Supervisors Alter Stance, Back Merger of Utilities : Air quality: Southern California Edison promises to cut pollutants to offset those generated by the merger.

Despite objections from environmentalists, the Board of Supervisors Tuesday approved an agreement that virtually removes the county’s opposition to the proposed merger of Southern California Edison and San Diego’s chief power utility.

Three weeks ago, the supervisors had threatened to battle the merger between Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric unless serious flaws in a state study of the deal were corrected.

In a letter to the state Public Utilities Commission, board Chairwoman Madge L. Schaefer charged that the study “may significantly underestimate the expected air quality impacts in Ventura County.”

But Tuesday, the supervisors voted unanimously to sign an agreement requiring Edison to reduce certain pollutants by specified percentages, more than compensating for increases expected as a result of the merger.

This, in effect, means that the board is going along with the merger, board members said after Tuesday’s supervisors meeting.

The pollution mitigation standards agreed upon Tuesday are based on the same figures that were criticized May 29 by the board and Air Pollution Control Officer Richard H. Baldwin.

“I’m more comfortable with the model those figures are based on today than I was three weeks ago,” Baldwin said, explaining his endorsement of the agreement.

Schaefer agreed, saying, “I think this is the best deal we could get. We’re requiring Edison to more than make up for the pollution increases that will be caused by the merger.”

Under the merger, Edison’s generating plants at Ormond Beach and Mandalay in south Oxnard are expected to pour an additional 2,885 tons of nitrogen oxide into the county’s air over the next 17 years. Production at these plants is scheduled to rise while that at less efficient facilities in San Diego would be curtailed.

On the whole, net emissions are expected to increase in the early years of the merger but decrease after that.

In the agreement approved Tuesday, Edison would reduce overall nitrogen oxide emissions at its plants and elsewhere in the county by at least 45% more than the increase predicted in the PUC’s draft environmental impact report. Reactive organic compounds would be reduced by 2,300% and carbon monoxide by 500% over the 17-year period. The deal must still be approved by the commission when it rules on the merger.

Environmentalists at the board meeting argued that the county should delay reaching terms with Edison at least until after the final environmental impact report is issued June 29.

“I don’t think it’s prudent legislation to gamble on a matter this serious,” said Russ Baggerly, executive director of the Environmental Coalition.

Critics questioned Edison’s plan to reduce smog by helping businesses replace internal-combustion engines with electric units. “They won’t even tell us where these engines are located,” said Baggerly’s wife, Pat, an Environmental Coalition director.

She said after the meeting that “the supervisors have sold our air. They didn’t even listen to the environmentalists.”

Michael M. Hertel, Edison’s environmental affairs manager, told the supervisors that the agreement “would be the equivalent of removing 12,000 cars driving 15,000 miles a year from the county’s streets.”