AQMD Votes for Controls on ‘Fugitive Dust’ : Environment: Backers say antipollution regulation will save lives. Construction industry claims that jobs will be lost.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District approved a regulation Friday to dramatically cut “fugitive dust” pollution, which authorities have linked to as many as 1,600 deaths each year in the Southland.

Fugitive dust, also known as particulate pollution, is more lethal than ozone and is the only pollutant for which increased levels have been linked to higher death rates, said Melvin D. Zeldin, an AQMD program supervisor, during a contentious four-hour public hearing on the new regulation.

The biggest source of particulate pollution is the road dust stirred up by cars. The construction industry is the second-worst offender.

The regulation, passed on a 7-4 vote by the district’s governing board, will not tackle general road dust problems, but it will have a direct effect on the construction industry’s landfill operators, cement makers and rock crushers.

Construction representatives raised the greatest objections, telling the AQMD board that the regulation would cause job loss in the beleaguered industry.

“If (the regulation) is accepted the way it is written today, it will cost jobs,” said Chris Higgins, financial officer with the E.L. Yeager Construction Co. in Riverside. “It affects thousands and thousands of jobs. There are too many uncertainties that are very substantial” in the rule.

The regulation, which goes into effect next February, has two major components. The first requires industries such as construction to take measures to mitigate dust pollution whenever winds exceed 25 m.p.h. Such measures include treating graded areas with water or chemical stabilizers, wetting down stockpiled asphalt and dirt or--if those measures do not work--stopping operations.

The second component requires large operations that may generate significant amounts of dust to implement dust-monitoring programs or submit a dust control program to the district.

Higgins and other construction industry representatives took exception to a study by a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency epidemiologist, which was widely quoted during the hearings.

According to the study, particulate pollution is responsible for 60,000 deaths each year nationwide. A further study pegged the death toll at 1,600 in the area regulated by the AQMD, which includes Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties and the non-desert parts of San Bernardino County.

Fine particle pollution “is related to respiratory illness,” Zeldin told the AQMD board. “It can lodge in the lungs and create scar tissue that can impair lung functions. It is more severe from a health standpoint than any (other pollution) we deal with.”

High-wind measures are expected to be used six days each year in Los Angeles County, five in Orange County, 25 in Riverside County, and 23 in San Bernardino County.

The new rule is expected to reduce particulate pollution as much as 10% and cost $9 million a year to comply with.

The regulation “is a very big deal” said Joel Schwartz, staff scientist for the environmental group Coalition for Clean Air. “Particulate pollution definitely kills people.”