EPA to Offer Deal on Pollution Cutbacks : Environment: Firms that make early cuts in toxic emissions would be given an extra six years to comply with the new Clean Air Act.

The Environmental Protection Agency said Monday that it plans to offer American companies an extra six years to comply with the new Clean Air Act if they first make dramatic cuts in their emissions of toxic chemicals believed responsible for 1,500 to 3,000 cancer deaths each year.

The proposal is designed to begin action against some of the most dangerous air pollutants while federal environmental officials continue the complex and lengthy task of writing the standards and regulations that eventually will set mandatory timetables for abating emissions of 189 different chemicals.

EPA Administrator William K. Reilly predicted that the program will attract significant industry participation and “achieve major reductions of toxic emissions . . . far earlier than we would otherwise.”

It is expected to take several years for the EPA to put standards in place for all American industry. And, in passing the Clean Air Act last year, Congress provided for a voluntary program in advance of mandatory controls.

Announcing the specifics Monday, EPA officials said that companies which reduce emissions of gaseous toxics by 90% and toxic particulates by 95% before Jan. 1, 1994, will be eligible for a six-year extension in meeting the mandatory standards when they are published.

Under the plan, companies will be given flexibility in selecting the chemical pollutants they choose to reduce voluntarily and which of their facilities they wish to include in the program. But once they formally undertake the voluntary reduction, they will become subject to federal enforcement.

To prevent the voluntary program from focusing on pollutants of little concern, the EPA is establishing a point system, which gives extra credit for reducing 35 especially dangerous cancer-causing chemicals, including dioxin, asbestos, chromium, beryllium and arsenic compounds.

A number of chemical and petroleum companies already have expressed an interest in making some voluntary reductions under the program, Michael Shapiro, EPA deputy assistant administrator, told reporters as the plan was unveiled Monday. Last year’s massive clean air package mandates a 10-year program to implement “maximum achievable control technology” to combat the emission of the 189 pollutants. To be eligible for the extension, companies must enter the voluntary program before next November.

Environmentalists’ initial response to the proposal was positive, though guarded.

“If a company makes genuine early cuts in its toxic emissions, then both the public and the company will be winners,” said David Doniger of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

But, he said, the proposed rule contains “significant loopholes that could let companies get something for nothing and leave the public exposed to more, not less, toxic pollution.” If the loopholes are not closed, he said, his organization will consider legal action to force the EPA to close them.

Specifically, he said there is a possibility that companies can gain credit for voluntary reductions on the basis of their own estimates, without presenting any proof of emission levels. It is also possible that commitments will not be enforceable.

It is estimated that American industry now discharges some 2.5 billion pounds of toxic air pollutants into the atmosphere each year.