Air-Quality District Considers Sweeping Smog Regulations

Even as it reported that smog levels this season--aided by favorable weather conditions--was lower than ever, South Coast Air Quality Management District officials said Tuesday that sweeping new measures may soon be imposed in the war against air pollution that would have broad impact on life in Orange County and the Southland.

The four-county air pollution district, whose authority has recently been strengthened by the Legislature, is considering proposals ranging from a likely requirement that employers of more than 100 workers institute car-pooling programs to more controversial and less certain “development fees” on builders of new housing tracts, shopping centers, stadiums and other sources of more traffic.

Essentially, the air-quality agency is moving beyond controlling industrial pollution sources and combustion-engine vehicles to influencing the way people live and the way that new development will occur throughout its jurisdiction.

Orange County Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder, an air-quality agency board member, had already proposed requirements for ride-sharing and flexible work hours in Orange County, where officials are preparing a model countywide incentive program to promote shorter trips.

The program seeks to have employers reduce the number of daily trips their businesses generate on local streets and highways, primarily through employee car-pooling.

However, as planned, the program would only contain voluntary guidelines for major employers.

Wieder noted Tuesday that the so-called project has been “less than a smashing success after more than a year of local workshops” aimed at getting cities and major employers involved.

And Wieder warned: “Unless the 26 cities and the county put aside their boundaries, which are artificial anyway when it comes to pollution, then this (regulating) will be taken out of our hands by the feds (federal authorities).”

Coincidentally, the air-quality agency proposals come at a time when slow-growth advocates are circulating a proposed ballot initiative in Orange County that would sharply curtail new construction unless developers first pay for traffic improvements that would reduce congestion caused by their projects. Although aimed at reducing traffic, the proposed ballot measure also contains environmental and other so-called “quality-of-life” standards.

After a press conference, Eugene Fisher, and air-district spokesman, said: “We have the authority to regulate stationary sources and auto tailpipes but not movements of people and sources of pollution related to life style--that’s what’s coming.”

The air district is considering, for example, rules to curb the proliferation of housing developments in outlying areas that can result in long, pollution-producing drives to and from jobs in distant cities. “That kind of development cannot go on,” air district Executive Director James Lents said.

Earlier this year, urban forecasters from the Southern California Assn. of Governments, a regional planning agency, warned that Orange County’s congestion and air pollution will only get worse during the next three decades, partly because more people will be driving longer distances from new housing tracts in Riverside or San Bernardino County to jobs in Orange County.

“The whole thing we’re interested in, Lents said, “is creating a situation where people do less driving to live their lives. It’s a very new area for us . . . and one that will touch every aspect of life in the Los Angeles Basin.”

However, Wieder said Tuesday that the air-quality agency staff had not told her they were considering ways to restrict new shopping centers and housing developments in outlying areas.

“That’s something new,” she said. “I’ll have to look into that.”

Curt Coleman, air district general counsel, said: “We have to look at every activity that causes pollution--and everybody will have to pull their weight.

‘No Sacred Cows’

“There aren’t any sacred cows.”

Coleman anticipates that the air district’s new direction is almost certain to draw criticism and opposition. “If nothing else, it will see what quality of air people really want,” he said. “It’ll make life more expensive, no doubt about that.”

As a first step toward achieving its new goals, the district this week will hold public hearings on a proposal to require that about 4,000 Southland employers start ride-sharing programs and another to end the trading of so-called air-pollution credits among industrial developers.

The district’s board of directors will review these proposals later and determine whether they should be adopted. Once approved, violators could face penalties, including a fine of up to $25,000 per day, officials said.

Air district officials aim to remove up to 5% of the number of vehicles on the road during the peak traffic hours of 6 to 10 a.m. through enforced ride-sharing programs, officials said.

Employee Incentives

If approved, the district would require that employers provide incentives to their employers to commute to work in buses and car pools--including free bus passes, preferential parking for car pools or cash bonuses for ride-sharers. These employers would be expected to review and update their ride-sharing plans annually.

As it stands, the average ridership per vehicle in the South Coast area is 1.1, officials said. The proposal would raise that figure from 1.5 to 1.6 people per vehicle.

Under its newly expanded authority, the air district might also adopt rules that would ban trucks from freeways during hours of peak air-pollution levels and might order that public and commercial vehicle fleets switch to “clean” fuels, such as methanol.

The Orange County Transportation Commission this week hired a consultant to study truck traffic and recommend restrictions to reduce congestion and vehicle emissions.

The second proposal to be considered this week would abolish the “exchange-of-credits” system. This procedure allows new industry to buy the right to pollute the air by purchasing “smog credits” from companies elsewhere along the South Coast that have closed or have installed equipment to reduce their own emissions, officials said. This proposal is expected to be submitted to the air district board for adoption in March, 1988, officials said.

“It’s a very inefficient system,” Coleman said. “We have literally hundreds of people running around looking for someone going out of business and paying large sums of money for their credits.”

Because firms with expansion plans in the offing regard smog credits as valuable assets, “there is a likelihood we’ll be sued,” Coleman said. “They’ll probably say we are taking away a property right.”

A public discussion of the ride-sharing proposal will be held at 8 a.m. today and Thursday in the Pasadena Center, Pasadena. The proposed smog credit system will be discussed at 9 a.m. Friday at Caltech in Pasadena.

Meanwhile, air-district official Art Davidson said that the April-October, 1987, smog season “was the cleanest year for ozone since measurements began in the mid-1950s,” because of favorable weather conditions and pollution controls on cars and factories.

There were no second-stage alerts this year in the basin--which includes Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties--and 58 first-stage alerts, officials said.

By comparison, there were 63 first-stage alerts reported in 1982, which officials say was one of the cleanest years on record.