‘Stalling on Smog’

The Times, in its editorial “Stalling on Smog” (March 14), comments about walls that stand in the way of change in the battle against air pollution. From our reading of the editorial, we regretfully see The Times adding to the building of walls rather than the building of bridges between segments of our community who are legitimately committed to improvements in the quality of air for our region.

It is clear that significant public and private investment has already been made to meet some of the stiffest air pollution control regulations of any basin in the country. That notwithstanding, additional air quality measures must and will be imposed in the years ahead to both maintain our existing air quality, and more importantly, to improve it to the established federal standards.

It has been the position of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce that the strategies put forth by the Air Quality Management District should be selected from those which achieve the greatest health and benefit for all of the people in the basin, in the most cost-effective way.

We strongly believe that all sources contributing to air pollution must be subject to various control programs.

Your editorial suggests that industries are urging delay, pending the outcome of data on computer models. In reality it is the AQMD that sought out the participation and involvement of the private sector to run models to better enable the district to devise strategies that will most effectively deal with our air quality problems.

Air quality is a major health problem, but we must deal with that problem in the context of a variety of other competing regional, social and economic goals. We must be prepared to put resources towards achieving the air quality objectives, but at the same time we must be mindful of the concerns of our local governments to maintain control over local land use.

We believe that Southern California must develop and adopt a plan that will be successful in improving our air quality. We can accomplish this only if we have the informed cooperation of everyone in Southern California.

RAY REMY

President

Los Angeles Area

Chamber of Commerce