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By Chris Ingraham
Perchloroethylene is a colorless, highly stable, nonflammable, halogenated liquid known to dissolve many organic materials, which makes it useful as a solvent in dry cleaning. Once exposed to air, however, the liquid evaporates, and airborne exposure acts as a central nervous system depressant and is considered a probable carcinogen to humans. At high occupational levels of exposure, dizziness, headaches, fatigue, and even unconsciousness can result. Liver and kidney damage, along with memory loss and confusion, may also be exhibited at occupational levels. Most every expert agrees that perchloroethylene — or perc for short — is toxic to humans and animals, but more than half of the Bay Area’s dry cleaning facilities use it. The Bay Area Air Quality Management District, therefore, has spearheaded a call for amending the region’s dry cleaning regulations.
Last March, the agency’s board of directors conducted a public hearing to consider proposed amendments to some of the key Air District regulations governing the emission of perc from dry cleaning operations. The new amendments were adopted during the public hearing; they provide deadlines that update and more thoroughly and aggressively regulate environmentally insalubrious practices related to the use of perc and other synthetic solvents.
The first of these deadlines is July 1, 2009. Dry cleaning operators will then be prohibited from purchasing spotting solutions that contain halogenated solvents like perc or trichloroethylene; use of halogenated spotting solutions will be completely prohibited on July 1, 2010. By December 31, 2009 any facility still using perc solvent must officially submit its intent and, where appropriate, the relevant construction applications needed to convert to an alternative dry cleaning method. All facilities must provide either the expected dates of their new equipment’s installation, or the date their perc equipment will cease operation. The ultimate deadline these regulations are working toward is January 1, 2023, when all perc dry cleaning operations will be prohibited. Before then, there will be one more intermediary deadline on July 1, 2010, when all co-residential perc facilities, converted machines, and all perc solvent machines whose date of manufacture is either prior to July 1, 1995 or unknown, will cease operation. Thereafter, all perc equipment with a date of manufacture after July 1, 1995 must cease operation when the equipment reaches fifteen years of age.
The history of the state’s battle with perc dates back almost two decades. California’s Air Resources Board first identified it as a toxic air contaminant in 1991, under California’s Toxic Air Contaminant identification and Control Program. In 1993, the Air Resources Board adopted an Airborne Toxic Control Measure for Emissions of Perchloroethylene from Dry Cleaning Operations. This “Dry Cleaning ATCM” (other ATCMs concern regulations for industrial pollutants, diesel engine exhaust, and so on) delineated the initial requirements for equipment, operations, maintenance, record keeping, and reporting that dry cleaners throughout the state would need to fulfill in order to pass muster. Where the requirements called for trained experts, an environmental training program set forth the criteria by which the Air Resources Board might approve instructors capable of training dry cleaning operators on the proper use of perc dry cleaning equipment. The problem seemed to be solved.
Ten years later, in 2003, the Air Resources Board evaluated the effectiveness of the Dry Cleaning ATCM, and, although they found the measure to be 70 percent effective, they also determined that more stringent measures could be taken to reduce perc emissions from dry cleaners more thoroughly. These changes took effect in 2007, becoming state law, to which the Air District’s new amendments offer still more assiduous attempts to eradicate the hazardous emission of perc.
When non-halogenated dry cleaning machines eventually replace those that rely on perc solvent, the new non-halogenated equipment will face regulations of its own. All new non-halogenated dry cleaning machines must be closed-loop, which are very efficient and only emit small quantities of solvent (from leaks and loading doors). Non-halogenated machines will also face new annual gross consumption levels in order to be deemed exempt from permit requirements. Whereas 700 gallons per year sufficed previously to qualify for exemption, the new figure has dropped to 200 gallons per year. Registration will be required for facilities exempt from permit requirements. If the Air District’s new checkpoints proceed as scheduled, by 2023 California will have shown that ideal to be possible.
Port of Oakland Finalizes Maritime Air Quality Improvement Plan On April 7, the Port of Oakland adopted its Maritime Air Quality Improvement Plan. Visit www.portofoakland.com/environm/prog_04c.asp for more details, and www.bayareamonitor.org to read previous Monitor coverage of this issue. |
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