Between a rock & a hard place (long)

[Larry Mittell <lmittel@ibm.net>]

OK, List! Ready to handle a problem not involving Torsens, arachnids, or
the Dark Side? Not having heard  objections, I'll proceed. I added a 1989
200TQW (Yikes! Torsen! Hide the women and children!) to my stable of
eccentric, semi-mobile vehicles a while back. I'm deliriously happy with it
except for one minor niggle: the air conditioner is a little anemic.

I left the little dear at a well-regarded local radiator/air conditioning
shop to have the system evacuated, leak-checked, and recharged. Some hours
later, I was told that nothing could be done with it. It seems I'm firmly
mired in the land of Catch-22. The shop's analyzer claims the system
contains a mixture of R-12, R-22, and R-134a refrigerants. The proprietor
says the system therefore can't be evacuated, because that would
contaminate his equipment, costing him some tens of thousands of dollars.
By the same token, the system can't legally be vented to atmosphere,
because that would do unspeakable things to the "ozone layer" (quotes used
because there isn't any such thing, but that's another thread).

So, here I am, a man without a country, so to speak. I'm a certified
criminal, no matter what I do. The EPA folks I so admire have decreed that
the only legal refrigerants for mobile use are pure R-12 or pure R-134a, so
I'm breaking the law everytime I drive the beast. Since nobody will
evacuate the a/c system for fear of contamination and the system can't be
vented to atmosphere, the only alternative is to push the car over a cliff
and walk away.  But no doubt there's a law against that. Oh, what tangled
webs we weave when first we practice to be politically and environmentally
correct!

Any BTDTs that can save my soul from eternal damnation? I'd really like to
stay within the law, even if it's stupid. Otherwise, I suppose that engine
vibration will eventually loosen a fitting and the planet will
instantaneously become uninhabitable. Small loss; I always wanted to be an
astronaut anyway.

TIA,
Larry Mittell