Package of Smog

Air-pollution reports seem to come in good-news, bad-news packages. And usually the bad dominates. So it was this past week when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued one of its periodic assessments of the national battle to clean up the air.

The good news cannot be overlooked. EPA said that “only” 65 American cities had unhealthy levels of carbon monoxide in 1986, compared with 91 the year before--a significant decline; 62 cities failed to meet ozone standards, compared with 76 the previous year.

What this means is that air-pollution controls imposed under the federal Clean Air Act are working, to some extent.

The bad news is that ozone levels remain stubbornly and unacceptably high, particularly in the South Coast Air Basin that includes Los Angeles and Orange counties and portions of Riverside and San Bernardino counties. The region had levels of ozone that were three times the federal standard in each of the past three years, and many experts claim that the existing standard is not healthy enough.

Los Angeles again led the nation in ozone pollution during the latest reporting period, with an average of 154 days per year at or above the standard. No other American city came anywhere close to that regrettable record. San Diego County had the second-highest ozone reading, but exceeded health standards on only an average 11 days a year.

What the bad news means is that the nation needs a stronger Clean Air Act and that Southern California in particular must search for every means possible to reduce the amount of ozone and other pollutants escaping into the atmosphere.

Congress has dallied seven years now in failing to renew and strengthen the Clean Air Act, originally adopted in 1970 and revised twice since. Action is long overdue. The White House has shown no interest at all in a stronger law. State efforts to attack California’s unique problems have lagged in recent years. And the South Coast Air Quality Management District has been criticized for losing control of the battle to clean up the air. All the improvements that have been made over the years can be wiped out by population growth in just four years unless stronger controls are imposed and innovative cleanup programs are adopted.

If that should happen, there will be no more good-news, bad-news reports. Just bad news that gets worse.