Air Quality Board ‘Has Lost Control,’ Congressman Says

The South Coast Air Quality Management District’s relaxed regulations and control measures have “undermined the federal program designed to prevent new industrial pollution sources from worsening air quality in Southern California,” Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) charged Friday at a congressional hearing on smog.

In a harshly worded opening statement that set the tone of the subcommittee on health and environment hearing in Los Angeles City Hall, Waxman painted the district as an “air pollution agency that has lost control.” Its “historically progressive image,” he said, “is a myth.”

Waxman didn’t stop there. California’s Air Resources Board, he said, “could have also clearly done more to curb pollution from autos and other vehicles” and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency “has failed to take the lead in exercising its vast powers overseeing state and local agencies to reduce air pollution in California.”

James M. Lents, the AQMD’s executive director, acknowledged that improvements could be made. But he cited the basin’s unique weather and topography, continued population growth, a trend away from large industrial sources to small manufacturers, cheap gasoline, a 50% increase in driving over the last 10 years and “disappointing” financial help from the federal government as among problems frustrating efforts to meet federal clean air standards.

Friday’s session was the first in a series of hearings aimed at developing federal legislation to require more government and industry efforts to reduce pollution in California and across the nation. Witnesses who testified included federal, state and local officials, health scientists and industry and environmental group representatives.

It was also the AQMD’s second drubbing in as many weeks. Last week, the Air Resources Board and the EPA issued an audit report that lauded the AQMD in areas such as its service station vapor recovery program, but criticized its confusing rules and regulations, lack of in-house communication among divisions and failure to pay enough attention to major industrial polluters.

The audit was a direct result of the district’s expected failure to meet a December, 1987, deadline for attainment of the federal Clean Air Act’s ozone standard. In fact, AQMD officials have said the agency, which monitors air pollution in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, will not be able to meet the ozone standard of 0.12 parts per million parts of air until the year 2020, if ever.

The standard was set to protect against such health problems as loss in lung capacity, respiratory diseases such as asthma and weakened ability to resist infections.

Urban areas that fail to meet the deadline requirements could face economic sanctions, such as the cut-off of federal highway and sewer funds, Waxman said. He added, however, that such sanctions “probably won’t be imposed . . . if we are doing all we can to clean up the air.”

Rep. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton), who questioned witnesses along with Waxman, agreed that such drastic sanctions would not be imposed. “Nobody wants to shut down Southern California,” he said, adding that the deadline probably will be “extended a minimum of three to five years.”

During the five-hour hearing, Waxman frequently used the AQMD audit as a springboard to show how the district has fallen short of attaining provisions of the Clean Air Act to reduce smog in Los Angeles.

For example, although the law calls for new industries to secure “smog credits” from existing pollution sources, these “offsets have been required (by the district) for less than one-third of 1% of all new sources in the basin.”

Under the offset system, a new industry may literally buy the right to pollute the air by purchasing real offsets from companies elsewhere in the South Coast basin that have closed down or installed equipment to reduce their own emissions. In this way, the total amount of air pollution in the South Coast basin is kept below a certain threshold--despite the addition of new industries in a given region.

The audit also revealed that roughly 60% of the district’s yearly permit applications come from industries that did not seek a permit before construction. The penalty, Waxman said, has been “a slap on the wrist.”

“Would you go out on the highway if 60% of the drivers did not have licenses?” Waxman asked, by way of analogy. “Of course not, you’d be dead.”

Taken together, these and other examples from the audit “paint a shocking picture of an air pollution agency that has lost control, while trying to maintain its historically progressive image,” Waxman said.

Sabrina Schiller, member of the AQMD Board of Directors and frequent critic of district policies, suggested that the federal government should play a greater role in efforts to control air pollution.

“The bottom line rests with you people,” Schiller told congressional officials. “Without your help we really can’t get our act together.”