AQMD demands lower toxic emissions from Newport company
Air-quality officials are demanding that a Newport Beach metal finishing company immediately reduce toxic emissions and notify nearby residents of possible health risks.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District first began monitoring the air around Hixson Metal Finishing, at 829 Production Place, in 2008. When the agency collected data in 2011, it found that emissions of hexavalent chromium had increased to an unacceptable level, said Mohsen Nazemi, AQMD’s deputy executive officer for engineering and compliance.
If inhaled in high concentrations, hexavalent chromium, also known as chromium-6, can cause lung, nasal and sinus cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Hexavalent chromium is often used in metal plating to increase hardenability and corrosion resistance. It gained notoriety in the Oscar-winning film “Erin Brockovich,” which chronicled an investigation into water pollution in Hinkley, a San Bernardino community, in the 1990s.
The AQMD began working with the business in the years that followed to install filtration systems, seal spray booths and implement other emission-control systems.
However, additional testing in 2012 and 2013 revealed that emissions were still too high, and air-quality regulators ordered Hixson in May 2014 to reduce levels on a set expedited schedule.
While chromium levels are lower today than they were a year ago, air-quality officials say the company must still reduce them.
“A number of additional controls were put in, and it did bring the emissions and risk down by a significant amount,” Nazemi said. “However, it did not bring it down far enough.”
Also, for the first time, Hixson must hold a community meeting to explain the risk of the emissions to surrounding residents. It is planned for June.
Hixson’s president could not be reached for comment.
The plant is next to an apartment building in a neighborhood that contains a mix of homes and businesses near the border of Costa Mesa.
Monitoring instruments that the AQMD installed near the plant found a cancer risk of as much as 1,502 in 1 million, assuming a lifetime exposure of 30 years, documents show.
The agency requires facilities to notify the public and hold a meeting if a health assessment shows a cancer risk that exceeds 10 in 1 million. If a facility’s cancer risk exceeds 25 in 1 million, the facility is also required to prepare a risk reduction plan, outlining how the health risk will be reduced, according to air-quality regulators.
The AQMD continues to monitor emissions from the business daily. If the offsite monitor reaches a certain level, the agency forces the business to close until emissions come down. The business has had to shut down its tanks seven times this year and on eight occasions in 2014, Nazemi said.
Nazemi said similar risk levels are found in areas with large ports, though those emissions are generated by trucks and ships.
“What we are concerned with here … are the risks associated with the operation at Hixson,” he said. “If a single facility exposes [such levels], those are excessive, not acceptable and they need to be reduced.”
If the Hixson does not reduce its emissions, the AQMD could get a court order preventing the business from operating.
This is not the first time the business has been accused of posing a danger to the community. In 1987, about 500 residents were evacuated from their homes when the business caught fire, releasing a cloud of potentially toxic fumes. The fire is considered to be one of the worst hazardous-material fires in Southern California.
Newport Beach resident Lori Textor expressed concerns to the City Council during its meeting this week over the business’ location near Newport Villa Apartments and Carden Hall Elementary School.
Textor’s adult son moved into the Newport Villa Apartment complex eight years ago thinking “he would pay a premium for the clean ocean air,” she said.
“Instead, he is breathing hexavalent chromium,” she said. “Would any of you want your kids to be breathing that?”