Judge Lets EPA Withdraw Additional Smog Controls

U.S. District Judge Harry L. Huff in Los Angeles granted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency permission to withdraw a controversial plan imposing additional smog controls on the South Coast Air Basin. In a decision Wednesday, Huff agreed with the EPA that it no longer is required to implement the plan because of amendments to the federal Clean Air Act approved last year by Congress. Among other things, the amendments give local air quality authorities more time to clean the air through local regulations.

The EPA’s motion was opposed by the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the Coalition for Clean Air and the Sierra Club. They argued that federal smog controls were needed if the region--Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties--is to meet federal clean air standards by the year 2007.