This past spring, Furniture Spa, a Ballard paint-stripping company, was investigated and cited by state and city agencies for the improper handling and disposal of solid waste and a number of chemicals, including the potential carcinogen methylene chloride.

On May 4, the Washington State Department of Ecology sent a letter to Furniture Spa owner Lorin Emtage citing several areas in which the business was out of compliance with the state's Dangerous Waste Regulations.

The letter outlines three areas of concern, but the Department of Ecology's major issue was with the handling and disposal of methylene chloride, the main chemical used in paint stripping, said Larry Altose, the department's northwest region spokesperson.

On June 22, the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency issued a Notice of Violation to Furniture Spa and ordered them to immediately cease using methylene chloride in their process, said Kimberley Cline, spokesperson for the agency.

Furniture Spa, which had been in business for 50 years and located at 4813 Eighth Ave. N.W. for five years, closed June 25.

Emtage said the final straw was the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency's refusal to grant the business a permit to discharge methylene chloride fumes through their ventilation system.

Mario Pedroza, supervising inspector for the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, said the volume of methylene chloride, which is considered a hazardous air pollutant, being used at Furniture Spa was the problem. If the business had continued to use that amount of the chemical, it would have fallen under federal regulations, he said.

"There was no way that they could use it in their current configuration," Pedroza said.

Emtage said methylene chloride is necessary to strip the amount of paint Furniture Spa was dealing with. The businesses stripped 50 doors per month and recently stripped 600 windows in one order.

There are no other chemicals that will do as good a job and allow Furniture Spa to stay profitable at the same volume of orders, he said.

"Our main ingredient is methylene chloride," Emtage said. That's what takes the paint off. There is a lot of chemicals involved, and they don't want that in the city."

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Labor, considers the chemical to be a potential occupational carcinogen.

Emtage said the use of methylene chloride is being pushed out at the federal and state level. He said he is disappointed the state and city agencies would not work with him to come up with a viable solution.

"I think it's a mistake as far as the city goes," he said. "Paint removal is still going to happen. It's going to provoke people to do it in their garages and driveways."

Paint remover containing methylene chloride can be bought at hardware stores, and hundreds of unregulated users of the chemical will spring up if the large regulated users are all shut down, Emtage said.

Now that Furniture Spa is closed, the Washington State Department of Ecology will be making sure that proper procedures are done onsite to dispose of dangerous materials, Altose said.

He said Furniture Spa was put on a list of potentially hazardous sites that Public Health of Seattle and King County will be assessing sometime in the future.

Though there was no evidence that an immediate assessment is needed at Furniture Spa, there are signs that there could be possible soil and ground contamination, Altose said.

Despite receiving a permit to use and vent methylene chloride in smaller quantities at Ballard Refinishers, which he also owns, Emtage said he will be using a non-methylene chloride-based paint stripper instead.

Meanwhile, Emtage said he is still getting calls daily from customers who want a large volume of items stripped.

"Where do we turn them?" he said. "There's no alternative."