The California Air Resources Board has set a January 27 public hearing on its plan to ban decorative and functional hexavalent chromium plating and anodizing operations in the state.
The CARB panel will review staff recommendations on amendments to its Airborne Toxic Control Measure for chromium electroplating and chromic acid anodizing operations that include:
- Ban any new chromium electroplating and chromic acid anodizing operations starting after Jan. 1, 2024.
- Adding new requirements on Jan. 1, 2026, for hard plating and chromic acid anodizing facilities that implement building enclosure, new emission limits, install controls on qualifying tanks, and new source testing.
- Phase out the use of hexavalent chromium in decorative plating by Jan. 1, 2027
- Phase out the use of hexavalent chromium in functional plating (hard plating and chromic acid anodizing) by Jan. 1, 2039.
Bryan Leiker, Executive Director of the Metal Finishing Association of California, says the association members and its OEM customers will fight against these new rules and bans at the meeting.
“This is a make-or-break effort for this issue,” says Leiker, who is asking MFAC members and non-members to attend the hearing.
MFAC Asking for Testimony From Industry
He is also asking others in the finishing industry in the U.S. to submit comments online starting Dec. 2 to help show that the plating and anodizing industry operates in a safe environment.
CARB says the purpose of the amendments is to eliminate highly toxic hex chrome exposures in communities where these operations exist.
“All these chrome plating processes generate mists containing hexavalent chromium that is released into the surrounding air,” CARB says. “The proposed amendments will eliminate over time hexavalent chromium emissions and the associated health risks in communities located near chrome plating facilities. The amendments will also reduce the cumulative risk burden in overburdened and disadvantaged communities.”
But Leiker and the MFAC say that CARB is using faulty scientific evidence to ban an industry that is extremely vital to the California manufacturing industry, specifically the aerospace sector.
“The numbers they are using are incorrect,” he says. “They are saying our industry emits 10 pounds per year of hex chrome when it’s more like one pound or less. They are skewing the numbers and basically taking what the numbers would be if none of us had control equipment or anything else in place. It’s flat-out misinformation.”
Ban would Affect Over 100 Shops
CARB says that the total number of facilities in operation currently that the ban would affect is 113, with 51 decorative chrome plating and 62 functional chrome plating facilities; 36 hard chrome plating, and 26 chromic acid anodizing.
The agency says that by banning these plating and anodizing facilities, they can also rid the state of possible PFAS issues, too.
“The proposed amendments are designed to reduce the harmful hexavalent chromium emissions to the lowest level possible (e.g., zero or near-zero) and decrease cancer risk in California communities near decorative and functional plating sources,” CARB says. “A co-benefit of the proposed amendments is the eventual elimination of all sources of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from decorative chrome plating and functional plating facilities.”
Leiker says the MFAC has tried numerous times over the past several years to work with CARB on the proposed amendments, and the board has visited over 22 shops since 2017 to see how those shops are mitigating any potential risks associated with hex chrome.
“Strategy-wise, we’ve tried to have meaningful discussions with CARB staff to address these points, but it’s fallen on deaf ears so far,” Leiker says. “We don’t see the reason for a ban. What we’re asking for is a science-based rule like 1469 that uses control equipment and things like that.”
In 1998, South Coast Air Quality Management District’s (SCAQMD) Rule 1469, Hexavalent Chromium Emissions from Chrome Plating and Chromic Acid Anodizing Operations, was adopted. Rule 1469 was most recently amended in 2021 and included additional measures to reduce fugitive emissions.
Ban Spawned from Community Air Protection Program
In 2017, CARB established the Community Air Protection Program (CAPP) in response to a state assembly bill that required more stringent air quality measures. CARB says AB 6174 requires them to enact a statewide strategy to reduce emissions of TACs in communities that experience disproportionate burdens from exposure to air pollutants.
“CARB’s strategy is to reduce air pollution in these communities,” the agency says. “The blueprint explains that — in addition to impacts from large industrial facilities such as oil refineries — communities suffer due to proximity to smaller sources like chrome platers, metal recycling facilities, oil and gas operations, and other sources of emissions, which contribute to localized air toxics impacts.”
The MFAC has so far pushed back on CARB’s insistence that the industry moves to trivalent chromium chemistry to replace hex chrome, saying OEMs and customers are not yet accepting tri chrome as a suitable alternative.
“There is no replacement, and customers won’t accept tri chrome on the decorative side,” Leiker says. “They won’t accept the tri replacement. It’s not acceptable. CARB is saying that because there’s a replacement, you are, therefore, to use it by 2027 or shut your tanks down.”
MFAC is willing to work with CARB on new measures to further reduce emissions, but Leiker says the agency is sticking with its plan to ban the industry altogether.
“We even offered a total enclosure, and they won’t even discuss it,” he says. “That’s the problem. There are no off-ramps for these shops whatsoever. Even with complete enclosures, there’s no way out of the rule.”
‘This is Going to be Very Difficult'
Leiker says the MFAC is to have member shops and their employees attend the hearing to voice opposition to the ban. They have also invited many of the top OEMs that rely on the hex chrome applications for their parts to attend and speak about how it will impact their manufacturing operations.
“This is going to be very difficult,” Leiker says. “I think that, honestly, a lot of this rule is made up and decided before the working group meetings. I think that what we do have is the ability to show up and talk to the board about real lives, real jobs, and real people that have worked on the line for maybe 40 years.”
He says that includes employees who have been in the finishing industry their entire careers, who started out as rackers and worked their way up in the industry.
“We have generations of people that work here, that have worked their way up into management from people who started that are now production manager,” Leiker says. “They are willing to testify that this is a good industry, a good job, and a good business to work in.”
Comments can be made to CARB until Jan. 17 at https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/applications/public-comments
More information on the proposed amendments can be read at https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/barcu/regact/2023/chromeatcm2023/notice.pdf?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery
