County Fears Merger May Increase Pollution : Air quality: Officials cite potential problems in a proposed union of two Southern California utilities.

Ventura County officials expressed strong concerns Wednesday over potential air pollution problems that could result from a merger of two Southern California power utilities.

At one of two public hearings held in Ventura, Susan K. Lacey, a member of the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, demanded that Southern California Edison provide offsetting reductions in pollutants for every additional ton of emissions the merger would bring to the county.

The state Public Utilities Commission holds final authority to approve and impose restrictions on the proposed merger of Edison with the smaller San Diego Gas & Electric. But Ventura County’s Air Pollution Control District must have the power to enforce the rules that the PUC imposes, Lacey said.

Edison says the merger would save the company $1.7 billion over 10 years. But the merger would shift some power production from San Diego to Ventura County, adding an average of 200 tons of pollutants to the county’s air annually over an 18-year period.

“The residents of Ventura County deserve the assurance that a merger of these utilities would not be achieved at the expense of the public health and well-being,” Lacey told the public and members of the commission during the hearing at Balboa Middle School.

Air Pollution Control District officials are now in negotiations with Edison, seeking to reach an agreement with the company on how to offset the additional nitrogen oxide pollution that Edison’s merger would bring.

If the county is successful in its negotiations with Edison or in a petition to the Public Utilities Commission, Edison could be required to provide free electric motors to replace fuel-burning engines for other segments of industry in the county unrelated to power production.

For instance, rock crushers in the county’s quarries, which now use diesel engines that produce nitrogen oxide pollution, could be converted at Edison’s expense to electric power as one way of reducing pollution, officials said.

Edison proposes to join forces with the San Diego utility, making Edison the largest public utility company in the country, spokeswoman Diane Wittenberg said. Northern California-based Pacific Gas & Electric is now the largest in the country.

Because the San Diego system is made up of largely antiquated power-producing equipment, Edison proposes to reduce production at many of the inefficient old power plants of San Diego Gas & Electric. That power production would be shifted to Edison’s more modern facilities at Ormond Beach and Mandalay Bay in Oxnard, and to other, newer Edison plants in Southern California.

According to Edison officials, that shift and the reduction through attrition of more than 1,000 employees would save the merged company $1.7 billion over 10 years. Edison promises to pass the savings to its customers, although no percentages of savings or classes of customers to receive them have yet been specified.

The shift of power production to Edison plants would bring to Ventura County an average of about 200 more tons per year of oxides of nitrogen, which form ozone pollution when mixed with other gases in sunlight.

That represents a fraction of a percent of the estimated 25,700 tons of nitrogen oxides produced every year in the county, said Richard Baldwin, Ventura County Air Pollution Control officer.

Edison argues that the increase in emissions is insignificant. The Air Pollution Control District should look instead for emission reductions from automobiles, which are the top source of air pollution in Ventura County, amounting to more than 50% of the nitrogen oxide emissions, said Michael Hertel, manager of environmental affairs for Edison.

“I think the ‘polluter pays’ principle is the right way to go about it,” Hertel said. “But it’s not fair to penalize one source disproportionately beyond what they are contributing to the problem.”

Baldwin, Lacey and others disagree. They said Ventura County already fails state and federal health standards for ozone pollution and that any additional emissions are cause for concern.

“Nitrogen oxides cause ozone and we have a very significant ozone problem in Ventura County,” Baldwin said. The county is already working on rules to reduce automobile emissions, he said.

“Because Ventura County has such a serious air quality problem, we are focusing on everything from a single car up to power plants,” Baldwin said.

The draft of the environmental impact report on the proposed merger shows that the maximum amount of emissions of nitrogen oxides the merger would bring to Ventura County would be in 1994, when the increased operations in the county would add 706 tons of nitrogen oxides to the air.

After 1996, however, the emissions levels drop drastically to 67 tons per year, and to 21 tons per year in 2007.

The drop would come as a new county regulation on electrical power generating equipment now being drafted by Baldwin and his staff would take effect.

The regulation, if approved by county supervisors, will require Edison to reduce its total emissions by 90% by 1996. Baldwin hopes to have the rule approved by the end of the year. The regulation would apply regardless of whether the merger is approved.

The meetings in Ventura are part of a series that the Public Utilities Commission is holding throughout Southern California on the proposed merger. PUC officials said a final decision on the merger is due by the end of the year.