Air pollution officials delay ban on spray paints; business and labor coalition opposes new regulation.

Air pollution officials delay ban on spray paints

Business and labor coalition opposes new regulation

The powerful South Coast Air Quality Management District has delayed until August consideration of an unprecedented rule that would virtually ban production and use of all spray paints in the Southland. Meanwhile, a suit brought by a group of paint manufacturers, users and retailers seeking to postpone any AQMD action will be heard in Los Angeles Superior Court next week.

The AQMD's 12-member board late last month decided to further study the pollution impact of aerosol paints and seek industry input on developing new regulations.

The rule -- which would be one of dozens of AQMD coatings regulations -- would cover the paints that are sprayed on the outside of Southland buildings and homes.

"The AQMD is once again focusing a major effort on something that is the least part of the problem," said Tom Flavin, the mayor of burbank and member of the Community Air Quality Task Force, a coalition of labor groups and manufacturers which has opposed many AQMD rules. "It's another example of the district making policy without real concern for the consequences."

The rule, the first of its kind in the United States, does not apply to household aerosol products like deodorants and cooking sprays.

But the AQMD's new stance is an about-face from its earlier position. Last winter the air quality board would have exempted aerosol paints from tough environmental scrutiny. Although the vote last month was delayed to August, insider said stringent spray paint rules will surely be imposed.

No one knows what kind of economic impact the spray paint rule will have, but the district's overall plan to cleanse the Southland's polluted air is estimated to cost local industry $2.9 billion a year.

"We acknowledge that we are proposing a virtual ban on aerosols," said AQMD spokesman Tom Eichorn. "But it's something that must be done to attack air pollution."

The proposed ban has drawn the ire of the vocal paint industry, which said the district has failed to conduct adequate public hearings on the ruling as required by law.

A group of 22 paint manufacturers, contractors and independent retailers in March filed suit against the AQMD in Los Angeles Superior Court, charging that the district had failed to fully analyze the environmental impact of its plan. Plaintiffs include such Southland-based paint manufacturers as Dunn-Edwards, Sinclair and Cal-Western, as well as the nation's largest independent paint contractor, San Bernardino-based Ram-Mar.

Those paint manufacturers represent 4,800 workers and helped generate $420 million in 1989 revenues.

"The [AQMD] board realized they had made a complete mistake," said Robert Wendoll, an executive with the Dunn-Edwards Corp. and chairman of the Southern California Paint and Coatings Association's environmental committee. "It was passed on a whim."

AQMD spokesman Eichorn said despite the legal challenge, the district is determined to pare the amounts of pollutants from aerosol paints by 97 percent.

Aerosol paints, like scores of industrial and consumer solvents, primers and finishes, contain high levels of volatile organic compounds, category of pollutants that help make Southern California's air so dirty. VOCs, used in paints to help them dry, form ozone when combined with nitrogen oxide in sunlight. High ozone levels have greatly hampered the Southland's ability to meet federal air quality standards.

Aerosol paints are especially harmful because they give a "double dose of pollution" from drying paint and the propellants which give aerosol paints their ability to be sprayed.

Every day 1,246 tons of VOCs are dumped into Southland's air, with more than 218 tons coming from paints. Local refineries, by comparison, only account for 20 tons of VOCs daily.

But the paint industry said stricter standards on aerosol paints are both unneccesary and would likely cause massive job layoffs. Only 12.2 tons of pollutants are emitted by aerosol paints a day, according to industry estimates.

"The gains to be made in air quality are certainly all out of proportion to the amount of effort put into paint regulations," said Wendoll.

He said the industry is already reeling from the burden of AQMD rules on ordinary paints that are applied with brushes and rollers.

But the AQMD said the paint industry must develop new ways to paint. That means greater reliance on such non-sprayed water-based paints as latex, which has relatively few VOCs.

John Guerra, vice president of operations for Major Paint Co., a division of Torrance-based Standard Brands, said he was optimistic that a compromise on aerosols could be worked out before August.

"We are going to work with the AQMD but we don't feel the draft regulation is reasonable." Guerra said. He predicted if the AQMD approved the aerosol law today, a quarter of the 200 manufacturing jobs at his company would be eliminated."

Nevertheless, the volatile organic compounds in most paints have been successfully "ratcheted down" in recent years, Eichorn said.

The AQMD has also sought to dramatically reduce the level of VOCs emitted by defense companies. Last spring, for example, the district proposed a rule requiring the Southland's aerospace industry to chop their emissions of VOCs by 55 percent. The price tag for slashing VOCs, used as solvents, primers, coatings and adhesives, is only $6 million a year, according to AQMD statistics.

Community Air Quality Task Force members claim the proposed aerosol ban is indicative of a bureaucracy run wild. The task force, one of the most powerful opponents to the district, said AQMD rules have forced Southland furniture makers, metal fabricators and apparel makers to move away.

The task force several months ago released a study saying the result of the district's general plan to clear the Southland's air by 2007 would cost the region 350,000 jobs.