AQMD Says Utility Merger Would Increase L.A. Smog

Local air quality officials have added their voices to the chorus arguing that smog in Los Angeles will get much worse if Southern California Edison Co. merges with San Diego Gas & Electric Co.

The proposed merger “has the potential to generate significant adverse air quality impacts” in the South Coast Air Basin as a result of Edison’s plan to shift electric power generating from San Diego to the Los Angeles area, the South Coast Air Quality Management District said in a letter to the state Public Utilities Commission dated Monday and released Friday.

The AQMD reached its conclusions while commenting on the PUC’s draft environmental impact report, which was prepared as part of the PUC’s deliberations on the proposed $2.5-billion merger. The air quality agency joins several other critics, including state Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp, San Diego city officials and air quality agencies in San Diego and Ventura.

The air quality district also questioned the adequacy of the PUC’s environmental report--especially the conclusion that the merger would result in net reductions in smog in Southern California as a whole.

“Net emissions increases will occur in three of the four air basins analyzed, with the most significant increases occurring in the South Coast Air Basin,” wrote Barry R. Wallerstein, the district’s director of planning. That basin includes Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties and the urban portions of San Bernardino County.

The AQMD called for further study of the merger’s air quality effects, including possibly the preparation of a supplemental environmental impact report, said Jack Broadbent, the agency’s planning manager.

“We feel that the EIR does not adequately address the air quality impacts in a number of areas,” he said. “Specifically, we feel that they . . . need to do additional analysis . . . and we feel that they need a definitive package of proposed mitigation measures.”

Under the proposed merger, Edison would shift generation of electricity from older San Diego power plants to more efficient Edison plants in the Los Angeles area.

Meanwhile, Edison sent its own letter to the PUC this week, arguing that the EIR overstated the air, water and air pollution effects of the proposed merger. Edison added that any effects could be mitigated “at a cost that will not appreciably diminish the financial benefits of the merger.” The EIR estimated that it would cost about $65 million to mitigate the effects, a figure Edison disputes.

“As we have previously said, we are talking with the (South Coast Air Quality Management) district, and we are quite confident we can reach an agreement with the district on an appropriate mitigation package,” Edison spokesman Lewis M. Phelps said Friday.

In its comments, the AQMD cited concerns over possible increases in the levels of nitrogen oxide, a precursor of ozone in smog, and sulfur oxide, another pollutant. Los Angeles is the only area in the nation that still violates federal standards for nitrogen oxide, the district said.

Edison’s electrical generating plants are already the single largest producers of nitrogen oxides in the South Coast Air Basin.

When the draft environmental impact report was released in April, Paul Downey, a spokesman for San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor, said: “This has long been a fight for local control over our utility’s future. Basically, San Diego would be subjected to the whims of (Edison’s) bureaucrats sitting up in Rosemead. It’s saying, ‘If L.A. has a smoggy day, so will we.’ ”

Smog blown into San Diego County from Los Angeles’ air basin was responsible for 41 of the 55 days last year when San Diego was in violation of federal ozone standards.

The period for comment on the draft expired this week; the PUC is aiming at a ruling on the merger by early next year.

Preparation of a supplement to the report, as proposed by the South Coast AQMD, could delay the process several more months.

Times staff writer Greg Johnson in San Diego contributed to this story.