3M Camarillo May Earn More Pollution Credits

3M Camarillo, the computer tape manufacturer that became a center of controversy two years ago when it sold “banked” air-pollution credits to the Procter & Gamble plant in Oxnard, may be earning more credits soon.

3M Camarillo--officially it’s 3M’s Data Storage Tape Technology Division--has installed a new system that completes a two-phase program to reduce its air pollution emissions by more than 95%.

The $9-million system “enables our plant to meet and exceed all air pollution control requirements in the foreseeable future,” says Robert Nattkemper, 3M Camarillo’s environmental engineering specialist.

In 1991, environmentalists attacked a deal in which Procter & Gamble used 3M’s pollution credits to gain county approval for a P&G; plant expansion.

3M, once a major polluter of Ventura County air, donated the $1.5 million it received from the sale to a fund for improving the county’s air quality, but the environmentalists contended the deal merely moved industrial pollutants from one part of the county to another.

3M plant manager Kevin Ruby said it is too early to tell whether his facility will be allowed to bank additional credits as a result of the new system, which last month won first place in the Ventura County Economic Development Assn.’s environmental leadership competition.

“But I’ll say this--we’ll never profit from the sale of any of these credits,” Ruby said.

If future credits are earned, 3M Camarillo might keep them for use in case it expands its own facility on Lewis Road, Ruby added.

3M Camarillo, which employs 700, is one of the world’s leading producers of magnetic tapes for the computer industry.