South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) has reported that Anaplex Corporation has violated the terms of its abatement order to mitigate hexavalent chromium emissions. On January 31, 2017, one of the SCAQMD monitors located near Anaplex detected a reading of 15.17 nanograms per cubic meter. When this reading is averaged out with the two previous samples, the threshold level for the three-day period was 5.7 nanograms per cubic meter. This result goes above the agreed-upon 1.0 nanogram per cubic meter threshold. The following table shows recent levels of hexavalent chromium at the SCAQMD monitor located near Anaplex:
“Under the order with Anaplex, the facility will not be able to restart operations until SCAQMD monitoring data shows that hexavalent chromium levels have dropped below the levels specified in the agreement,” said Wayne Nastri, SCAQMD executive officer. “The intent of the order is to protect public health and prevent potentially harmful levels of this toxic compound from being emitted.”
“The hexavalent chromium spike detected by SCAQMD at the Anaplex facility is unacceptably high,” said Paramount Mayor Daryl Hofmeyer. “SCAQMD’s monitoring effort and abatement agreement have resulted in swift action to suspend hexavalent chromium emitting activities at Anaplex. The Paramount City Council cares very much about the health of everyone in Paramount, and will be asking Anaplex and SCAQMD for information on Anaplex’s processes that emit hexavalent chromium to get this under control once and for all.”
Anaplex’s curtailment is the first since the abatement order’s adoption on January 10, 2017. As reported by SCAQMD, the company is responsible for a spike in hexavalent chromium concentrations picked up by monitors located adjacent to the Anaplex facility. However, according to the City’s air quality consultants, monitors located farther away from the facility and near residential areas (sites #17, #19, and #20) did not show similarly high levels. While the readings for these sites showed a slight increase for hexavalent chromium on January 31, they were still comparable to the average levels in those areas over the last two months. As such, the elevated levels of hexavalent chromium by Anaplex did not affect the residential areas. Please see below:
For more information on the Anaplex curtailment, please visit the SCAQMD website.
Comments are closed.