ILMA Compoundings January 2017 - 40

STATE OF THE STATES

California Focuses on
Forging Operations
Emissions
C

alifornia's South Coast Air
Quality Management District
(SCAQMD) is examining releases
of toxic metals from forging operations. It
began monitoring a specific forging facility
- Carlton Forge Works (CFW) in Paramount, California - after receiving numerous complaints in 2012 from residents
about metallic odors. As a result of these
complaints, SCAQMD instituted a series
of ambient air tests in the area immediately
surrounding CFW, and CFW voluntarily
undertook efforts, beginning in 2013, to
reduce fugitive emissions from its plant.
The initial monitoring results indicated
nickel and chromium as the two principal
toxic metals of concern. SCAQMD believes
that most facilities in the region (there are
20 confirmed forging plants in addition to
CFW, although SCAQMD suspects the
actual number may be closer to 40) do not
operate with a SCAQMD-issued permit
and that baghouses act as the primary pollution control device. CFW has gone so far as
to install HEPA filters after their baghouses,
but facility emissions continue at actionable
levels defined by SCAQMD.

STAKEHOLDER MEETINGS
In order to address the issue further,
several stakeholder meetings have been

JANUARY 2017

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held by SCAQMD. The most recent
meeting was at the Paramount California
Community Center on Sept. 14, 2016.
There were 45 attendees, representing a
mixture of industry, government officials
and private citizens.
Of interest during the meeting was the
verification that a portion of the chromium
identified at CFW is hexavalent (Cr+6).
Hexavalent chrome is not a compounding
agent in the metals used at the facility. Some
people suspect that the heat of the reaction
from dry grinding causes Cro to elevate to
Cr+6. SCAQMD is certain that it is actually measuring Cr+6, but it is not 100 percent
sure that all the Cr+6 is originating from
dry grinding. SCAQMD speculates that
there could be releases from furnaces that
heat the metal before forging and possibly
from the forging process as well.
At this point in time, SCAQMD does
not have a clear root cause for the releases of
Cr+6 from CFW. If SCAQMD can prove
that the conversion of Cro to Cr+6 is primarily resulting from the heat of the dry grinding
process, then this will be a significant issue
across the metal cutting and metal grinding
industry, and it will not be limited to those
entities with forging processes.
Moving forward, the agency believes there
is a significant benefit to applying a metal-

working fluid to the grinding process. As part
of the working group discussions, SCAQMD
suggested that, if a company were grinding a
metal with flood application of a metalworking fluid, it would be potentially exempted
from the prospective rule.
There is the possibility that, if companies
insist upon dry grinding, those facilities
would have to perform extensive monitoring and record keeping and possibly add air
pollution control devices over and above
what may currently be on site.

CONCLUSIONS AND NEXT STEPS
Industry machines chrome alloys every day
with coolant and Cr+6 is not formed. In
fact, chrome total is generally not found
in wastewater from plants that machine
chrome alloys. It is assumed that plants
that use coolant and machine chrome
alloys are likely safely below the temperature threshold of the potential conversion
reaction. It is plausible that the use of coolant essentially eliminates the conversion
reaction. Obviously, this development is
significant for many ILMA members; however, it will be important for SCAQMD to
further detail its analysis and conclusions
regarding the conversion reaction. The
Association intends to continue to monitor
the issue closely.

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ILMA Compoundings January 2017

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