When the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) began their investigation into the elevated levels of hexavalent chromium found by their long-term air quality monitoring efforts, the City of Paramount provided a list of metal-related businesses to assist the District in identifying the source of the carcinogen. Metal-related businesses were defined as: grinding, sanding, plating, electroplating, welding, deburring, heating, heat treating, straightening, forming, machining, cutting, rolling, pressing, forging, fabricating, polishing, milling, swaging, cooling, conversion coating, anodizing, passivation, and spray-coating operations.
This list, taken from Paramount’s permit database, contained 86 facilities located throughout the city. SCAQMD then added businesses of various types to this list of entities so as to inspect all facilities within their jurisdiction. These additions included businesses near Aerocraft Heat Treating and Anaplex Corporation, regardless of whether the business was metal-related, as well as businesses identified by community members who discovered these facilities primarily through Internet searches for metal-related businesses noted to be in the city. Further, the list grew as SCAQMD added facilities by identifying them through permits issued in Paramount for metal-related businesses. As a result of combining all these sources of information, the list of entities to be inspected grew to a total of 194 facilities and businesses. Hence, when SCAQMD states that they had investigated 194 businesses, this means that the District reviewed a list of 194 business entities that had been assembled from several sources and not all of which were metal-related.
Many of these 194 properties/businesses that were reviewed by SCAQMD were found to be either out of business, not located in Paramount, or not involved in metal-related activities. For example, SCAQMD and City Staff determined the following thirteen businesses were no longer operating: Hanks Sheet Metal, JM Metal Polishing, California Precision Deburring, Leavitts Metal Finishing, Luisteel Welding, Western Integrated Materials, Rosenberg Metals, United Sheet Metal, Aluminum Interior Moldings, El Tigre Metal Polish, Best Western Rolling, and E.S. Scales/Somerset Steel.
After extensive investigation, City Staff removed from the list all businesses that were not metal-related, any duplicate listings, and the entities that were no longer operating, listed above. The final number of metal-related facilities licensed to do business in Paramount totals 85, which amounts to 3% of total business licenses issued in the city. Of the 85 businesses, the City and SCAQMD determined that 68 of those businesses do not require SCAQMD permits for metal-related operations (examples include metal dealers, metal screw sales shops, metal supply shops, metal etching companies). To be clear, these businesses may have an SCAQMD permit for a backup generator or other equipment unrelated to metal processing.
The remaining 17 facilities require SCAQMD permits for metal-related processing (as of February 16, 2017).
To summarize: 194 names or locations were added onto a list assembled from multiple sources that was reviewed by SCAQMD; each name or address was investigated. After the investigation was completed, it was determined that there are 85 metal-related businesses in the city limits of Paramount. Of those 85 metal-related businesses, 68 do not require any permits from SCAQMD for metal-related processing. In total, 17 businesses do require SCAQMD permitting for metal-related work.
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