EPA Plan Is 1st Step Toward Cleaner Air : Pollution: A strict smog-reduction proposal, the result of a 1988 lawsuit by Citizens to Preserve the Ojai, mainly targets gasoline production and quality.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday proposed an ozone-reduction plan described as an important first step toward cutting in half the brown layer of smog that blankets inland portions of Ventura County about 50 days a year.

The strict new plan--the result of a 1989 settlement of a lawsuit between the EPA and Citizens to Preserve the Ojai--calls for oil companies to change the refining process for gasoline sold during high-smog summer months so the county can begin to meet federal Clean Air Act standards, perhaps by 1995.

The EPA plan, also proposed in July for the Los Angeles Basin, would result in the sale of gasoline that burns cleaner and with less evaporation, federal officials said.

The plan also requires that filters be installed at the openings of gas tanks of motor vehicles to absorb vapors that would otherwise escape into the air.

“It is a first step,” said Al Zemsky, an EPA spokesman in San Francisco.

While gasoline refiners complained about the proposed changes when they were announced for Los Angeles in July, “these core measures are within the realm of practicality,” Zemsky said.

However, the “major thrust” of the EPA’s plan to cut ozone emissions locally will be unveiled in June, Zemsky said. “Then you’ll be looking at measures that might impose some degree of economic hardship” on the public, he said.

He would not elaborate.

Ventura County now violates federal standards for ozone, a primary component of smog, an average of 50 days a year and more-stringent state standards 130 days a year, county officials said. Air pollutants in the county are otherwise within federal guidelines.

Vehicles cause about 50% of the ozone in Ventura County. But the new federal plan would also require greater restrictions on a variety of other polluters if it is adopted as expected by the EPA next summer.

For example, pollutants from sources such as paints and auto body refinishing would be restricted.

An existing moratorium on the development of heavy industry in Ventura County would also remain and be broadened, Zemsky said.

Local reaction to the EPA proposal was upbeat.

“It’s basically what we’ve expected. It looks good so far,” said Jeff Alford, attorney for the Santa Barbara-based Environmental Defense Center. The center, representing Citizens to Preserve the Ojai, sued the EPA in 1988 to force the agency to devise a plan to bring Ventura County within federal ozone guidelines.

Bill Mount, a manager at the county Air Pollution Control District, said he likes the EPA approach of requiring oil refiners to produce cleaner-burning fuels.

“These are the kinds of things that make a lot of sense for the EPA to do on a regional or statewide basis,” Mount said.

Under the 1989 court settlement, the county and EPA have been working together, Mount said. The county is preparing local pollution-control rules that will complement the EPA’s when they are considered together in June.

Some local rules already have been changed to accommodate the overall plan, Mount said, including restrictions on emissions from oil fields and power plants.

In addition, the county will soon begin notifying large employers--those with 100 workers or more--that they must submit plans to reduce the number of commuter trips their employees make, Mount said.

In June, the EPA will decide what additional measures must be considered to ensure that the county can one day comply with federal law, Zemsky said.

The public can comment on the plan in hearings in Ventura on Jan. 30.

Copies of the proposed plan and background materials are available for public review at the county government center in Ventura.

While Zemsky said that federal standards may be attainable here by the mid-1990s, Mount estimated it will take at least 10 years.

“We’re talking about 40% to 50% reductions, which is very difficult to do, especially with the growth in this area,” Mount said. “It’s not as though there are these unregulated sources we can go out and shut down. It’s going to take a lot of new technology, a lot of electric vehicles.”