AQMD Panel Permits Company That Had Toxic Leak to Reopen

An Anaheim chemical company won permission Thursday from the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s hearing board to resume production for the first time since the firm had a toxic gas leak Feb. 4.

The action by the AQMD’s board, which rejected the advice of its staff in approving the resumption, means that the Stepan Co., 1208 N. Patt St., can start operations today, AQMD officials said.

The company, which manufactures soap, had its operating permits revoked by the AQMD after the Feb. 4 gas leak.

In that incident, an electrical pump failed, and about 6,000 cubic feet of potentially toxic sulfur trioxide was released into the air. The fumes spread into a nearby residential neighborhood, and about 100 people told health and fire officials that they suffered breathing problems, nausea and eye and throat irritation.

The hearing board’s action Thursday brought criticism from an official of a Santa Ana law firm representing about 20 people who became ill from the gas leak.

“I’m surprised; I’m shocked,” said Gregory McClure, administrator for the law firm, John F. Murphy & Associates of Santa Ana. “The hearing board should have listened to the recommendation of the AQMD staff.”

Representatives of the Stepan Co. could not be reached for comment Thursday on the hearing board’s action. But on Feb. 12, Jim Hurlbutt, a Stepan Co. spokesman, said: “We are trying to appeal the (AQMD) decision (revoking permission to operate), because the company feels strongly that the plant can be operated safely.”

The company had applied for a “variance,” which is a temporary permit to operate, said Tom Eichhorn, spokesman for the AQMD. The AQMD staff had urged the hearing board to reject the request, Eichhorn confirmed. The staff recommendation said that if the Stepan Co. were allowed to resume operations, “it is the opinion of our engineers that operation of this equipment will result in periodic emissions in violation of (district air-quality rules).”

The hearing board, however, in its meeting at AQMD headquarters in El Monte, said the Stepan Co. had a good record prior to the gas leak. The board, therefore, voted to allow Stepan to go back into operation temporarily. The “variance,” or interim permission to operate, is valid pending a hearing board review of the company’s long-range request for permission to continue operations, Eichhorn said. He said that long-range request would be before the hearing board “within a few weeks.”

The five-member hearing board, an appeals agency, is funded by but independent of the AQMD, which is the watchdog environmental agency for Orange County and most of the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area.

The AQMD staff report had referred to the Feb. 4 gas leak as one of the reasons it recommended that the hearing board turn down Stepan Co.’s request to resume operations. The staff report said that Stepan Co. equipment was not operated properly at the time of the incident, Eichhorn said.

Times staff writer Jess Bravin contributed to this story.