National Clothesline

As California begins the process of phasing out perc, cleaners might wonder what state regulators would like them to use in its place.

The staff of the California Air Resources Board (CARB) examined alternatives for perc in developing its proposal for phasing out the industry’s number-one solvent choice but offered no recommendations for cleaners faced with finding a new cleaning solvent. Instead, the staff served up cautionary notes about some of the alternatives.

The staff’s proposal for a 15-year phase-out of perc was scheduled to go before CARB’s governing board for a hearing on Jan. 25.

While the outcome of that hearing was not known at press time, the governing board made it clear last year that it wanted to pursue a complete phase-out of perc. This came after the staff had recommended a partial phase-out that would have allowed the continued use of perc in many instances, due in part to the fact that there is no clear-cut winner in the alternative solvent derby.

In its latest report and proposal, released in December of last year, the CARB staff cautioned that hydrocarbon solvents, thus far the most popular perc substitute in the state, could pose environmental issues due to emissions of VOCs (volatile organic compounds) which contribute to the formation of ozone.

“Ozone is linked to a myriad of health effects, including respiratory irritation, asthma and premature death, ” the staff report said. Acccording to CARB’s estimates, substituting hydrocarbon solvents for perc in California drycleaning plants would result in an additional .7 tons per day of VOC emissions.

The staff considered, but rejected, a proposal that would prohibit the use of hydrocarbon solvents in addition to phasing out perc.

“This option would provide the maximum protection from emissions of perc while preventing an increase in volatile organic compound emissions from hydrocarbon solvents, ” the staff report said.

The staff, however, chose not to pursue this recommendation, “primarily because of cost — 17 percent more than the proposed amendments,” the report said.

It remains an open question whether the state or local air districts might move to restrict hydrocarbon solvent use in the future.

Meanwhile, environmentalists are lobbying CARB not only for a prohibition on hydrocarbon solvents but also a shorter, 10-year phase-out term for perc.

In written comments submitted before the hearing, David Lighthall of the Central Valley Health Policy Institute urged CARB to go with a hydrocarbon prohibition and a 10-year phase-out of perc.

Lighthall reflected the opinion of many in the environmentalist community when he commented that “professional wetcleaning… is a proven, viable, and affordable zero-emission alternative to solvent-based drycleaning. Systematic studies of cleaners switching from perc drycleaning to wetcleaning show that operating costs are lower in wetcleaning. ”

Another commenter weighing in for wetcleaning was Peter Jung of Thousand Oaks, CA, who said he installed wetcleaning equipment in his plant in 2005 and last July removed his perc equipment. Jung said he cleans an average of 10,000 pieces a month. With wetcleaning, he said, he has encountered a few problem pieces but no more than he previously had with perc.

“We found wetcleaning requires neither more operating costs or more manpower,” Jung said.

Indeed, wetcleaning is one of just two alternatives for which the state will give grants in its program to assist cleaners in switching to non-perc cleaning; the other is liquid carbon dioxide, the only cleaning solution with which CARB seems to have absolutely no issues. But for many cleaners the cost of current liquid carbon dioxide systems makes it out of the question as a perc replacement.

While CARB had no particular objections to wetcleaning on the environmental issues, the staff noted that most wetcleaning formulations are trade secrets.

“Because there are a wide variety of formulations, there is difficulty with determining toxicity of these substances, ” the report said.

Wetcleaning machines are in use in 175 California locations, according to CARB’s survey. That compares to more than 2,000 facilities using perc and 1,100 using hydrocarbon.

GreenEarth cleaning ranks third in CARB’s survey with 190 facilities. While there is no VOC issue with GreenEarth, CARB said it is still waiting for final assessments of its carcinogenicity data.

“No adverse emission-related health impacts are expected with the use of wetcleaning or CO2, ” the CARB report said.

Lack of data on other alternatives, such as the current formulation of Rynex and the detergents used in the Green-Jet system, prevented CARB from conclusive opinions on those possibilities.

“There is relatively little health data available on some of the other alternatives … and no California health values have been adopted for solvent used in these alternatives, “ CARB said.