Groups Join to Endorse County Plan to Cut Smog : Pollution: Environmentalists team with business and government officials in hopes of benefiting local Navy bases.

In an unprecedented show of unity, environmentalists have joined with business and government officials to urge speedy approval of Ventura County’s locally drawn smog-reduction plan, so local Navy bases will be in a better position to lure more military duties and survive base closures in the future.

Members of this new coalition agree that the local anti-smog rules will work better than federal ones at cleaning up the county’s air without harming business growth or the longevity of local military bases.

The new coalition wants the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency to approve the local plan so that the Point Mugu and Port Hueneme Navy bases can take on extra work that will be parceled out after federal officials begin choosing this spring the bases that are no longer needed.

“The county’s ability to accept new work at its bases will heavily impact the future of its two military bases, the single largest county employer,” three coalition members wrote in a recent letter to Felicia Marcus, the EPA’s Western regional administrator.

The Pentagon wants to consolidate military activities on fewer bases so that it can reduce the overhead costs that siphon dollars away from modernizing the armed services.

Ventura County officials and business leaders fear that federal air pollution rules could prohibit the bases from growing because some of the new activities might keep the county from meeting strict clean-air goals.

And if the local bases are not in a position to take on more duties, then they could be more vulnerable to being cut, said Carolyn Leavens, chairwoman of the Ventura County Economic Development Assn.

“It is essential that our bases accept more missions,” she said.

Leavens co-signed the Feb. 15 letter to the EPA with Stan Greene, president of Citizens to Preserve the Ojai, and Richard Baldwin, the county’s air pollution control officer.

The newfound unity is remarkable because Citizens to Preserve the Ojai has repeatedly gone to federal court to force tighter anti-smog rules so that Ventura County can eventually meet federal standards for ozone, the main component of smog.

“The environmental movement is maturing,” Greene said. “We recognize the need for talking and compromise as long as we have a human-health goal and we are not violating any of the law’s intentions.”

Baldwin, head of the county’s Air Pollution Control District, said his agency has spent years in the middle of a cross-fire--criticized by business leaders as being too tough on polluters and by environmentalists as being too lax.

“Now we have industry helping us try to find solutions and environmentalists are joining in,” he said. “If we can maintain that type of cooperation, my job ought to become a bit easier.”

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The three groups sent the letter a day after the EPA unveiled a new set of federal rules to clean up county skies. The EPA was forced to come up with the plan after Citizens to Preserve the Ojai and other environmental groups sued the agency in federal court in 1988.

In releasing its plan, the EPA agreed to postpone implementing the federal rules for two years. During the delay, agency officials hope to replace federal rules with the local ones--provided that the local rules accomplish the same smog reduction.

The EPA is now reviewing state and local rules to determine if they can meet federal health standards for clean air by 2005.

EPA spokesman Bill Glenn said Tuesday that the agency intends to approve the local plan as soon as possible. “We have every intention of working very hard toward that goal,” he said.

In its new plan, the EPA also decided last week to postpone rerouting ocean-going freighters farther from the Ventura County coastline to prevent exhaust from their engines from blowing on shore and contributing to the local smog problem.

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Point Mugu officials objected to the plan, saying the redirected ships would disrupt the testing of missiles and other weaponry on the base’s sea-test range, which extends across 36,000 square miles of ocean. For safety purposes, the Navy is forced to shut down missile firings when ships cross through the test area.

Local Navy boosters also objected to the EPA’s plan to change the shipping lanes, arguing that it jeopardizes the unique sea-test range--one of the best reasons to keep the Point Mugu Navy base open.

The EPA said it will defer any decision to move shipping lanes until a study on the issue is completed in August, 1997.

On Tuesday, the Pentagon is scheduled to release its recommended list of bases to close. An independent base-closing commission will review the suggestions and come up with a final list to be approved by President Clinton and Congress by fall.