Local Clean-Air Coalition Cheers EPA Endorsement

Calling it a key step toward clearing Ventura County’s skies of smog, local business and government officials Monday praised the federal government’s endorsement of local and state smog-reduction plans.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday tentatively approved California’s air cleanup strategy, which includes a series of local smog rules inspired by a coalition of Ventura County environmentalists, business leaders and government experts.

“This is the first time in our 25-year history that EPA has fully approved a clean-air plan for Ventura County,” said Scott Johnson, planning manager for the county’s Air Pollution Control District. “We are very happy.”

Janet Dillon, who represented the local business community in negotiations over local smog rules, said she was “jubilant” that the EPA endorsed the local plan after two years of review.

Stan Greene, president of the environmental group Citizens to Protect the Ojai, was more circumspect about the value of the master plan to crack down on the remaining local sources of smog.

“We need to have a plan, and so getting one through is good,” he said. “But we don’t know whether this plan works. We’ll have to see what progress is made.”

The EPA’s decision is the latest step in a long-running effort for Ventura County to meet federal health standards for ozone, the main component for smog. The county’s proposal was approved last year by state officials as one of the components of a statewide plan. Six other jurisdictions, including the Los Angeles Basin, also provided local anti-smog rules.

Over the years, the county’s Air Pollution Control District has tightened controls on most of the biggest air polluters in the county and helped reduce the number of days the county has violated health standards, which are outlined by the Clean Air Act.

In 1974, for instance, the county had more than 120 days of unhealthful levels of ozone, which can damage lung tissue and sensitize the lungs to other irritants. Last year, that number dropped to 23 days.

Under the plan given the nod by the EPA, county air pollution authorities will try to further reduce fumes from paints and solvents. And they will crack down on emissions that leak from oil and gas pipelines in the county’s extensive oil fields.

These were some of the solutions that county officials came up with after working closely with business leaders in the now-defunct Council on Economic Vitality. Environmentalists joined the effort, hoping that some progress in air cleanup would be better than none, given the anti-regulatory mood of lawmakers in Washington and Sacramento.

“This local plan probably does as much as can be done right now,” said Greene, whose group has repeatedly gone to federal court to force tighter anti-smog rules in the county.

County officials are quick to point out that they have no jurisdiction over the largest remaining sources of air pollutants: cars, trucks, buses and pesticides sprayed in agricultural fields.

The statewide smog plan has provisions for reducing emissions from these sources and others.

But state officials note that the statewide plan goes only so far. Its success depends on the U.S. EPA setting tough emission standards for jets, interstate trucks, construction and farm equipment, trains and ships.

The EPA, which has been under fire from conservatives in Congress, has yet to take those controversial steps.

That has prompted environmental groups elsewhere in California to consider another lawsuit against the EPA for approving a state smog plan that cannot meet requirements of the Clean Air Act.

Such a lawsuit is likely to ensnare the local air cleanup plan, too, because it is a part of the overall state plan.

* CALIFORNIA’S PLAN

President Clinton lauds state’s clean-air strategy, which aims at healthful air within 15 years. A1