Philadelphia mulls virtual perc ban
The Air Quality Board of the Philadelphia Department of Health has proposed
regulations that would ban perchloroethylene from virtually every existing
drycleaning plant in Philadelphia within two years.
If the proposed rules become reality, Philadelphia cleaners would only have 24
months from the effective date to remove the solvent and related equipment from
all co-residential and co-located facilities.
The Department of Health estimates that there are only eight freestanding
drycleaning plants in the city. All others would fall under the umbrella of the
ban.
The proposed regulations are considerably more stringent than the federal
clean-air rules that seek to ban all existing perc machines in only
co-residential buildings by the year 2020. That deadline is far enough away to
allow cleaners to continue using newer perc equipment for the approximate life
of the machinery.
When the Pennsylvania and Delaware Cleaners Association first heard of the
proposed ban, they contacted the Air Quality Board and expressed numerous
potential problems, such as the fact that there are very few areas left in the
city for free-standing cleaners.
PDCA Executive Director Carol Memberg said the association is also concerned
with the outright ban on co-located facilities, which comprise a high number of
Philadelphia cleaning businesses.
“We would like more reasonable restrictions,” she said. “We can understand not wanting to have a perc plant next to a daycare center
because they might be nervous about that if it’s a commercial thing. But to not have it next to another office building or
factory — that doesn’t make any sense.”
When PDCA officials read the draft, they were also baffled that there was no
consideration paid to whether cleaners utilized antiquated or state-of-the-art
equipment, meaning the phaseout would not be a gradual process similar to the
ones going on in California and proposed in New Jersey that allow cleaners to
upgrade to more recent generation perc equipment in incremental stages.
Instead, the proposed rules call for much more immediate action.
“Within six months, cleaners would have to put in a vapor barrier, which is
pretty expensive. Eighteen months after that, they’d have to take it all out again,” added Memberg.
At that point, switching technologies will also prove to be a formidable fiscal
barrier for smaller cleaners, she explained. Expensive upgrades to GreenEarth
and carbon dioxide equipment are simply not an option for such business owners.
Even switching to hydrocarbon technology might prove to be too much.
“We tried to tell them that we understand that this is a congested area and you
may need to be more stringent,” she said. “On the other hand, they would basically be putting almost all the cleaners in
Philadelphia out of business because they could not afford to buy hydrocarbon
equipment and put in sprinkler systems, which would pretty much almost double
the cost.”
Such issues will likely arise on Aug. 5 when the Air Pollution Control Board
hosts a meeting downtown.
One man who plans to be there is Dale Kaplan, PDCA’s vice president of government relations. He hopes that Philadelphia cleaners
can band together for a grassroots movement before it’s too late to influence changes on the regulations. He believes the issue weighs
heavily on the future of all cleaners in all states.
“The challenge is this could be precedent-setting,” he said. “What happened in New York and New Jersey, and with CARB (in California) — it’s slowly going around the country. There’s no doubt we have to do the best we can.”
So far, Kaplan admitted he has been frustrated with the lack of interest in the
issue from Philadelphia cleaners.
Despite the setback, he remains optimistic.
“I want to think we can beat this and get them to change,” he said. “We would be happy to work with them to try and craft a piece of legislation that
will not put everybody out of business.”
Those interested in contacting Kaplan can reach him by cell at (717) 979-7787 or
send e-mail to: kaplans1@aol.com.
