE OF BUSINESS: Refinery PENALTY: $10,000 VIOLATION: Public nuisance violation due to odors. *COMPANY: Tellkamp Systems Inc., Santa Fe Springs TYPE OF BUSINESS: Paint finishing systems maker PENALTY: $7,250 VIOLATION: Operating a spray booth without the appropriate air pollution control equipment in place, failure to maintain daily coating and solvent usage records, excessive volatile organic compound emissions from spray coating operations, failure to display a copy of its permit to operate in the facility. *COMPANY: Coast Contractors Inc., Golden West Refining Co., A.J. Diani Construction Co. Inc., Santa Fe Springs TYPE OF BUSINESS: Soil excavators PENALTY: $6,500 VIOLATION: Failure to adequately mitigate vapors from contaminated soil. *COMPANY: Baskin-Robbins, Vernon TYPE OF BUSINESS: Ice cream maker PENALTY: $3,500 VIOLATION: Excessive carbon monoxide emissions from its boiler. *COMPANY: Southern Pacific Transportation Co., Bloomington TYPE OF BUSINESS: Railroad PENALTY: $3,000 VIOLATION: Excessive smoke from its diesel locomotives on Aug. 2, 1993. *COMPANY: Southern Pacific Transportation Co., Bloomington TYPE OF BUSINESS: Railroad PENALTY: $3,000 VIOLATION: Excessive smoke from its diesel locomotives Aug. 6, 1993.