Issues

Pacific Steel Casting Co.

Pacific Steel feels the heat

25 suits filed against Berkeley company

by Doug Oakley, East Bay Daily News

13 October 2006

Pacific Steel Casting in Berkeley is facing 25 small claims lawsuits in Alameda County Superior Court from residents over odors coming from the plant, with each plaintiff seeking the maximum damages of $7,500.

The company is already fighting two other suits in county and federal courts over the odors, which neighbors allege are toxic.

A hearing for the small claims cases is set for Oct. 26, said Grace Neufeld, executive director of Neighborhood Solutions of Oakland, which helped residents file their suits.

“Their complaints are over noxious odors that give them headaches that make them have to stay inside when the odor is in the air,” Neufeld said.

The suits are demanding damages under Berkeley and California nuisance laws that allow residents to sue over “the loss of enjoyment of their life and property,” Neufeld said.

The 25 plaintiffs all live 10 to 20 blocks from the steel plant, which has three facilities near Gilman and Second streets.

Pacific Steel is in the process of installing a carbon filter device on its third plant built in 1981 at a cost of about $4.5 million that it hopes will filter the odors, said company Vice President Joe Emmerichs.

The two other plants, built in 1934 and 1975, where the company pours molten metal into forms made of sand and clay, already have filters on them.

A binder used to hold the sand and clay together is a likely cause of the smell. The third plant, where the filter is being installed, has increased production by about 30 percent in the last few years, Emmerichs said.

“We’re researching new binder materials, but we want to make sure the quality of steel is not compromised,” Emmerichs said.

Last year, Pacific Steel racked up $100 million in sales.

Emmerichs said the company is making an effort to open up to the community, something it has not done for a while.

“That has been the Pacific Steel policy for quite some time, but now we’re changing that policy,” Emmerichs said. “With this much going on, we definitely do want to get closer to our neighborhood. We’ve got nothing to hide. We don’t do anything differently here at night than we do during the day.”

He said in the 43 years he has worked at the plant, he has never seen this much residential opposition. And he guessed that Pacific Steel’s recent problems are coming from “the same people who started it in the ’80s and ’90s.”

“We’re going to change,” Emmerichs said. “Once all this is over, we’re going to bring the neighbors in here to see it.”

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Under Fire, Steel Plant Installs New Carbon Filters

by Joelle Brown, Daily Californian

4 October 2006

An embattled West Berkeley steel plant installed a $2 million carbon filter Saturday as part of a larger goal to lower emissions at the plant.

But Pacific Steel Casting is still facing a lawsuit from an advocacy group called Communities for a Better Environment, which alleges the plant has violated the Clear Air Act and has emitted more pollutants than legally permitted.

The carbon filters are part of a company effort to eliminate odors without compromising the quality of the steel, said Elisabeth Jewel, spokesperson for Pacific Steel Casting.

“It is an ongoing process,” Jewel said. “We expect the carbon filter to make a significant difference and then we will go from there.”

But some scientists say the filter will not restrict the harmful pollutants.

“The plant is emitting noxious, offensive odors, and they have to fix that, which is what the filter is intended to do,” said Michael Wilson, a research scientist at UC Berkeley’s Center for Occupational and Environmental Health. “Yet, from an environmental perspective, the more important problem is the toxic metal emissions from the plant, which the filter will not capture.”

Two other plants at the site have carbon filters already in place, and they still are emitting toxic metals, like magnesium and lead, that are extremely dangerous to the human neurological system, Wilson said.

(Pacific Steel Casting) is facing an important juncture right now as the community starts to figure out what is coming out of the plant,

Wilson said.

In September the federal court denied a request from Communities for a Better Environment for a preliminary injunction against the company, which would have halted production at the plant.

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Chronology of Pacific Steel Casting, Bay Area Air Quality Management District, and Neighbors for Clean Air History

by West Berkeley Alliance

3 August 2005

Pacific Steel Casting Company (PSC) and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) have been at odds with neighbors for years. This is partially because of PSC’s uncooperativeness and foul emissions, and partly because of BAAQMD’s impenetrable bureaucracy and nearly unusable complaints policy.

Neighbors have long known that PSC’s burning pot handle/burning brake odor is attributed to the known carcinogens Phenol and Formaldehyde, as well as various hydrocarbons, heavy metals, particulates, and other potentially dangerous substances. Although they have complained and organized to have the emissions filtered out of the air, the odors are a recurring nightmare for residents in El Cerrito, Albany, Berkeley, and Kensington for the past 25 or more years. Neighbors won some partial victories in the early 1990s forcing PSC to install some equipment to clean up the air, however the issues were not fully addressed and the odor nuisance continues.

When they made complaints to BAAQMD, the neighbors were confronted with bureaucratic sluggishness, inspectors discouraging them from complaining about PSC, red tape, and policies overwhelmingly favoring industry. The complaints policy is a case in point. To make a complaint, residents must first discover what agency to call about the stink. After inquiring at federal, state, and local government institutions, perusing the phone book, and searching the Internet, they may learn about BAAQMD. Then they must call the complaint number (1-800-334-6367) and describe the specific odor they smell.

If the complaint is made between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., an inspector may come to their homes/workplaces to try to confirm the smell. This can take 30 minutes to one hour or more depending on where the inspector is at the time the complaint is phoned in. The complainant must be present when the inspector arrives. They must still smell the odor when the inspector arrives and tries to sniff out the smell. If both complainant and inspector are able to smell the odor, the inspector confirms the complaint by linking the odor to its precise source in a specific process in a certain industrial plant. Five different households, or five people at a workplace, must have their complaints confirmed by an inspector within a 24-hour period before a notice of violation can be issued to the offending company.

PSC’s emissions move in the ambient air. Depending upon the wind direction, the odor can be smelled intermittently. The odor may drift elsewhere before an inspector shows up. If the complaint is called in after regular work hours at BAAQMD, it is recorded and registered the next day. No confirmation can be made at that time. If ten people call in, an inspector could be dispatched after hours, and confirmed complaints could be filed.

A lawyer for PSC said that neighbors were concerned with the odor and the effect it might have on the value of their homes. Neighbors contend they are variously concerned about quality of life, the impact on local businesses and jobs (including those of PSC workers), the risk to children in nearby childcare centers and schools, pregnant women’s (and their babies’) safety, the health of elders and environmentally susceptible community members, and danger to the environment. A Berkeley activist called for publicly accessible, independent, comprehensive testing for health and environment effects of all of PSC’s emissions (odorous and odorless). In the following account, culled primarily from oral histories and years worth of clippings from periodicals, we chronicle strong resistance by PSC and BAAQMD to a comprehensive, transparent and responsive air analysis and cleanup process. [complete text]

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West Berkeley Alliance

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