National Clothesline

California cleaners struggling to comply with the July 1 deadline for removing perc machines that are 15 years old or older may get a break from enforcement authorities.

The California Air Resources Board, which adopted a statewide perc phase-out plan in 2007, last month recommended that local air districts offer cleaners up to one year to come into compliance. The CARB recommendation echoes a plan offered earlier by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District that would let cleaners in essence buy some time to comply.

Under that plan, cleaners could continue to operate out-of-compliance perc machines provided they enter a formal agreement on replacing their equipment and pay a fine for each three months beyond the deadline that the equipment continues to operate.

Fines would be $250 for the first quarter, escalating to $500 in the second, $750 in the third and $1,000 in the fourth, a cumulative total of $2,500 for one additional year of operation.

CARB acknowledged that the poor economy is making it difficult for cleaners to buy the new equipment that the law requires.

“The July 1 deadline will remain in place,” wrote CARB executive James Goldstene in a letter to enforcement officers. “However, it is expected that some drycleaners will miss the deadline because of the current economic downturn.”

Goldstene said that the deadline extension should apply “in cases where, despite a good-faith effort, a drycleaner is unable to comply.”

He added that the extension would not be available to cleaners in co-residential locations “because of their close proximity to residents and, therefore, increased cancer risk.”

CARB is advising regional air districts that the compliance agreement should include permit applications and all necessary paperwork for equipment procurement and installation and a schedule for removing the perc machine and installing the new equipment.

The air districts could require more information or commitments or adjust the penalty schedule if they see fit, CARB noted.

When the perc phase-out was adopted three years ago as part of the statewide Airborne Toxics Control Measure for perc emissions from drycleaning plants, no specific enforcement provisions were included. Enforcement was left to the 35 regional air pollution districts in California.

The phase-out stopped the sale of new perc machines in the state as of Jan. 1, 2008. A further provision that requires forced retirement for existing machines at 15 years old, all perc equipment in drycleaning would be eliminated by 2023.

Before the phase-out was adopted, CARB estimated that there were 3,650 drycleaning facilities using perc in the state. Another 1,500 cleaners were thought to be using a non-perc alternative. While cleaners have been shifting from perc to alternatives over the past few years, there is an unknown number — hundreds, perhaps — are still using perc.

Those who have perc machines that are at least 15 years old were supposed to replace them by July 1.

All perc machines in co-residential locations were also required to cease operating by the first of the month.

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District estimated earlier this year that 205 machines in its nine-county region were scheduled for retirement by July 1. Another 20 will reach their 15-year limit in the coming year. That represents more than half the perc machines operating in the district.

BAAQMD, which previously had been considering shortening the phase-out period to as few as eight years, announced in May a compliance plan similar to what CARB now recommends for all of California’s air pollution control districts.