EPA Unveils Air Controls for L.A. Basin

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today unveiled new air-pollution controls for the smoggy Los Angeles Basin and warned that “no-drive days” may be imposed on commuters if the region fails to meet federal clean-air standards on schedule.

But, even as the EPA took the wraps off its long-awaited plan to bolster local and state air pollution control efforts, environmentalists charged that the federal proposal accomplishes less and takes longer.

“We are discouraged that they propose another three years to meet the ozone standard and four years to comply with the carbon-monoxide standard,” said Jan Chatten-Brown, president of the Venice-based Coalition for Clean Air, which joined with the Sierra Club in successfully taking the EPA to federal court and forcing it to issue its plan.

The EPA said its no-drive day proposal would not be implemented until the year 2000 and only then as a last resort.

Commuters would be forced to give up their cars one day a week and find other means of transportation--preferably ride-sharing or mass transit--during the months of November through February based on the license plate number of their car.

The Southern California Assn. of Governments said it is “concerned” that the EPA had failed to include in its plan tougher air pollution controls on offshore oil rigs in federal waters on the outer continental shelf and a requirement that federal government agencies in the Los Angeles Basin be required to participate in ride-sharing plans just like other government agencies and private employers.

Under the regional clean-air plan adopted a year ago by the South Coast Air Quality Management District, ozone pollution--the chief ingredient of photochemical smog--would be reduced enough to meet federal clean air standards by the year 2007. The EPA would extend that to 2010.

While the AQMD plan calls for complying with the federal carbon monoxide standard by Dec. 31, 1997, the EPA is calling for a 2004 deadline, or the year 2000 at the earliest.