Dozens of Southern California facilities, including oil refineries,
aerospace plants and metal factories, will face new requirements to reduce
toxic emissions or notify their neighbors of the health risks from their
operations under rules approved Friday by air quality officials.
The move by the South Coast Air Quality Management District governing board
follows new guidelines from state environmental officials that estimate the
cancer risk from toxic air contaminants is nearly three times what experts
previously thought.
While air pollution has declined sharply in California in recent decades,
new research shows that breathing toxic compounds poses greater health risks to
young children than scientists had estimated.
Southern California business groups had objected to the more stringent
rules, which would affect as many as 90 facilities across the region. The
changes will cost businesses about $1.9 million a year in new health studies,
notification requirements and pollution controls, according to the South Coast
air district.
Environmentalists supported the measures.
"We need the government to update their regulations to better protect
our communities, families and children," said Adrian Martinez, a lawyer
for the environmental law nonprofit Earthjustice.
The air district's current rules govern about 400 facilities across Los
Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties that emit pollutants
such as arsenic, benzene and toxic metals that put surrounding residents at
increased risk of cancer and other health problems. For 25 years, those
facilities have been studied and monitored under the state's Air Toxics Hot
Spots program.
When cancer risk at one of those facilities exceeds 10 in 1 million, the
operator is required to notify neighbors and hold public meetings. If the risk
reaches 25 in 1 million, the facility must take steps to reduce emissions. A
level of 25 in 1 million means that air pollution from the facility could
result in 25 cancer cases per 1 million people over a 30-year period.
Under the new rules, about 87 of those 400 facilities will have to complete
additional health-risk assessments, 42 will have to issue public notifications
and 22 may have to reduce cancer risk by cutting their emissions, according to
air district estimates.
Earlier this year, many Southland business groups urged the air district to
relax its requirements and reduce the burden on companies. The rules, they
said, will force businesses to notify surrounding communities that health risks
from their operations are on the rise even if their facility's emissions have
stayed the same or decreased.
In a February letter, the Los Angeles County Business Federation urged the
air district to "avoid unnecessarily alarming the public while harming
local businesses and our economy." At the air district's public hearing
Friday, only a few business groups criticized the proposal.
The state's revised air toxics guidelines resulted from scientific studies
over the last decade that show young children and infants are more sensitive to
toxic air pollutants than previously thought. Past estimates were based on
adults and did not account for how breathing the same pollutants early in
childhood might raise the risk of developing cancer later in life.
More than 30 other pollution-control districts in California are making
similar changes to air toxics rules to implement the new health-risk
guidelines. Several hundred facilities across the state could face additional
pollution-control and notification requirements, according to the state Air
Resources Board.
The new rules come amid a decades-long decline in air pollution in
California as a result of years of emissions-cutting regulations. A report last fall by the South Coast air district found cancer risk from air
pollution in Southern California has dropped 65% since 2005, largely because of
plummeting emissions from diesel trucks, ships and other soot-belching
vehicles.
Despite that progress, Southern Californians still contend with the highest
cancer risk from air pollution in the state, with the worst levels in
communities near industrial zones, ports, rail yards, freeways and other
freight corridors.
The rules approved Friday also extend to businesses seeking new permits
from the South Coast air district. About 28 of those facilities each year, most
of them metal-cutting operations, will have to cut emissions, air district
officials said.
The rules exempt gas stations and spray booths, which are used at auto body
shops and other small businesses. For now, the air district will allow those
facilities to operate under existing guidelines, giving them more time to
install new pollution controls.
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