CLAIM: The City gave permits to these businesses to allow them to operate.

FACT:

The City of Paramount does not issue permits specific to metal businesses. The City issues business licenses as part of its normal business licensing process. The City’s business issuance process for new businesses includes a self-identification process for the business to review their requirements to seek air quality permits from the SCAQMD. Businesses that self-identify as requiring SCAQMD permits must then contact SCAQMD to apply for those permits. The City is reviewing this process with SCAQMD to determine methods more effective than self-identification. Any new process will apply to new business license applicants. Also, it should be noted that the two businesses that have been identified by SCAQMD as the main sources of high hexavalent chromium emissions have had air quality permits from the SCAQMD for a several years.

While business licensing is a tool that can be leveraged to engage more SCAQMD oversight, the City’s land use policy determines whether the type of business is even acceptable on the property on which it will operate. Hence, a business that seeks to operate a metal-related business in the City’s M-2 manufacturing zone has a right to open that business under current land use rules in the City. The City does not limit a specific number of businesses that are metal-related in the City.

Update 9/14/17: In June 2017, the City of Paramount launched a pilot program to enhance air quality compliance in the city by submitting selected business license applications and business license renewals to the SCAQMD. The pilot program, the first of its kind in the SCAQMD territory, is a significant expansion over the existing review process that SCAQMD provides to cities.

Under the pilot program, specified categories of businesses (those that could potentially require an air quality permit) need to show proof that they have been cleared to do business by SCAQMD to receive City approval. Then, in those same categories, the City will deliver renewal applications to SCAQMD for the District’s review and determination if the business needs a new or modified SCAQMD permit.

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