EPA Orders Ban on Major New Sources of L.A. Smog

The Environmental Protection Agency said today it is banning major new sources of air pollution in greater Los Angeles, the nation’s most populous urban area.

EPA Administrator Lee M. Thomas said similar action is planned against at least three other cities by the end of this year unless Congress revises the Clean Air Act.

James Lents, executive director of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, said the EPA’s action was little more than “a paper tiger.” He said it would have no immediate impact on California, whose regulations already forbid construction of facilities emitting more than a few tons of pollutants annually.

But Lents said it might be harder to build needed sewage treatment plants if the ban continues for very long.

A stopgap congressional ban on agency sanctions expires at midnight Tuesday, eight months after it was imposed to buy time for Congress to produce changes in the law.

The construction ban against sources of 100 tons of pollution a year is imposed for failure to submit adequate air pollution control plans showing compliance with federal pollution standards.

All areas were supposed to have met those standards by Dec. 31, 1987. EPA maintains the law permits penalties only for failure to submit and follow plans. There is no penalty for failure to meet the standards if an agency-approved control plan does not work out.

EPA officials said Los Angeles, which lacks an agency-approved plan to clean up its air pollution, is just the first of a number of cities that will soon face construction bans.

Other Areas Listed

They said that by late October bans could be imposed against Ventura County, Calif., Chicago, and the northwestern Indiana area adjacent to Chicago.

Waiting in the wings are 10 more whose air-quality attainment plans are on the verge of being formally rejected by EPA, an action that would trigger construction bans.

They are Sacramento, Bakersfield and Fresno in California, Denver, Atlanta, Dallas, Cleveland, Reno, Indiana counties adjacent to Louisville, Ky., and East St. Louis, Ill.