Behind paint shop, resident live with fumes Behind paint shop, resident live with fumes (September 27, 2002)

By Candice Shih

When Victoria Brown moved to Corto Street to help take care of her grandmother who lives next door, she didn't realize her family's younger generation would be impacted.

Brown has four children and they'd like to play outside except for one thing: paint fumes.

Corto Street happens to be behind the C & C Body Shop on Moffett Boulevard, which, despite its clean record and efforts to minimize the fumes, is still producing an odor. The wind wafts the smells over to the Brown residence.

It's just half a block from Angie Ramirez's house on Santa Rosa Avenue where she has lived since 1951, before the auto paint shop was in existence. She feels fortunate not to be in the fumes' direct pathway but finds it unpleasant in her neighborhood nonetheless.

Ramirez has participated in mediation with her industrial neighbors, but the problem of the smell has persisted. She admits that C & C has been conscientious about the residents but says "it's just the nature of the business."

Although Brown and her children can easily detect the smell, similar to that of nail polish, on hot summer afternoons, the C & C Body Shop isn't doing anything illegal.

"The body shop is absolutely in compliance with regulation," said Will Taylor, spokesperson for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAAQMD) which inspected the shop last week. "We wish all body shops are run as cleanly and as well as C & C Body Shop appears to be."

According to Taylor, the shop has no violation history and, of the five complaints received by the BAAQMD in the past three years, three came from the same person and two were anonymous.

The fumes can be harmful to one's health, said BAAQMD air quality specialist Dan Belik, but it's difficult to establish health effects in cases like C & C's, where relatively little paint is used.

Carlos McKenna, the shop's owner, said he's been trying to minimize the effect on residents, from adding a pine scent perfume to the emissions, to installing afterburners on the stacks, to purchasing a $110,000 downdraft spray bake.

He said that these weren't steps he was required to take, but he wants to keep the peace with the neighbors.

"I would not want to live next to a body shop," said McKenna. "We try our best to minimize the smell."

The City of Mountain View has started to do its part, too. Last year, it tried to attack urban blight on Moffett Boulevard. As City Attorney Michael Martello recalls, "We literally camped out there (with) cops and code enforcement."

During the recent sweep, the city mainly targeted body shops for parking or painting cars outside.

As Ramirez pointed out, "their back yards are our front yards."
E-mail Candice Shih at cshih@mv-voice.com