• Board Adopts New Measures to Help Reduce Air Pollution
• Relief From Daily Record Keeping Extended to More Firms
• In Other Action
• Town Hall Meeting Set in Coachella Valley

AQMD’s Governing Board today adopted two measures to further reduce air pollution in the Southland by requiring regular tuneups of industrial boilers and the use of cleaner equipment by some large commercial dry cleaners.

Beginning in 2002, amendments to AQMD Rule 1146 will reduce emissions of oxides of nitrogen – primary building blocks for air pollution – by 90 tons a year. The amended rule will cover some 700 boilers used in a variety of commercial and industrial facilities, from hotels to food processing plants.

Amendments to Rule 1102 will reduce emissions of smog-forming solvents by 35 tons a year by requiring the few remaining dry cleaners that use petroleum solvent to shift by 2005 to closed loop cleaning machines that contain the vapors from the atmosphere. Similar pollution control actions already have been taken by neighborhood dry cleaners.

In a move to save businesses time by cutting regulatory paperwork, AQMD’s Governing Board amended numerous rules to allow a variety of businesses to keep records of the materials they use – such as paints, inks, and resins – on a monthly instead of daily basis. Businesses may choose the monthly recordkeeping option as long as they:

• Are not subject to any daily emissions limit; and
• Use materials that comply with AQMD content limits for volatile organic compounds, which are a key contributor to air pollution in the region.

The new streamlined recordkeeping option follows through on recommendations made by the Board’s Monitoring, Recordkeeping and Reporting Task Force, which was established in 1999. Earlier this year, the Board allowed the monthly recordkeeping option for many of the firms AQMD regulates. Today’s action extends the option to other businesses, including those that perform spray coating and metal painting, make ink and other coatings, and use resin in product making.

• Voted to provide $35,000 to upgrade the Ontario Airport UPS liquefied natural gas/compressed natural gas fueling station to make it a reliable commercial fueling facility. The Gas Research Institute will provide $35,000 and ALT-USA will contribute $104,733.
• Agreed, at staff’s request, to delay consideration of a proposed method for calculating the toxic risk from vehicle emissions in support of AQMD’s recently adopted clean fleet rules for up to four months while additional information is collected; and
• Set public hearings on two proposed measures that will reduce smog-forming emissions from use of solvents (Proposed Amended Rule 442 – Usage of Solvents) and large industrial paint spray booths (Proposed Rule 1132 – Further Control of Volatile Organic Compound Emissions from High Emitting Spray Booth Facilities).

AQMD will hold its next town hall meeting in Coachella Valley at 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, Dec. 6, at 6:30 p.m. in the Thousand Palms Community Center, 31-189 Robert Road, Thousand Palms. The meeting will provide residents in the area a chance to share their concerns regarding air quality with AQMD’s executive staff. For further information call (909) 396-3218 or (760) 346-1127.

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AQMD Home Page
This page updated: August 20, 2004
URL: http://www.aqmd.gov/news1/Governing_Board/Bs11_17_00.htm