Air-Pollution Officials Further Weaken Smog-Reduction Plan : Air: Softening the mandatory ride-sharing program pleases businesses, but stuns environmentalists.

Air-pollution officials Tuesday watered down further a compromise plan to reduce San Diego County’s smog, in a shock for environmentalists and a partial victory for business and industry.

The Air Pollution Control Board’s plan had sought to cut air pollutants by about 100 tons a day at decade’s end, largely by making businesses create ride-sharing programs for employees and placing tougher controls on industrial emissions.

But, when the plan went before the county Board of Supervisors for approval Tuesday, air pollution officials made surprising new recommendations that would make the proposal more lenient on many businesses.

Air Pollution Control Officer Richard Sommerville said “we decided to tone it down” so the anti-smog plan would be similar to those adopted in the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento, and win approval by the state Air Resources Board.

However, his call to change a plan that already had been relaxed because of private sector opposition stunned environmentalists who had reluctantly accepted the compromise.

“The pressure from the business community has been quite intense,” Diane Takvorian, executive director of the Environmental Health Coalition, said after the hearing.

“This really goes too far,” she added.

Supervisors were scheduled to vote on the plan, but delayed further hearing and action until next Wednesday at 2 p.m. However, in testimony Tuesday, it appeared that business and industry still aren’t satisfied with the smog plan.

Representatives said the plan would burden commerce with the cost and responsibility of establishing ride-sharing programs to reduce the number of workers who commute alone rather than car-pooling or taking mass transportation. Commuting by lone drivers is a major contributor to smog.

The “basic flaw” of regulating business to undertake ride-sharing programs, said Carol Gomez, project manager for Hughes Aircraft’s employee commuter program, is that “companies have no authority or control over the commuting behavior of their employees. No employee can be forced to participate in ride sharing because it is not a condition of employment.”

Further, she said that last year, Hughes spent $1 million in incentives for workers to share rides, but that the effort only slightly reduced solo commuting trips.

Dick Brown of La Mesa told supervisors that putting the ride-sharing onus on business would represent new government regulation and cost that would drive firms to other states.

“This plan was designed to eliminate jobs,” he said. “California can no longer afford to be the most stringently regulated state in the nation.”

Such testimony, with more to be heard next Wednesday, was hardly the consensus smog officials had hoped to reach in San Diego County’s effort to pass a clean-air plan.

The California Clean Air Act requires such plans in regions that fall short of state standards for smog, carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide. Although San Diego County’s air quality has improved in recent years, it still is considered poor.

Last year, smog exceeded state standards 106 days, down from 139 days in 1990 and 158 days in 1989, according to the local Air Pollution Control District. Less than 20% of the county’s smog comes from industry, and 60% is caused by vehicles.

The local smog problem is exacerbated by continuing county growth and increased vehicle travel, both factors that have been underestimated by regional planners, according to smog officials.

Officials point out that vehicle travel in 1990 was 23% higher than had been forecast (reaching 61 million miles each weekday) and the county’s population increased to nearly 2.5 million, a figure that wasn’t expected until 1995.

Making matters worse, more employees are driving alone to work rather than taking mass transit or driving with co-workers. The latest census shows that 71% of commuters drove alone to work in 1990, up from 64% in 1980.

Along came the county’s proposed smog plan, which was supposed to have been submitted to the state in June 1991 but was delayed by fierce opposition from the business sector. San Diego County is the last major area not to have completed its plan by the deadline, according to local smog officials.

The plan, before the changes proposed Tuesday, sought to reduce smog by various means.

Regulations to reduce commuter vehicle trips and miles driven would have allowed businesses with more than 10 employees to use voluntary means to meet ride-sharing goals for employees.

If the voluntary method didn’t work, businesses could then adopt government-designed ride-sharing programs. Companies would offer economic incentives to employees who share rides or take mass transit. Workers who insisted on solo commutes could end up paying to park at the job. Ultimately, a firm that refused to embrace ride-sharing programs could be fined.

Also, the plan would have made college and university students comply with regulations to limit commutes. And the hours that goods could be moved by truck would be regulated.

To further reduce industrial pollution, the plan targeted so-called “stationary sources” of pollution by seeking, among other things, new technology for power plants, less-polluting paints and stricter controls over gasoline storage tanks, dry cleaners, and fiberglass and plastics manufacturers. The proposal also would seek more control on emissions from bakeries and seek solar hot water heaters in homes.

Smog officials emphasize that such goals are somewhat general until more detailed implementation plans are prepared.

Air Pollution Control Officer Sommerville proposed several steps Tuesday to soften the plan:

* Instead of applying to businesses with more than 10 employees, the ride-sharing requirements would be imposed on firms with 100 or more workers. Further, while the original plan sought around-the-clock ride sharing for staggered work shifts, Sommerville now proposes to set only a morning peak commute period between 6 and 10.

* Regulation of student and truck travel would be made “contingency measures,” meaning rules only would be applied if the state declares that San Diego County isn’t making enough progress in reducing air pollution.

Sommerville’s proposals seemed to catch everybody by surprise, and many speakers wanted to study the changes before addressing the supervisors.

But generally, the business community has remained critical of key elements of the plan.

The Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce, for example, argues that the trip-reduction effort won’t dramatically reduce smog, and the chamber instead favors attacking the smog problem with greater enforcement of smog inspections and encouraging use of cleaner fuels.

Further, the chamber maintains the entire plan should first undergo an economic study to learn how the cumulative regulations would affect society.