Suit Over GM Emissions Delayed

A lawsuit accusing General Motors of odor violations at its Van Nuys auto assembly plant will not be filed this week as announced but will be filed within the next 30 days, a spokesman for the South Coast Air Quality Management District said.

Air district officials said last week that a lawsuit accusing GM of emitting annoying odors on 45 occasions since Aug. 28, 1985, would be filed this week to beat a one-year deadline for acting on violations of air-district rules.

The deadline has been extended for 30 days, however, under an informal agreement between air district and GM lawyers, district spokesman Ron Ketcham said.

Twelve of the alleged violations are punishable by fines of up to $1,000. But fines of up to $6,000 could be levied for the other 33 citations, because they were issued after the air district formally ordered a halt to the odors, which resulted from conversion to a new auto painting system.