Coastal Panel Rips Proposed Smog Rules for Drillers

The state Coastal Commission on Tuesday approved a tough slate of comments criticizing proposed federal smog regulations on derricks planned along the coast, including those envisioned in San Diego County waters.

The commission voted unanimously to approve the remarks, which brand the proposed federal rules as inequitable and significantly weaker than pollution-control standards enforced on land.

Noting that prevailing winds in California’s coastal area blow toward shore, bringing offshore pollutants onto the land, the 47-page report drafted by the state agency’s staff suggested that new oil rigs could add to pollution problems in parts of Southern California already burdened by the worst air quality in the nation.

The document represents perhaps the harshest and most wide-ranging assault on the federal air-quality plan for offshore oil operations issued by the Department of the Interior in January.

“I think they’ll take our comments seriously,” said Susan Hansch, the commission’s energy and ocean resources manager. “As they are written now, these rules promise only to exacerbate the serious existing problem with onshore air pollution.”

No Comment From U.S.

Department of the Interior officials in Washington could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Officials of the agency’s Mineral Management Service in Los Angeles said they had not seen the commission’s remarks and declined comment.

But, at a Coastal Commission workshop Monday, an Interior Department official said the federal agency would carefully consider the commission’s remarks along with others received before the April 17 deadline for comments on the proposed regulations.

“This rule is not cast in stone,” said Michael Poling, a deputy assistant secretary of Interior. “What we have is a starting point.”

Although the recent oil-tanker accident in Prince William Sound off the Alaskan coast has focused attention on the dire effects of spills, air pollution from oil exploration and operations represents an equally vexing environmental threat, experts contend.

If an Interior Department plan to lease oil tracts in federal waters off the Southern California coast goes forward, a fleet of new platforms would sprout from the sea, each belching pollution during drilling operations and attracting a swarm of support ships to add to the smog, critics argue.

The federal drilling proposal for California waters is on hold while a presidential task force studies the offshore oil issue, but some state and local officials remain concerned that the plan could be revived, and many see the air-quality issue as perhaps the best avenue of attack.

The proposed federal rules stem from nearly a decade of unsuccessful efforts to devise a palatable strategy for controlling pollution from oil rigs off California.

In 1981, the state sued the Interior Department over the issue. As a result, negotiations were launched in 1986 among officials of local, state and federal governments, industry and environmental groups. After two years, however, a consensus had not been reached, and the Interior Department dropped the effort and set about drafting the existing proposal.

Aside from criticizing the proposed rule as “significantly weaker” than onshore pollution regulations, the commission suggested that the plan would allow broad exemptions and disrupt efforts to meet air-quality standards on land.

Under the regulations, thousands of tons of nitrogen oxides would be permitted, causing “an adverse impact far exceeding any gains” that some regions would hope to make by regulating pollution sources such as factories and automobiles, according to a commission report.

The result would be “deteriorated human health, deteriorated agricultural productivity, and economic and social costs,” including possible bans on industrial and residential development on the coast, the report said.

Notable Exemptions

Among the exemptions in the federal rule is air pollution emitted by support vessels as well as ships and equipment used by oil companies during exploration and construction of offshore platforms, it said.

If the exemptions are allowed, more than 1,000 tons of nitrogen oxides will be permitted in each air basin along the coast, according to the report. That load of pollution is the equivalent of adding 125,000 cars traveling 10,000 miles a year to a region’s roads.

Moreover, construction of a typical dual-platform project would result in about 620 tons of nitrogen oxides in a year, equal to adding 77,500 vehicles traveling 10,000 miles, the report said.

The commission report also said the federal standards lack strong monitoring and enforcement provisions and leave too broad a decision-making role to the regional director of the federal Minerals Management Agency, the oil exploration arm of the Department of the Interior.

The report also criticizes the Department of the Interior for suggesting that an environmental review of the proposed rule is not needed because it “does not constitute a major federal action affecting the quality of the human environment.”