Charbroilers come under San Joaquin Valley air district’s microscope

You might like the billowing smoke and scent of sizzling meats wafting from your favorite steakhouse or barbecue pit. But that smoke might not like your lungs and heart.

Although such emissions amount to a fraction of the San Joaquin Valley’s air pollution, regulators could clamp down on commercial charbroilers in coming years. First, it would be nice to know whether new technology works well enough to require restaurants to use it.

So the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District is looking for a handful of eateries to volunteer for a pilot program testing devices with fancy names like electrostatic precipitators, cyclonic extractors and diesel particulate filters. The air district would match participating restaurants with gizmo manufacturers.

The idea has attracted no takers so far in Stanislaus County; in fact, the only restaurant with a contract in the entire eight-county Valley is a Habit Burger Grill in Stockton.

Derek “Doc” Taylor isn’t wild about the idea of monkeying with his time-honored, tried-and-true slow-cooking pit in front of Doc’s Q’in Pit Stop on west Modesto’s Maze Boulevard. “We use real wood and 19 different herbs and spices – mmm, it’ll make you want to hug your momma,” Taylor said.

Air district spokeswoman Jaime Holt thinks the offer is a good deal for restaurants because her agency will pay for the pilot equipment. If it works, and if the air district next year decides to regulate under-fired charbroilers, that restaurant would be sitting pretty, for free.

“If restaurants might be interested, send them our way,” Holt said.

The catch: These devices can require wall and roof renovations, taking an income-producing grill out of commission for a couple of days or more. That might be too much to ask for a restaurant getting by on small profit margins.

Also, not all eateries will qualify. Most fast-food joints with chain-driven charbroilers resembling conveyor belts have been regulated since 2002 and need not worry about the potential new rule. Nor would eateries producing small amounts of charbroiled steaks and burgers.

The air district has not yet proposed limits; an agency handling air quality in the Bay Area regulates restaurants with under-fired charbroilers that buy at least 1,000 pounds of meat per week.

Regulators figure a couple of hundred restaurants in the eight-county Valley could become subject to a future rule, Holt said.

“There is a possibility that if a rule comes out down the road,” Holt said, participating restaurants “would be ahead of everyone, with (new equipment) pretty much paid for. But we want folks to know we’re being very soft-handed right now. We have no plans to go after your backyard barbecue.”

The air district must reduce overall emissions by 283 tons per day – more than 80 percent – by 2024. Commercial charbroilers produce less than half of 1 ton of particulate matter pollution, known as PM 2.5, which claims hundreds of premature Valley deaths and can lead to a host of other health problems such as pulmonary heart disease and cancer. Most pollution comes from cars and trucks.

A recent California Air Resources Board report credited the air district’s restrictions on wood fireplaces and heaters for reducing PM 2.5 by 12 percent throughout the air basin and up to 15 percent in cities. That helped reduce hospital admissions for heart disease in seniors by 7 percent and by 16 percent for coronary artery disease, the report found.

The restrictions, known as the Check Before You Burn program, prohibit burning when air quality worsens from November through February, unless people have cleaner-burning devices registered with the air district.

This story was originally published December 27, 2015 at 5:24 PM with the headline "Charbroilers come under San Joaquin Valley air district’s microscope."