Officials Hope Drop in Smog Continues : Environment: County air district, trying to meet a federal deadline, cites trend of fewer unhealthful days.

As the air pollution season begins in Ventura County this week, authorities are hoping the dramatic drop in smoggy days during recent years will continue, making clean air attainable by the target year of 2005.

While unfavorable weather this year could still send ozone levels climbing, especially in pollution-prone Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks and Ojai, officials point to a long-term trend of fewer unhealthful days.

The county’s air pollution levels violated the federal health standard for ozone on 122 days in 1974, 45 days in 1984 and only 13 days in 1993, said William Mount, deputy air pollution control officer in Ventura County. In addition, he said, peak ozone levels dropped by 42% during that time.

“The trend over the long term is unmistakably down, and clearly that is because emissions have been reduced,” Mount said. “That’s progress.”

Under the federal Clean Air Act, the county has until 2005 to reduce the number of days considered unhealthful to no more than three in a three-year period.

In Ventura County, May through October is considered the period most prone to smog, which develops when emissions from cars and industry mix in sunlight to produce ozone. Hot, sunny days when winds are light are typically the worst, as pollutants are trapped near the ground.

Inland valleys--such as Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley and the Ojai Valley--are most susceptible to high levels of ozone. Coastal areas usually have low levels because ocean breezes blow smog inland.

A nearly invisible gas, ozone damages lungs and aggravates respiratory illnesses. The chronically ill and elderly are advised to stay indoors when the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District predicts high ozone levels.

With last month’s unusual weather pattern, district meteorologist Kent Field said it is impossible to tell what the smog season will bring this year.

“We’ve seen a lot of low clouds and fog in April, and we usually don’t get that until mid-May,” he said. “So whether it will be a hot summer with a lot of ozone or a cool and cloudy one, it’s hard to tell.”

Even with reductions in pollution, the county is still designated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a region with a “severe” air-quality problem, a category surpassed only by the “extreme” rating assigned to the Los Angeles Basin.

The severe rating in Ventura County has prompted intervention by the EPA, which is drawing up a Federal Implementation Plan with stiff control measures to further rid the air of ozone. Unlike the local air district, the EPA can regulate emissions from pesticides, cars, commercial trucks, trains, planes and boats.

The agency’s draft plan contains several proposed pollution control measures that industry has attacked as economically devastating. Among them is a proposal to require industry to reduce emissions by 25% by 2005, regardless of whether the business has already cut emissions by installing modern pollution controls.

The Ventura County Air Pollution Control District, which will issue its own 10-year blueprint for smog reduction in November, is working with local business and industry groups to determine which local and federal measures they could most easily accept.

“We are trying to build consensus,” Mount said. “We’re working to come up with a combination of federal and local controls to minimize the economic impacts and still meet the goals.”

Marc Charney, a lawyer who is president of the Ventura County Economic Development Assn., praised district officials for working with industry.

“The Air Pollution Control District recognizes that many of the measures proposed in the Federal Implementation Plan just won’t work here, and that the results could be disastrous to the community,” he said. “They could also be impossible or very difficult for the APCD to enforce.”

The EPA will hold public hearings on its plan in July. The Ventura County district is scheduled to issue its draft plan in November.

Cleaner Air Air pollution in Ventura County has decreased dramatically in recent years, as evidenced by the number of days the county’s air violated federal health standards for ozone.

Number of days Year standard exceeded 1984 45 1985 44 1986 59 1987 31 1988 55 1989 46 1990 18 1991 33 1992 10 1993 13

Source: Ventura County Air Pollution Control District