L.A. Still the Nation’s Smog Capital : Ozone Level Triple U.S. Standard; 100 Other Areas Cited

The Los Angeles area, retaining the dubious distinction of being the smoggiest metropolis in America, posted an ozone level of three times the national standard last year, the Environmental Protection Agency reported Thursday.

Spotlighting the nation’s worsening air quality, an EPA study found that the number of areas failing to meet federal ozone standards increased by 37 in 1988, bringing the nation’s total to 101. Ozone is a principal component of smog.

EPA Administrator William K. Reilly characterized the expanded list of violators as a “sharp increase” and used the occasion to call for adoption of tougher clean air standards. “The problem is immense. We must address it now,” Reilly said.

Areas exceeding the EPA standards would be subject to new clean air regulations proposed by the Bush Administration and now under consideration by Congress.

Acceptable Levels

The Administration claims that the legislation would reduce air pollution in the nation’s smoggiest areas--Los Angeles, Houston, New York, and Chicago--to acceptable levels by the year 2010 through such measures as tougher car emission controls and alternative fuel programs. Other cities would be expected to come into compliance by the year 2000.

On the 1988 pollution roster, no other city came close to challenging the smog-choked skies of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, which includes Orange and Riverside counties.

In 1988, the region registered an ozone level of about three times the acceptable level established by the agency and exceeded federal air quality standards for 148 days, the EPA reported.

In contrast, second-place Houston posted an ozone level of about double the acceptable level and exceeded allowable smog standards for only eight days last year.

Los Angeles has posted the nation’s worst air quality since the EPA began monitoring smog levels in 1974, agency spokesman Christopher Rice said.

For a city to comply with federal standards, it must not exceed ozone limits for more than three days over a three-year period.

Officials in Los Angeles “have done more to reduce (ozone) levels than any other area in the country but I’m not sure peak ozone levels have gone down,” Rice said. But, he noted, “Los Angeles is making progress in the face of growth.”

Chicago joined Los Angeles, Houston and New York as the areas with the most severe smog levels last year.

Other California cities that violated ozone standards in 1988 were Bakersfield, Fresno, Modesto, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, Stockton and Visalia. None were new entries on the list of offenders.

Elsewhere in the nation, most of the 37 new violators were cities in the Northeast, which bore the brunt of last year’s unusually hot summer. Hot, dry, stagnant weather contributes to the formation of excessive quantities of ozone.

While the nation’s ozone problem appeared to worsen last year, the EPA noted that progress has been made in the number of cities violating federal standards for carbon monoxide, a poisonous gas emitted by automobiles.

While four new areas, including San Diego, were added to the list of cities with excessive levels of carbon monoxide, 12 former offenders were found to be no longer in violation. Carbon monoxide levels have been decreasing nationally by a rate of 4% a year, the EPA said.

Plan Introduced

EPA officials used the report’s release as an occasion to tout the Administration’s clean-air plan, which was formally introduced in the House Thursday.

Although it initially was praised by environmentalists, the proposal has come under fire as an attempt to weaken regulation of auto emissions and allow delays in implementation of plans to reduce air pollution. Democrats have submitted their own proposal for consideration.

“The President’s bill has been subject to a whole series of unfair and totally biased attacks,” said William G. Rosenberg, assistant EPA administrator for air quality. “The bill guarantees clean air with the most cost-effective measures.”

The Administration bill classifies areas based on their ozone and carbon monoxide levels. Los Angeles and the three other cities are classified as “severe” violators.