Health Worries Spur AQMD Inquiry at Unocal : Pollution: The district will review an independent study and may monitor the site, but officials said they have found no evidence of contamination by the plant.
HUNTINGTON BEACH — A spokeswoman for the South Coast Air Quality Management District said Tuesday that the agency is investigating complaints from residents that a Unocal processing plant is making them sick.
“We are always interested when people have (air pollution) complaints, especially when people have health concerns,†said Paula Levy, a spokeswoman for the air quality agency.
She said the AQMD will review the work of an independent firm hired by Unocal to do a health study of the area. In addition, Levy said, the AQMD may put special equipment at the Unocal site to monitor the air there.
But Levy stressed that the AQMD so far has found nothing that indicates that the Unocal plant is guilty of polluting the air.
“We will be checking for other sources (of air pollution) in that area,†Levy said. “Air is air, and it could be coming from anywhere. The smells that people say are coming Unocal might be coming from something else.â€
At issue is Unocal’s crude-oil processing plant at 4541 Heil Ave., in the Huntington Harbour area. The plant, which Unocal calls “Fort Apache,†heats crude oil drilled offshore to remove water. The process results in very small amounts of toxic chemicals, including benzene and toluene, being released into the air, according to the AQMD. The air quality agency has said the plant’s operation normally poses no health risk.
But some residents near the plant have charged that pollution from Fort Apache has caused strange odors and has resulted in adults’ and children’s suffering breathing problems, severe headaches and body rashes.
Unocal officials last week said they had checked on the complaints and found nothing amiss at Fort Apache. Representatives of Unocal met with area residents both on Thursday night and Saturday morning. At the Thursday meeting, the Unocal officials said they were hiring an independent health-research contractor to double-check Fort Apache.
Some residents and former residents of the Fort Apache area said they still do not trust Unocal. “They are dancing around us,†Anonka Rashid, a former resident of Harbor Village apartments, said Tuesday.
Rashid said she moved from the Fort Apache area because “I was constantly getting sick.†She charged that neither Unocal nor governmental health care agencies have done anything to find out the cause of sicknesses around the Fort Apache area.
But regulatory agencies on Tuesday said they had not previously received any complaints about Fort Apache. Levy said the AQMD only had logged one resident’s complaint in 10 years on the Huntington Beach facility. “We got one complaint about odor there (Fort Apache) on Sept. 3 of this year, and we investigated it and could find no strange odor,†Levy said.
Steven Wong, assistant director of environmental health for the Orange County Health Care Agency, said Tuesday that the county likewise had received no complaints about Fort Apache.
Rashid, however, said that most citizens simply do not know how or where to file complaints about air pollution. “People don’t know who to call,†she said.
Levy said people wishing to register complaints about possible toxic air pollution should call 1 (800) 572-6306, a toll-free number.
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