Air quality officials OK Carmichael crematory

Despite a pending lawsuit in Sacramento Superior Court challenging the location of a crematorium surrounded by homes, restaurants and schools, air quality officials are giving the green light to a Carmichael funeral home to cremate up to four bodies a day.

"The particulate concentration from the exhaust stack is within limits," said engineer Ady Santos of the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District.

"He will be issued a permit to operate in the near future," Santos said of Chris Meyer, an owner of Hood Funeral Home, which is using the former owner's name of Lind Brothers Mortuary, 4221 Manzanita Ave.

Pat Barnard Remus, one of the neighbors suing the mortuary, the county and the air quality board, said she was not surprised by the air quality decision.

"All the crematory owners we have spoken to told us the first test always passes, but that over time there will be particulate buildup," Barnard Remus said.

She also faulted county planners in allowing such an industrial use in a residential neighborhood.

Meyer, who describes himself as a businessman providing a community service, said he was pleased by the decision and said the court battle is an issue that shouldn't involve him.

"It is the government bodies that are in charge of regulating particulates and zoning," he said. "I understand my neighbors have strong feelings, but those feelings are not based in the law."

"This is the cleanest crematorium in Sacramento County. They held us to a more exacting standard," Meyer said.

According to testing in March by a private Bay Area environmental firm using three bodies and witnessed by Santos, the emissions measured about 10 microns, which is thinner than a strand of hair.

"That is smaller than dust and is virtually invisible," Santos said of the exhaust emitted in nine hours of testing.

The three cremations were the 56th, 57th and 58th cremations at Lind Brothers since Feb. 22, when procedures and methods were worked out, Santos said.

The written report for the testing was submitted to the board April 23, and all that is left before an operational permit is issued is the planting of trees to hide the smokestack on the mortuary's roof, Santos said. Some neighbors complain they can see the smokestack from their backyards.

Once the permit is granted, the mortuary will be allowed to cremate 4.4 bodies a day from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

The testing of the multi-chamber incinerator that operates at or above 1,600 degrees will be the only testing required of the mortuary, unless unannounced annual inspections show there are problems, air quality officials said.

The Manzanita Avenue crematorium is one of 11 human crematoriums regulated by air quality officials in Sacramento County, including Sierra View Funeral Chapel, which is two miles from Lind Brothers at Kenneth Avenue and Fair Oaks Boulevard. It is an area that also is surrounded by homes and restaurants.

Two pet crematoriums are within a mile of Lind Brothers.

Lind Brothers was issued a temporary permit to construct a crematorium in August after county planners found that existing law did not require a full environmental impact report with public hearings.

The air quality board did send out fliers notifying the neighborhood of the proposed crematorium because Cameron Ranch Elementary and St. John the Evangelist schools are within 1,000 feet of the mortuary.

After residents expressed concerns, the air quality board decided to do a thorough evaluation of the emissions and applied state air quality standards in the testing procedures, Santos said.

"The state standard is more stringent," Santos said.

The only issue, however, was the scientific analysis of the emissions and whether they fell within state guidelines, Santos said.

The neighbors' lawsuit alleges in part that the county planning department had an obligation under county and state law to hold public hearings before granting the permit.

"Without public hearings, noise and visual impacts, smells and emotional concerns are not figured into the equation," Barnard Remus said.

Barnard Remus and her neighbors claim in their suit that a crematorium is a physical and emotional nuisance. Issues in the suit are scheduled to be heard at a hearing in June to see if the suit is legally sufficient to go to trial.

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