Smog Agency Seeks to Put Lid on Restaurant Broilers : Pollution: Plan would force about 6,000 eateries to curb emissions. Businesses fear economic impact.

At the corner of Beverly and Rampart boulevards in Los Angeles, the mouthwatering smell of Tommy’s famous chili burgers has wafted through the air for almost 50 years. But that familiar odor of burgers--savory to some, unpleasant to others--could soon be a thing of the past throughout the Southland.

Although fumes from burgers, steaks, chicken and other fried and broiled foods may be relished by gourmands and gluttons, they also are a major source of smog. From McDonald’s and In-N-Out Burgers to Lawry’s and Ruth’s Chris Steak House, about 6,000 restaurants would be forced to reduce smoke from charbroilers, griddles and deep-fat fryers under a proposal unveiled Thursday by the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

The agency says Southland restaurants emit 33 tons of pollution into the air daily--as many hydrocarbons as oil refineries and nine times more soot particles than all the region’s buses. Fat, as it decomposes, releases petroleum-based gases into the air, and when grease drops on open flames, it emits smoky particulates that obstruct visibility and lodge in lungs.

“We don’t have to give up our burgers. We just won’t be choking on as much smoke,” AQMD spokesman Sam Atwood said. “Restaurants are a very significant source of emissions. This is not a tiny, insignificant source.”

Under the AQMD proposal, restaurants in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties that cook more than 50 pounds of meat per day and 25 pounds of non-meat would have to reduce emissions. That would encompass fast-food chains, large restaurants, “mom-and-pop” operations and coffee and doughnut shops. Residential kitchens, catering vehicles and charity operations would be exempt.

AQMD officials--who had postponed the proposal for five years because of concerns of restaurant owners and technical gaps--are bracing for the same type of jokes and public backlash they faced in 1990 when they targeted fumes from back-yard barbecues.

A series of workshops to discuss the proposal begins Tuesday, while the air quality board has scheduled a vote in November.

Restaurant representatives reacted with concern Thursday, saying they would have trouble complying with the proposed deadlines and pollution limits and might have to increase prices.

Under the first phase of the proposal, existing restaurants would have three years to meet a limit of 2.25 pounds of hydrocarbons per day--equivalent to cooking about 1,200 quarter-pound burgers--and one pound of particulates, equal to about 500 Quarter Pounders, said Peter Votlucka, an AQMD air quality engineer. New restaurants would have two years.

In seven years, all restaurants would have to reduce their emissions to no more than half a pound of hydrocarbons a day and 0.4 of a pound of particulates.

“I think it will affect every chain. Anybody who cooks meat will have a problem,” said Larry Leis, construction services director for Irvine-based El Pollo Loco, which operates about 150 restaurants in the four-county basin.

Gerald Breitbart, business issues consultant for the California Restaurant Assn., said the provisions are especially unreasonable for popular fast-food restaurants that cook large volumes of burgers.

“The toughest part of this thing is that we cannot control the consumer and we cannot control the product,” he said.

To comply, many restaurants might turn to essentially the same smog control technology installed on automobiles--catalytic converters.

Five Southland restaurants, including one at Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, are experimenting with the catalysts. Attached to a steel hood on top of a charbroiler, it turns the cooking fumes into harmless water and carbon dioxide.

But Breitbart said that installing the devices costs $5,000 to $10,000, and that they may not be effective enough to meet the proposed limits.

Many restaurant owners also question the accuracy of AQMD tests that measure emissions from their broilers and fryers, suggesting that no one really knows how much they emit. Leis said the industry needs more time to ensure that the testing procedure is on target.

El Pollo Loco has cleaned up much of its smoke by devising a chicken cooker that sits upright and prevents grease from dripping onto flames. At a cost of $30,000 per restaurant, the chain has installed them at 25 locations and plans to expand their use to all sites in the basin if the rule is adopted.

But Leis said the new cookers will probably satisfy only the first phase of requirements--which he called “a good, practical, reasonable” proposal. The second, more stringent step would be “awfully hard to attain,” he said.

“I really think it will be economically prohibitive,” Leis said. “The technologies are not out there now and the AQMD is banking on those technologies coming forth.”

AQMD officials believe their proposal would eliminate 60% of emissions from all the region’s restaurants--amounting to a reduction of almost 12 tons of hydrocarbons per day and eight tons of particulates.

Breitbart said the AQMD is grossly overestimating the extent of the problem because it bases its estimates on restaurants that charbroil the fattiest meat--hamburgers.

“We’re not saying that restaurants shouldn’t have to be regulated,” he said. “What we’re saying is let’s try to find out what we are trying to regulate before we pass a rule.”

AQMD spokesman Bill Kelly compared the concerns to those raised four years ago when the AQMD ordered manufacturing changes in barbecue lighter fluid. At the time, some opponents coined the misleading phrase “use a barbecue, go to jail.”

But Kelly said manufacturers have succeeded in complying by creating many barbecue fluids, chips and other new products that are cleaner burning.

“It is a success story,” Kelly said. “It has cleaned the air and people can still barbecue using a great number of products.”