Report Offers Guide for the ‘90s on How to Clean Up L.A. Air

Acknowledging that Los Angeles has the worst air quality in the country, Mayor Tom Bradley and other city officials released a report Friday outlining possible solutions for the coming decade.

A major focus of anti-pollution efforts will be attempts to heighten public awareness of contaminated air and water as well as personal garbage disposal habits, according to the report by the city’s Environmental Quality Board.

“The 90s have got to be a time of both public education and citizen participation,” said Felicia Marcus, a former member of the Environmental Quality Board who helped write the report. “People are going to have to understand that when they flush their toilets, that’s not the end of the process and their responsibility.”

The 87-page report, entitled “The State of the City’s Environment Primer,” contained little new information, but is intended as a basic resource for the public on local environmental problems and solutions. It is to be available at all branches of the Los Angeles Public Library.

The report catalogues the city’s environmental woes, beginning with “the worst regional air quality in the nation” and a continuing “plague” of sewage spills that have polluted Santa Monica Bay.

It goes on:

“The average Southern Californian’s love affair with the automobile, the lack of a clean regional mass transit system, the rapid growth in industry and population, the warm desert air, the cool ocean breezes, the surrounding mountains, all contribute to a pall of smog that hangs over the city on most days.

“The explosive economic growth and development of Los Angeles, combined with its varied, appealing geographical and physical attributes, has created a city on the verge of reaching the limits of its ability to provide its residents with clean air and water, adequate municipal services, a functioning infrastructure, and an aesthetically-pleasing environment.”

Despite the grim descriptions, neither Bradley nor the board members present at a press conference Friday would say what measures might be taken by the city.

“I don’t think I want to lay out for you the things that we’re going to have to do,” Bradley said. “It is my hope that we will carefully review and evaluate every step that must be taken as well as those things that we will suggest.”

Bradley, while conceding the city’s air is the worst in the nation, was upbeat.

“Let us not point to what is the greatest problem that we face. We’re not trying to deny any of those,” Bradley said. “I think that we are equal to any city in the country in terms of our awareness and our commitment to the environment.”

The report contains 94 recommendations on a range of environmental issues including toxic and hazardous waste, sewage and waste water, coastal and harbor pollution, and open space. Many of the recommendations call for prodding other governmental agencies into action.

One suggestion called for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health to conduct epidemiological, viral and bacterial studies to determine health risks for people who use the beaches and swim in Santa Monica Bay.

After heavy rainstorms, the city routinely is forced to dump raw sewage into the bay. Expensive projects are underway to halt the problem.

There was no economic assessment contained in the report.