EPA Takes a Harder Stand on Enforcing Clean Air Act

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will impose construction limits on major new sources of pollution in 10 urban areas, including Los Angeles, that fail to meet federal clean air standards, but EPA Administrator Lee M. Thomas acknowledged Thursday that the impact would likely be more political than economic.

Thomas said that the construction ban required by the federal Clean Air Act would cover only a handful of big new polluters who would discharge more than 100 tons of pollutants a year. Many of them could be exempted if they apply for construction permits before the ban takes effect, sometime between October and January, Thomas said.

Nonetheless, Thomas’ announcement was seen Thursday as part of a developing get-tough stance toward the nation’s smoggiest urban areas. If additional improvements in air quality are not made, the construction bans could be followed by more severe sanctions, including a cutoff in federal funds to build highways, sewage treatment plants and grants that help underwrite state and local clean air programs.

In the short term, however, federal and California officials agreed that a construction ban would not have much of an impact on the Southern California economy. Similar construction bans or cutoffs in federal funds in the late 1970s and early 1980s had virtually no effect, according to the California Air Resources Board and the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

Expects ‘Real Uproar’

Thomas said Thursday he thought the primary impact of sanctions could be political. “I think there will be a real uproar over it,” Thomas said.

Indeed, reaction from California officials to Thomas’ statements was swift. Jananne Sharpless, chairwoman of the California Air Resources Board, called the sanctions “unproductive” and harmful to future efforts to reduce air pollution.

“Sanctions are not going to get us clean air,” said Sharpless, who was in Los Angeles for a regularly scheduled ARB meeting. They could, however, “erode credibility” of the ARB and California as leaders in the fight against air pollution, she said.

“What do you accomplish by penalizing a state that has done everything conceivably possible to clean up the air?” Sharpless asked. “Those who support you have to wonder if it is worth it.”

Construction bans are also expected to be imposed in Ventura, Fresno and Sacramento.

Despite Thomas’ own misgivings about sanctions, he said the Clean Air Act leaves him no discretion but to impose penalties on areas that fail to meet the Act’s clean air standards.

Thomas’ announcement on Thursday was seen as part of a two-track strategy. It calls for imposing economic sanctions in the short run that will comply with the Act while putting pressure on Congress to amend the law. Thomas is seeking extension of the deadline to give the EPA more flexibility in dealing with areas with seemingly intractable air pollution problems, such as Southern California, despite significant efforts to control pollutants.

Thirty-five of the nation’s smoggest cities are not expected to meet the December ozone standard of .12 parts of ozone per million parts of air for one hour. Ozone levels in the South Coast Air Basin, which includes Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, sometimes are three times the federal standard.

“We meet healthy air standards about 200 days a year,” Sharpless said, “but during the rest of the year, the ozone levels are still among the worst in the world and on the worst days, are nearly triple the level considered safe for the health of some people.

“Despite the progress we have made, people in Southern California are still exposed to more ozone pollution than the rest of the nation combined.”

As it stands, air pollution levels are expected to decline until the mid-1990s, when a mushrooming population is expected to overtake efforts to curb smog. Residents in the South Coast Air Basin now are exposed to half as much health-threatening air pollution as they were in 1975, ARB officials said. There also are one-third to one-half as many smog alerts as there were a dozen years ago.

Will Begin Process

Thomas said that next month the EPA will begin the process of disapproving local air quality management plans that do not show that they will comply with the federal ozone and carbon monoxide standards by Dec. 31. Disapproval would automatically lead to a construction ban as early as October.

In August, the EPA will begin moving against areas with plans that have been previously approved but are no longer considered adequate.

Thomas said he will proceed with what he has called an administrative solution to the Clean Air Act dilemma unless Congress moves sooner to amend the Act.

Congress is devoting increased attention to the issue as the Clean Air Act deadline approaches, and several bills are being drafted, including one by Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles).

Waxman, who is chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health and the environment, has held several hearings on the Clean Air Act and has been particularly critical of the South Coast AQMD.

Let Sanctions Take Effect

“The only way I could see us extending the deadlines is if we continued to have a strong law to press for achieving the air quality standards to protect the public health. Otherwise, we ought to just let sanctions go into effect,” Waxman said.

Accusation Made

Waxman and environmentalists accused Thomas of attempting to shift the burden onto Congress for dealing with what they said was EPA’s failure during the last six years to fully implement the Clean Air Act.

“I think what EPA is doing is trying to shift the burden to Congress to deal with the Clean Air Act. I find this is somewhat unfortunate because for the last six years they’ve failed to use the law to force the kind of reductions in air pollution that might have been achieved,” Waxman said.

He added, “Now that these agencies have acknowledged their failures, Congress will have to look at it. The law does provide for sanctions and we expect EPA to carry out the law, but we wish they would have carried it out as well in the last six years so we wouldn’t be in this position.”

Times Staff Writer Louis Sahagun also contributed to this story.