National Clothesline

Taking time away from their shops on a busy Friday, dozens of cleaners packed into a hearing room to tell representatives of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection that a planned phase-out of perchloroethylene would have drastic and perhaps fatal consequences for their drycleaning businesses.

The Jan. 18 hearing came just a month after the department announced a plan to phase out perc by 2021. But most of the nearly 50 people who rose to speak against the plan — no one spoke in favor of it — were most concerned about nearer term aspects of the proposal. The first deadline in the plan would come in 18 months when all perc equipment would have to be removed from plants that share a building with residences. Cleaners in those locations would have to switch to a non-perc cleaning alternative by July 27, 2009.

By the end of 2009, all other cleaners using perc would have to be using either fourth-generation equipment or install a vapor barrier around existing third-generation machines. Those cleaners would then be able to continue using perc through 2020. As of Jan. 1, 2021, perc would be banned.

One by one, cleaners paraded to the podium to tell the DEP representatives that business is down, expenses are up and profits are small and that buying new equipment is not in the economic picture for them. Several cleaners with co-residential locations said they have recently purchased new machines and in some cases are still paying for them. They do not relish having to buy a new machine when their recent model still has years of life left. Others said that installing vapor barriers is not practical in the tight space in which they operate.

The DEP estimates that there are between 50 and 100 co-residential locations in the state. If that estimate is accurate, most of them were at the hearing, but the department has acknowledged that it really doesn’t know how many such locations exist. The alternatives for co-residential cleaners are limited since local fire codes may preclude the use of high-flash hydrocarbon solvents.

The department also estimates that 1,100 of just over 1,600 perc drycleaning machines in the state are third-generation. Those cleaners, too, would be forced to either buy new fourth-generation machines, upgrade existing equipment with integral secondary control systems or install a vapor barrier enclosure.

Backing up the cleaners were representatives of trade associations who argued that a phase-out is unnecessary because under current practices perc is safe to use. Cleaners have reduced consumption of perc dramatically over the past decade while upgrading equipment and complying with regulatory directives, they noted.

They also criticized the rationale used by the DEP in making its case for a phase-out, noting that the California data borrowed by New Jersey drastically overstated the risk of perc exposure from drycleaning. Even using that data, California’s air board staff concluded that a perc phase-out was not necessary. That state moved ahead with its 2023 phase-out only after politically appointed air board members overruled the staff recommendation and insisted on a complete phase-out.

Further, trade association representatives argued, the co-residential ban in the new federal clean-air rules — which is the basis for New Jersey’s similar but 10-years-sooner ban — is being challenged in court. At the same time, they noted, EPA considered but rejected a ban on perc when developing the revised rules that were released in 2006.

The six DEP representatives listened without comment to nearly five hours of testimony and gave no indication of what their final decision might be or when it will come.

Written comments can be submitted to the DEP until Feb. 15.