EPA Agrees to Develop Plan to Cut Basin’s Air Pollution

A lawsuit to force the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to impose a federal clean air plan on the South Coast Air Basin has ended with an agreement by the EPA to develop its own plan by the spring of 1990.

The agreement, scheduled to be officially announced at a press conference today, is expected to put added pressure on the South Coast Air Quality Management District to approve its own controversial clean air plan, which is scheduled for a vote March 17.

If the AQMD acts, and if its plan is approved by both the state and the EPA, it could be in effect within seven to eight months, well before the federal clean air plan could be imposed.

On the other hand, the federal plan would be waiting in the wings if the AQMD failed to adopt its proposal, or watered it down.

The agreement was reached by the EPA with the Sierra Club and the Coalition for Clean Air. It is anticipated that the EPA will draw heavily on the local plan in fashioning its own air pollution control strategy. But some sources said they hope the EPA will go further and take additional steps where the AQMD lacks authority.

In reaching the accord, the environmental groups made clear that their goal is to see that the EPA works in partnership with the state and AQMD. One government source, who asked to remain anonymous, said the idea is to make sure the federal plan includes measures that complement those proposed in the AQMD’s plan.

The EPA has previously acknowledged that it is legally required by the federal Clean Air Act to impose its own plan on the four-county basin if local air pollution officials fail to show that their plans will bring the area into compliance with clean air standards in time.

But the EPA, reluctant to intervene, has until now hedged on saying when it must act. Last year, Mark Abramowitz, of the Coalition for Clean Air, and the Sierra Club filed suit in federal court to force the EPA to impose its own clean air plan on the South Coast Air Basin--Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

That eventually resulted in the EPA’s concession that it did, in fact, have an obligation to impose its own plan if local plans missed the Clean Air Act deadline.

The AQMD’s plan, which would bring the air basin into compliance with federal Clean Air Act standards for ozone and carbon monoxide by the year 2007, calls for tough new controls on air pollution, including more stringent ride-sharing programs, conversion of fleet vehicles to cleaner-burning fuel and additional controls on emissions from electrical utilities, oil refineries and other stationary sources.

That plan is roundly opposed by business and industry as too costly. Two industry giants, the Western States Petroleum Assn. and Southern California Edison, have each advanced alternative plans that they claim would meet one of the air pollution standards faster and at far less cost.