AQMD Stiffens Rule on Solvents
The Southland’s air quality board Friday adopted its most sweeping smog control regulation of the decade, requiring about 23,000 businesses to use water-based, low-polluting solvents.
The rule calls for the reduction of hydrocarbon emissions by about 32 tons a day in 1999 and 40 tons daily by 2010. That is equivalent to eliminating half a million cars from Southern California roads.
More tons of hydrocarbons will be removed from the air than under any single rule the South Coast Air Quality Management District has adopted since 1989 or anything the agency expects to enact over the next five years.
The new measure is the final flourish in outgoing executive officer James Lents’ 10-year career of fighting smog at the nation’s premier air quality agency.
Lents’ contract automatically expires July 31, because the AQMD board remained deadlocked Friday on whether to oust him. It was the third time it failed to break the impasse.
The board members, holding a debate in a closed session, decided to delay naming a temporary replacement and launching a nationwide search for a new executive.
The AQMD board has been so divided and acrimonious about Lents’ ouster that it leaves major questions about a future course for battling smog in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
Adopting the major anti-pollution rule Friday is widely considered a move by the board to calm a firestorm of protest from environmentalists, who suspect that Lents’ ouster signals the board’s intent to ease its efforts to regulate polluting industries.
The new rule, approved in a 9-1 vote after endorsements from major Southland industries, forces businesses--from neighborhood machine shops to large aerospace factories--to use water-based degreasing detergents or install air-tight systems that prevent fumes from escaping.
Today, businesses widely remove grease and grime from metal parts, such as aircraft components, by plunging them into open tanks of petroleum-based degreasers. Hydrocarbon fumes evaporate, reacting in sunlight and making a significant contribution to smog.
The new regulation requires the solvent content to be cut by 76% in the next 1 1/2 years. “This is a very, very significant rule,” said Tim Carmichael of the environmental group Coalition for Clean Air. “There aren’t many rules that come along that give you 35 or 40 tons of emission reductions.”
Complying can be expensive for businesses. Water-based detergents require a new system of application, including heaters and dryers, that run from $1,300 for a small operation to $150,000 for a large factory. The cleaner compounds, however, are cheaper in some cases to use in the long run.
Some companies may pass along the increased costs to consumers by raising the price of their products.
There was little protest from businesses, because cleaner, nontoxic degreasers are widely available and are considered a relatively cost-effective means of cutting a large amount of emissions that form smog.
Southern California’s aerospace industry, one of the largest users of degreasers, endorsed the regulation.
Substantial progress has been made recently in the development of water- and citrus-based detergents for circuit boards, jet components and other parts that require thorough cleansing to be safe and functional. A decade ago, there were few effective products, but they have improved because of pressure on manufacturers to reduce air pollution and hazardous waste.
Of 23,000 businesses that use degreasers in the four counties, about 10% have already switched to water-based detergents and another 10% use solvents exempt from the new rule. The remaining 18,500 must comply by Jan. 1, 1999.
Last fall, the AQMD board adopted a similar requirement that auto mechanics and other shops use low-polluting solvents while hand-cleaning parts.
The new rule is one of about 60 proposed measures aimed at businesses and vehicles outlined in the region’s clean-air plan adopted last fall. A few of the measures have already been implemented, and the rest must be adopted by 2004.
Among the steps taken in the last 10 years, the AQMD has required a massive rebuilding of power plants, developed ride-share incentives at businesses and created a smog market in which major industries buy and sell pollution credits. Although these steps are considered substantial, the degreasing rule affects more business and will clean up more pollution.
But in the last few years, Lents and the board have scaled back their attack on smog under pressure from businesses and conservative legislators.
The goals of the board members remain unclear; the six who voted against Lents have stated a variety of reasons. Some say they want the AQMD board to be more responsive to the businesses it regulates, while others say they want fresh leadership.
Lents, 53, who received a $140,000 salary, will get six months severance pay. An AQMD committee will appoint an interim successor next week, and the board plans to vote on that position and begin searching for a new executive Aug. 8.
