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Nov. 4, 2005
LONG BEACH — The Southland’s air quality agency today adopted three
major rules to protect schoolchildren from toxic air pollution, reduce
emissions from refinery flares and cut particulate emissions from cement
facilities.
“These new rules address community concerns and advance our environmental
justice agenda by further reducing emissions from significant pollution
sources in the region,” said William A. Burke, Governing Board Chairman of
the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
AQMD’s Rule 1118 – Emissions from Refinery Flares – will reduce sulfur
emissions from vent-gas flaring at refineries and other facilities in the
region. Rule 1401.1 – Requirements for New and Relocated Facilities Near
Schools – will place more stringent requirements on toxic air emissions from
new facilities located near schools. Rule 1156 – Further Reduction of
Particulate Emissions from Cement Manufacturing Facilities – will
significantly reduce particulate matter emissions from the Southland’s two
cement manufacturing plants.
Rule 1118 – Refinery Flares
Today’s changes to Rule 1118 will minimize the open burning of gases in
flares, allowing it only in specific circumstances. The rule affects 27
flares operated at seven oil refineries, one hydrogen plant and one sulfur
recovery plant. All of the facilities are located in the South Bay region
of Los Angeles County.
First adopted in 1998, Rule 1118 required refineries and related facilities
to collect emissions data from their vent-gas flaring operations. Data
collected from October 1999 through December 2003 revealed that while sulfur
oxide (SOx) emissions from flaring significantly decreased during that
period, most flaring was not for emergency purposes and that flaring still
represents a significant source of SOx emissions in the region.
Today’s changes to the flare rule will:
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Prohibit vent-gas flaring except during emergencies, shutdowns, startups
and other essential operational events, beginning January 1, 2007;
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Require facilities to analyze in detail and report to AQMD the cause of
significant flaring events;
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Establish facility performance targets with declining SOx emissions
requirements from 2006 through 2012;
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Require flare minimization plans for facilities failing to meet the
established performance targets;
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Impose mitigation fees from $25,000 to $100,000 per ton of emissions above
a facility’s performance target limit, with a maximum fee limit of $4
million per year;
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Strengthen monitoring, data collection and quantification procedures of
flaring events; and
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Expand notification and reporting requirements.
Changes to Rule 1118 are expected to reduce sulfur oxide emissions from
about 2 tons per day in 2003 to less than 0.5 ton per day by 2012.
SOx emissions from flares contribute to the formation of fine particulate
pollution, which is linked to a number of health effects from increased
hospital admissions to premature deaths. In addition, low levels of sulfur
dioxide can exacerbate asthma symptoms.
Flares – easily recognized by their highly visible flames emitted from a
tall stack – are used to burn and dispose of vent gases generated as part of
petroleum production processes or during a process upset. Flares are also
used as safety devices to relieve pressure and prevent fires or explosions.
Thousands of residents recently witnessed a major flaring event when a power
disruption caused emergency flaring at several refineries in the Los Angeles
area.
Rule 1401.1 – Toxic Emissions Near Schools
The adoption of Rule 1401.1 fulfils one of the measures outlined in AQMD’s
2003 strategy for reducing cumulative impacts from air pollution.
Historically, some parents and community groups have expressed concerns that
some existing facilities near schools, such as chrome plating shops, may
pose a health threat to school children.
Rule 1401.1 will reduce the potential cancer risk to students near such
facilities by requiring that new facilities locating within 500 feet of a
school (or 1,000 feet in certain cases) not create a total cancer risk
greater than one in 1 million. Currently, new facilities must meet a
maximum cancer risk threshold of one in 1 million for each individual piece
of equipment with toxic emissions, or 10 in 1 million if the equipment meets
requirements for best available control technology.
In addition, the new rule requires that for relocated facilities, their
health risk must not increase from a previous location to a new location
within 500 feet of a school.
The new rule is expected to affect a handful of new facilities each year,
primarily large gas stations.
Rule 1156 – Cement Plants
AQMD’s Board today also adopted a measure that will reduce particulate
emissions generated from various processing equipment, storage piles and
facility roadways at the Southland’s two cement manufacturing plants. Rule
1156 will require California Portland Cement in Colton and Riverside Cement
Co. in Riverside to cut particulate emissions from their operations in half
by 2010.
Requirements under AQMD’s Rule 1156 include:
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The first local performance standards in the nation for dust control
requiring collection systems to minimize dust, as well as requirements for
leak detectors and opacity monitors to ensure compliance by the largest
emitting processes;
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Stricter limits on visible dust from rock-crushing and conveying
operations, open storage piles, and paved and unpaved roads;
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Processing, loading and unloading, and transferring operations must be
covered or enclosed and vented to a dust control system;
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Paved roads for each facility must be swept daily, and chemical
stabilizers used for all unpaved roads; and
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Dust suppressants or other dust control measures shall be applied to
conveyors, crushers, storage piles and other activities.
Rule 1156 will help the Southland achieve a federally mandated 2006 deadline
for PM10 air quality. Last year, only one monitoring site in the Southland
–Rubidoux in Riverside County – exceeded the PM10 annual average health
standard.
PM10 – particles smaller than 10 microns, or about 1/7 the thickness of a
human hair – are associated with numerous adverse health effects from
increased hospital admissions to increased premature deaths.
Rule 1156 is one of a number of AQMD source-specific rules aimed at reducing
particulate emissions in the Southland. Rule 1157 – PM10 Emission
Reductions from Aggregate and Related Operations – was adopted in January
2005 to address particulate emissions from sand and gravel mining and
processing operations, concrete batch and hot-mix asphalt plants.
In other
action today, the Board:
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Allocated funding to replace 1,500 two-stroke backpack leaf blowers
used by commercial landscapers and gardeners in the four-county area
with new Pacific Stihl four-stroke models certified to the California
Air Resources Board’s voluntary “Blue Sky Series” engine standards.
AQMD will exchange the leaf blowers during its leaf blower exchange
program scheduled for early 2006; and
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Approved funding to five public school districts in the Southland to
retrofit 37 diesel school buses with oxidation catalysts to reduce
harmful diesel exhaust emissions. AQMD will fund catalysts for
Huntington Beach Union High, Rowland Unified, Orange Unified and
Oceanview Unified school districts; and Pupil Transportation Corp., a
private transportation provider.
AQMD is the air pollution control agency for Orange County and major
portions of Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
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