Smog Efforts Reduce Pollution in Basin 18% Over Past 5 Years

Air pollution in the South Coast Air Basin has dropped 18% during the past five years, and for the first time, local and state officials are crediting clean air laws and technology--not unusually favorable weather--for the improvement.

Until Monday, state officials had been hesitant to publicly attribute improvements in air quality to regulatory efforts, preferring to wait until they had gathered additional information on smog levels and had carefully correlated the findings with meteorological data.

However, following five years of observations, the state Air Resources Board and the South Coast Air Quality Management District announced that regulatory efforts appeared to be paying off in cleaner--though still far from healthy--air.

Had weather been the only factor in the just-concluded 1985 smog season, smog conditions would have been worse because temperatures were not unusually favorable, state officials said.

Considered Barometer

Instead, Air Resources Board records showed that the average smog levels from May through October in Upland--considered to be a barometer of air quality throughout the basin--were the lowest since monitoring began there in 1973.

Despite the improvements, both agencies agreed Monday that the Los Angeles area will nevertheless fail to meet the federal Clean Air Act’s Dec. 31, 1987, deadline for reducing nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide and ozone.

The reduced smog levels in 1985 were a continuation of a basinwide trend that began five years ago in areas of the South Coast Air Basin with historically high pollution, such as San Bernardino, Riverside and Fontana. The basin includes the urbanized areas of Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties and all of Orange County.

“We used to blame the weather for high smog levels and give it credit when smog levels went down,” Jan Sharpless, chairwoman of the Air Resources Board, said Monday. “The fact is, we had average weather conditions in 1985, but smog levels were far below average.”

Higher temperatures produce stronger warm air inversions that trap pollutants beneath them. An increase of one degree centigrade in the temperature at an altitude of 5,000 feet can significantly increase smog levels.

Now, she said, it is apparent that clean air laws and technology are working.

“The investments we’ve made over many years into controlling smog-forming hydrocarbon and nitrogen oxide emissions from motor vehicles and industrial facilities are beginning to pay off big dividends for people who depend on clean air to breathe,” she said.

The state’s upbeat analysis was backed by the South Coast Air Quality Management District. Jim Birakos, district deputy executive officer, added that the smog reduction occurred despite continuing growth in industry, population and the number of motor vehicles.

“You can see that the higher levels of episodes are declining very fast, and we should be out of the second-stage episodes by next year or certainly by the following year all together,” Birakos said. “And we should be cutting the first-stage episodes certainly in half by the year 2000, and then going on to meet the very tough federal ozone standard by the year 2020.”

The Air Resources Board analysis also showed that compared to a seasonal average of 97 Stage 1 smog alerts, there were 74 this year--the second lowest total since 1973. In addition, there were just three Stage 2 smog alerts in 1985, contrasted with 12 in 1973.

Said differently, the average number of hours a resident was exposed to ozone at Stage 1 alert levels was 30 hours between 1982 and 1984, as contrasted with 65 hours between 1978 and 1980.

The average number of hours a person was exposed to the more severe Stage 2 ozone alert levels dropped to 0.1 hours from 1.6 hours in the same periods of comparison.

Ozone, a lung-irritating gas, is formed when hydrocarbon emissions from vehicle exhaust and other sources react with nitrogen oxide in sunlight.

A Stage 1 alert is called when ozone concentration reaches .20 parts of the gas per million parts of air. During this time, air is considered to be unhealthful for everyone, particularly those with a respiratory ailment or heart condition.

A Stage 2 alert is called when ozone levels reach .35 ppm. Air in a Stage 2 alert is considered hazardous for everyone, and even healthy people are advised to reduce strenuous exercise and outdoor activity.

Birakos said the federal ozone standard of .12 ppm was exceeded 120 days during 1984. Although areas still fall short of the federal standard, improvements have been noticed.

Air Resources Board spokesman Bill Sessa said in 1980, ozone readings in Upland averaged 16.5 ppm. This year they averaged 13.5. In six of the most smog-prone areas--Azusa, Pomona, Pasadena, Riverside, San Bernardino and Fontana--the average ozone reading declined to 14.3 ppm this year compared to 17.3 in 1980, Sessa said.

Birakos said he did not expect the South Coast Air Basin to be in compliance with the federal nitrogen oxide standard until 1988, with carbon monoxide standards until 2000 and with ozone standards until 2020.

“We still are far short of the air quality standards. We still have a long way to go before we produce healthy air, but this trend is a good indication that we’re on the right track,” Sessa said.

Sabrina Schiller, a member of the AQMD board and a clean air activist with the Coalition for Clean Air, said air pollution remains unacceptable.

“We have to look at where we should be at this point. . . . When you look at the job we’ve been doing, progress or not, it ain’t so great,” Schiller said.

No single factor, such as the two-year-old smog check vehicle inspection program, was credited with the reduction in air pollution.

“The fact is, you only get ozone reductions from the cumulative efforts of all of the programs over a fairly long time,” Sessa said. “It is very difficult to give the credit to one program.”

Besides the vehicle smog checks, other programs include low nitrogen oxide burners on industrial boilers and heaters and even on residential hot water heaters and furnaces.

Additional steps are needed, Birakos said, including using cleaner-burning methanol fuel for buses and car pooling. The AQMD recently killed a plan to encourage car pooling, which was strongly endorsed by clean air advocates. Instead, the AQMD called for more studies. SMOG ALERTS These South Coast Basin Air Quality Management District figures show the number of first- and second-stage ozone smog alerts in selected reporting stations. Second-stage alerts (*) are in bold type.

1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 Downtown L.A. 16 14 10 8 7 12 8 5 * 1 1 Pasadena 30 26 30 18 12 35 5 17 * 2 1 Azusa 76 71 74 65 40 61 55 46 * 5 10 7 2 1 3 1 Anaheim 13 5 6 5 7 11 5 9 Riverside 66 55 67 34 26 41 29 30 * 2 4 1 1 Fontana 98 95 84 73 33 56 45 46 * 10 7 8 1 Long Beach 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 West L.A. 10 7 3 3 2 5 5 4