AQMD Leads Effort to Share Smog Data : Clean air: The agency teams up with industry to develop technology, which will be made available to small businesses.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District is teaming up with Southern California Edison, the California Manufacturers’ Assn. and five aerospace companies to spend $3.2 million to develop clean-air technology that will be provided free to small businesses in Southern California.

“Having the air district and the manufacturing association working together, that’s sort of miraculous,” said Jack Kyser, chief economist at the Economic Development Corp. of Los Angeles County.

“There are still a lot of technological problems in this move to clean up the air,” Kyser added.

As the AQMD has tightened air pollution regulations, smaller businesses have been particularly hard-hit in trying to convert to less-polluting equipment and materials.

Some of those companies have had difficulty simply rounding up information about how to comply with the new rules. Larger companies have environmental specialists and other staff to handle such matters.

The new cooperative venture “will actually be a significant help to small businesses,” said Lynn Reaser, chief economist at First Interstate Bankcorp.

“But of greater significance,” Reaser added, “there is a pro-business message from the action--and those have been fairly few and far between” from the AQMD.

Many small businesses, such as machine shops and metal-fabricating companies, have struggled financially during the recession, Reaser pointed out, and have had difficulty meeting the cost of complying with the clean-air rules.

Business groups have strongly criticized the AQMD in the past, saying it needs to be more “user-friendly” with the industries it regulates. The district recently has taken steps to ease the friction, particularly with smaller businesses.

The joint project, announced Thursday, also involves General Dynamics, Northrop Corp., Rockwell International, Rohr Inc. and TRW Inc., which have agreed to donate some of their existing data, perform new research and share costs with the AQMD.

The project “comes from the realization that we have a lot of that data already here, and there was no reason not to let it out,” said William T. George, a spokesman for the manufacturers association.

The aerospace industry has already held a few informal meetings to arrange the transfer of technology to smaller companies.

This effort, jointly funded by the air district and the aerospace firms, will sponsor 20 research projects over the next 18 months.

Databases and technical reports needed by businesses will be distributed free and explained in seminars.

If successful, George said, the idea could be extended.

One project specifically cited will develop low ozone-forming solvents, adhesive materials and solders.