Neighbors Raise Stink over Odors: Air Quality Officials Downplay Dispute over Pacific Steel Castings Berkeley
Judith Scherr,  Daily Planet, June 13, 1999

Local activists say Pacific Steel Castings is making more than metal widgets. They say the toxic substances emitted by the 65-year old foundry on Second Street may be making them sick.

But Bay Area Air Quality Management District spokesperson Lucia Libretti downplays the concerns. "The problem is less serious than breathing car and truck emissions, just from crossing the street," she said in an interview Friday.

A hearing board is looking at the question of emissions that go into the air after passing through a cleansing process that some call a "bake oven" and others call an incinerator. PSC makes casts of sand and glue and disposes of them by putting them in the bake oven/incinerator.

Libretti called the panel of five, appointed by the air district, a "quasi-judicial body" made up of experts and lay people who are not air district employees.

"They serve as a resource for BAAQMD," she said.

The board held a hearing with activists and PSC representatives Tuesday evening. The hearing will be continued in July. A date has not been set.

A spokesperson from PSC was not available for comment Friday.

The hearings were set up when the foundry asked the air district to lift an Unconditional Abatement Order, imposed on it in 1985 after numerous complaints from the neighborhood. The air district's strict order forces the company to stay within "acceptable" levels of emissions.

"(PSC) spent over $2 million to abate odors in the neighborhood. Since 1991, they haven't had any violation notices. There have been 120 complaints and 20 were confirmed," Libretti said.

PSC put in a new piece of equipment last year to burn even more of its waste so that less gets hauled to the landfill.

"The district is not opposed to having (the abatement order) lifted, given (PSC's) compliance record," Libretti said.

Community activists, however, are concerned about the emissions coming from the new piece of equipment. They claim the foundry emits dangerous particles that include carbon monoxide and potentially dangerous metals including chromium and nickel.

They want the Unconditional Abatement Order to be maintained, and they want to get answers to questions about the emissions and their impact on the health of people in Berkeley.

"We have no clue about the (exact) constituents of sand emissions," said L A Wood, who has been working with a group of concerned citizens.

Wood said the group wants the air district to place ambient air stations strategically around Berkeley to measure the contents of emissions and to examine what toxins are in the soil.

"We're asking for an independent toxicologist to look at the problem," Wood said.

Libretti, however, said officials know what the emissions are because the substances that go into the oven are known. Further, she argued, the district already has monitor stations in Richmond.

Libretti said that when five complaints are made to the district in a 24 -hour period, an inspector comes out and talks to the complaining party and confirms, by smelling, that there is in fact an odor. Libretti characterized most of the odors emitted by the PSC plant as "fleeting."

She said it's not comparable to being near a refinery. The activists say odors are a problem, but they are just one of the concerns.

"Odors are only part of the issue. It's what you don't smell," Wood said.