Environmental groups call for government to label ‘forever chemicals’

[Source: Newsweek] Eighty-two environmental organizations expressed concern on Tuesday that Senator Jim Inhofe had stripped language about so-called “forever chemicals” suspected to affect 400 U.S. military sites from the National Defense Authorization Bill. In a “skinny” NDAA bill submitted last month, Inhofe, the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, removed language regarding pervasive Per-and Read More…

Southern California’s most toxic polluters will pay more under air board’s fee hike

[Source: Los Angeles Times] Southern California air quality officials will dramatically raise fees on toxic polluters in an effort to make oil refineries, manufacturers and other industries pay a greater share of the cost of monitoring and regulating their most health-threatening emissions. The South Coast Air Quality Management District’s governing board voted 8-4 Friday to Read More…

CARB adopts uniform, statewide system for reporting criteria air pollution emissions data for stationary sources

[Source: California Air Resources Board] The California Air Resources Board today adopted a regulation establishing a statewide system for mandatory annual emissions reporting for stationary sources. The new system harmonizes statewide data submission requirements, bringing consistency in reporting deadlines and frequency of reporting, and making that data more easily accessible by the public. The improved Read More…

High level of toxic emissions cause closure of Anaplex, Paramount metal-finishing facility

[Source: Press-Telegram] The metal-finishing company Anaplex Corp. in Paramount was forced to close because of high-level emissions of a carcinogen on Thursday, Oct. 4, for the seventh time since February 2017. The South Coast Air Quality Management District ordered the temporary closure because the agency’s air monitors found above-threshold levels of toxic hexavalent chromium at the Read More…

California Attorney General establishes Bureau of Environmental Justice, and industry should get prepared

[Source: Stoel Rives LLP] On February 22, 2018, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced that the Department of Justice is opening an environmental justice office within the environment Section: the Bureau of Environmental Justice (“Bureau”). “The Bureau’s mission will be to protect people and communities that endure a disproportionate share of environmental pollution and public Read More…

Air officials to investigate toxins in Compton

[Source: Long Beach Press Telegram] Air officials will begin investigating several metal processing facilities near homes in Compton for a cancer-causing toxic recently found in the nearby city of Paramount. The effort, announced Friday, comes after the South Coast Air Quality Management District discovered high levels of hexavalent chromium a substance linked to lung cancer, Read More…

Metal finishers among toxin target opponents

[Source: Los Angeles Business Journal] MANUFACTURING: Call for increased facility supervision may yield speedier closures. Manufacturers and metal finishers are concerned about a planned crackdown on toxic emissions by the South Coast Air Quality Management District. The crackdown, announced at the April 7 meeting of the district’s governing board, was prompted by recent discoveries of Read More…