EPA Backs Away From Cleanup of County Air : Environment: Local officials say the U.S. agency’s move will not slow progress toward reducing pollution.

In a decision that has sparked protests from local environmentalists, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has concluded that it no longer has responsibility for complying with a federal court order to clean up Ventura County air.

In compliance with a court order in a 1989 lawsuit settlement between the EPA and Citizens to Preserve the Ojai, the EPA had released a proposed plan in October to bring Ventura County air up to federal health standards.

But new amendments to the federal Clean Air Act no longer require the EPA to implement that plan in Ventura County, said Wallace Woo, chief of the EPA’s state liaison office in San Francisco.

“We wish we had the liberty to create law to clean up the air as soon as possible,” he said. “But we have to have the legal grounds to back us up.”

Stanley Greene, president of the Citizens to Preserve the Ojai, said the EPA’s interpretation of the Clean Air Act amendments could slow the county’s progress toward cleaner air. He said his group will appeal any ruling that lets the EPA off the hook.

“I think they are breaking faith,” he said.

While Greene protested the move, county officials said it will have little real impact on efforts to reduce air pollution locally.

Richard H. Baldwin, Ventura County’s air pollution control officer, said the EPA move could take away some of his weapons against air pollution, but added that it will not slow the county’s progress toward cleaning up the air.

“The EPA does not want to get involved with the work of developing strategies on local plans,” he said. “But the state has the authority to require cleaner gas, so now it’s up to me to encourage the state to do that.”

Baldwin is already working on a statewide task force to develop cleaner pesticides and said he would work to speed a state requirement for cleaner-burning gasoline.

On Jan. 9, U.S. District Judge Harry L. Hupp in Los Angeles granted the EPA permission to withdraw a similar court-ordered plan for the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which covers Los Angeles, Riverside, Orange and San Bernardino counties.

EPA officials said they will decide next week if they will go back to court for permission to withdraw the Ventura plan, or whether to declare the Ventura issue moot as a result of the decision on the South Coast plan. The arguments would be the same and would be argued before the same judge in the same court, Woo said.

The Citizens to Preserve the Ojai lawsuit stemmed from a federal requirement that all air pollution control districts demonstrate that their jurisdictions would meet health standards by 1987. Ventura County and three other California districts issued plans that showed air quality would improve, but not enough to meet the standards by 1987.

A federal judge ordered the EPA to find ways to develop a better local plan. The draft of the plan released in October was to be final in June.

The plan would have required oil companies to develop cleaner-burning fuel for sale during peak smoggy summer months. It also required the installation of filters over the openings of gas tanks on motor vehicles to absorb vapors that contribute to air pollution.

The plan also would have required manufacturers to reformulate pesticides to reduce emissions contained in their spreading agents.