Senators OK Tough House Clean Air Provisions : Legislation: Revisions target smaller polluters such as bakeries. But the conferees still face many unresolved issues and a tight timetable.

In a major compromise, Senate negotiators on Friday accepted tough provisions of House clean air legislation that would toughen emission controls in the nation’s smoggiest cities to include small industrial polluters such as breweries, bakeries and auto body shops.

As part of a larger accord on the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act, negotiators rejected Senate language that would have weakened the Environmental Protection Agency’s existing authority to force states to write and comply with plans to reduce pollution from industry.

Although negotiators still face a host of unresolved issues, including development of cleaner fuels and reduction of acid rain, Friday’s agreement “represents a great victory from the environmental point of view,” said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), who wrote clean air legislation in the House.

Speaking for House Republicans, Rep. Carlos J. Moorhead (R-Glendale) said the congressional negotiators “have removed some 300 pages from the table, dramatically increasing the probability that we will accomplish something (this year) that has eluded us for 13 years--passing a comprehensive revision of the Clean Air Act.”

Even though local pollution standards planned for Southern California are more stringent than those that would be imposed by the new federal legislation, the clean air amendments will have a profound impact on the Southland, officials said.

“The (federal) program is going to help California a lot,” said S. William Becker, executive director of the Assn. of Local Air Pollution Control Officials, a Washington-based organization.

“One-fourth of (California’s) pollution comes from outside the state, either through (truck and bus) transport, or with cars registered elsewhere, or with problems like consumer and commercial solvents that the federal government is going to take the first crack at,” Becker said. “It’s extremely important to California.”

Congressional staff members have been working since late May, with a break in August, to reconcile the differences between House and Senate versions of the far-reaching Clean Air Act amendments, the first major revision of the nation’s clean air laws since 1977.

Friday’s accord covers the core of the legislation--the 300-page Title I that sets air quality standards for the nation and establishes a rigid compliance program for about 100 metropolitan areas that fail to meet those standards. An estimated 150 million Americans live in communities where air quality does not meet the new standards.

Los Angeles, with the worst air in the nation, would have 20 years to meet the new federal standards for smog-forming ozone, carbon monoxide and airborne particles. The legislation would grant other cities between three and 17 years, depending on the seriousness of their air quality problems.

To meet the new standards, polluted areas are required to adopt plans to force industrial and commercial polluters to reduce emissions of hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides. In the presence of sunlight, the two compounds are the principal agents that form smog.

The compromise language continues to give EPA authority to impose a federal pollution abatement plan in areas where state and local officials fail to devise one. That power would have been greatly diluted under the Senate proposal.

Other key provisions would require the dirtiest cities to impose emission controls on smaller polluters. For example, current federal law requires even the most polluted cities to impose controls only on those industrial plants that annually spew into the air more than 100 tons of hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides. Auto assembly plants, refineries and power generating stations fall into that category.

The tougher House language would require controls in Los Angeles--the nation’s most severly polluted city--on plants that produce as few as 10 tons of pollutants each year. That could include such small sites as a printing plant, commercial bakery, brewery, dry-cleaning plant or auto body shop.

The eight next-dirtiest cities, including Chicago, New York and Houston, would be required to impose controls on plants that produce more than 25 tons a year.

Although Los Angeles already regulates small polluters, other cities with serious pollution problems do not, officials said.

Friday’s agreement also includes Title IV, which outlines procedures for granting emission permits to a broad range of industrial and commercial polluters. The compromise includes language sought by industry that would help small businesses meet the tougher permit requirements.

Despite the accord, congressional sources cautioned that there is still tough bargaining ahead. The Senate and House bills differ seriously in sections that would:

--Set tougher standards for tailpipe emissions into the next century, promote both the development of fuels cleaner than standard gasoline and automobiles, trucks and buses that can run on the cleaner fuels.

--Reduce acid rain caused by power-generating plants that burn high-sulfur coal.

--Limit the release of toxic chemicals by oil refineries, steel mills and other industrial facilities in all parts of the nation, not just in areas already suffering from pollution problems.

--Grant authority to the EPA to regulate industrial emissions from offshore oil rigs, which could significantly reduce air pollution in California cities such as Santa Barbara.

--Establish a five-year, $250-million program, strongly opposed by the Bush Administration, that would offer unemployment compensation and retraining benefits to workers who lose their jobs because of the clean air bill.

These issues must be resolved in the next few weeks if Congress is to enact the clean air amendments this year. Adjournment is scheduled for Oct. 5, but most observers believe the press of business will keep the House and Senate in session well into October.

“Time is closing in on us,” said Sen. John H. Chafee (R-R.I.), one of the Senate negotiators.