Finishers in Southern California have come under increased inspections over the past month, alarming trade association members in the area.
Bryan LeikerBryan Leiker, Executive Director of the Metal Finishing Association of California, said that numerous shops have reported receiving surprise inspections from several environmental agencies in the past few weeks.
Some of the inspections have lasted as long as six hours and resulted in several violations in the shops, Leiker says, adding that they are looking for chromium violations and evidence of PFAS in the shops.
“Many shops have told me they are seeing increased enforcement and unannounced inspections,” Leiker says. “The staff of these agencies are being told that we are the bad guys out there, which isn't true. The enforcements are up, and so are the write-ups. It's really high lately.”
Four Agencies Cracking Down with Surprise Inspections
Leiker says the increased inspections have come from several agencies:
- The South Coast Air Quality Management District, which covers Southern California.
- The California State Water Resources Control Board manages the Wastewater Operator Certification program.
- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
- The California Department of Toxic Substances Control inspects businesses for hazardous waste treatment.
Leiker and the MFAC are holding a webinar on Thursday, March 14, at 10:30 a.m. PST to discuss the inspections with its members and discuss what the association can do about the increased enforcement.
“We had one shop where they were told they needed to unlock a door so that the inspectors could make sure they were performing any operations in those areas. It’s insane at the level of inspection they are doing and having many of them last up to six hours.”
Numerous agencies have the statutory authority to perform surprise inspections at plating and anodizing operations and to test for chrome emissions and PFAS. In 2019, the Water Resources Control Board began requiring mandatory environmental assessment at facilities performing chrome plating facilities, including being allowed to check to see “if fume suppressants or other substances potentially containing PFAS were disposed, discharged, spilled or released in any way to land, drains, sewers, surface water, air and/or groundwater.”
The increased enforcement comes on the heels of the California Air Resources Board voting in late 2023 to ban hex chrome finishing in the state. Decorative platers will be banned from using hex chrome in 2027 or 2030 if they install air safety measures. Functional chrome platers will have to stop using it by 2039.
Aggressive Inspections Often Last 6 Hours
The shops that have been inspected told Leiker the agencies have been aggressive in their enforcement. They have asked owners to provide access to areas in their shops that don’t normally have finishing operations to see what is occurring in those areas.
“We had one shop where they were told they needed to unlock a door so that the inspectors could make sure they were performing any operations in those areas,” Leiker says. “It’s insane at the level of inspection they are doing and having many of them last up to six hours.”
Leiker suspects that the agencies are hiring newer inspectors and training them to be diligent in the finishing shops.
“There are some very good inspectors out there, but somewhere along the way, they're communicating to these new hires that we are the bad guys they should be going after,” he says. “The California Air Resources Board made it a point to say that even areas like San Diego and parts of Northern California that haven't been hit with this are also starting to get hit with their local air districts.”
As a result of the inspectors' thorough surprise inspections, some shops have been found in violation of even minor infractions that used to result in guidance and advice from the inspectors.
“They are looking at every record and every tank,” Leiker says. “In one shop, they don't want to see any type of chrome stain anywhere in the building. It's almost impossible to remove any type of stain, whether it's on a platform, a tank, or under the floor. They're checking with flashlights, looking at the roof, and looking at anything they can possibly write you up on.”
Attempt to ‘Justify their Chromium Ban’
Leiker says he believes the CARB administrators need to justify their chromium ban and use the surprise inspections “to say that these shops are noncompliant.”
He says that in the past, the inspections were usually once a quarter and lasted no longer than an hour or two.
“There is definitely an increase in their direction by upper management or whoever's making authority decisions to say, “You need to go in there, and you need to do this at each facility,” Leiker says. “The result is you will get a lot of write-ups, a lot of notices to comply, and notices of violation. And that's just from the air quality district.”
“Unfortunately, some shops are going out of business now, or they're starting to move out of state. It's already starting to happen right now that we are losing members.
Leiker says the U.S. EPA has a three-person inspection team that's been working in the Alameda corridor, which is near downtown Los Angeles, performing unannounced inspections. He says the Los Angeles Sanitation and Environment is also involved.
“There's a task force of some kind going on, and every shop is getting written up,” he says. “And then the other thing is we've also seen a three-person from the sanitation inspection team looking for PFAS. They're coming with the authority to take lab samples and want to test the rinse water and different operation parts of a facility.”
Action Comes after U.S. EPA Survey in Chrome and PFAS
All of this comes right after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sent out a survey to over 2,000 electroplating operations in the U.S. as part of its “Chrome Finishing Industry Data Collection,” an extensive survey that was due March 1 to collect data for the agency’s revision of the metal finishing and electroplating guidelines to address discharges of PFAS from the chrome finishing wastewater system.
Leiker says many shops struggled with the survey because of the extensive amount of data the EPA wanted reported.
“It was a lot of work, and the feedback I'm getting is that the 86-page survey took an enormous amount of time and was burdensome to these facilities,” he says. “They had a hard time filling this information out.”
Leiker says several shops have told him they plan to close their operations rather than continue fighting local, state, and national agencies. The shops can get financial assistance from state agencies to replace equipment used for hex chrome processing and convert it to trivalent. Still, he says many shop owners are not interested in converting because they realize their customers are not ready yet to accept the tri-chrome process.
“Unfortunately, some shops are going out of business now, or they're starting to move out of state,” Leiker says. “It's already starting to happen right now that we are losing members. We've already lost some members this month, and I think it will increase.”
Visit www.mfaca.org.
