Air Quality Board Fears Loss of Funds

It takes money to fight air pollution and members of the Ventura County Air Pollution Control Board are concerned that they will soon be going to battle with less cash.

A government program under consideration by the Environmental Protection Agency would lump together federal money that the state receives for environmental programs and funnel it through Sacramento, where it would then be divvied out to local communities.

For the past 24 years, the county has received tens of millions of dollars directly from the federal government to monitor and fight air pollution.

The Air Pollution Control Board likes it that way. Local air quality officials fear the state would try to grab some of Ventura County’s money.

“The state has an unfortunate history of taking federal money en route to the counties and keeping it,” said Supervisor Susan K. Lacey, a member of the pollution control board. “When they’re short budget money, they tend to reach into our pockets and take it. We don’t want that to happen with these funds.”

The board relies heavily on federal money to pay for air quality monitoring and numerous other programs that ensure Ventura County breathes increasingly cleaner air. This year, federal money accounts for 16.5%, or $1,055,399, of the district’s budget of nearly $6.4 million. Next year’s budget will not be affected by the EPA’s proposed changes. It’s the following year that concerns the district board.

Under the EPA’s proposed guidelines, the state could redistribute some of the county’s clean-air money to another program, such as those that clean water or handle solid waste. That would put the county in the difficult position of receiving fewer dollars to meet the same strict federal clean-air standards.

A funding loss would result in a reduction or elimination of services and increased fees, said Richard H. Baldwin, district control officer.

“The air-monitoring program is the most vulnerable because there is no fee attached to it,” Baldwin said.

Six stations now monitor county air quality 24 hours a day. “It could also cut into enforcement and long-range planning,” Baldwin said.

That’s not something the county can afford to do, said Stan Greene of Citizens to Preserve the Ojai. “We can’t afford to be lax about air quality. Our county is among the worst in the state and the country.”

The proposed change in EPA funding is part of the Clinton Administration’s Reinventing Government effort.

“The EPA is really under the gun to find ways to streamline itself and be more flexible,” said Gary D. Bass, director of OMB Watch, a budgetary watchdog group in Washington.

“The idea is to make government more cost effective and efficient by giving the states the flexibility to make their own decisions,” said Arnold Robbins, an EPA spokesman in San Francisco. “The states would be free to spend the money for environmental programs according to their own priorities rather than the EPA telling them how to spend it.”

But the county’s concerns are legitimate, Robbins said. “It is possible that the county might not get the money it is currently getting,” he said. “Obviously this is a concern and will need to be worked out.

“This proposal is still in the discussion stage and nothing has been set in stone. It’s possible the state might get the money but with some more strings attached.”

Board member Lacey insists there’s no reason to tamper with the county’s federal funding system at all.

“It’s working fine the way it is now,” she said. “We need to keep the state as a middleman out of it. They’ll only make it worse.”

The board Tuesday will discuss plans to generate support both in Congress and with the EPA to protect the county’s federal air pollution funds.