Southland Agency Is Criticized for Easing Smog Goals

The Clinton administration’s top air quality official criticized the Southland’s smog agency for planning to avoid extra measures for reducing microscopic particles of pollution, calling it a shortsighted and imprudent way to protect public health.

Mary Nichols, an assistant administrator at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said the region’s new anti-smog plan should be altered to take into account tougher health standards for particulates that are about to be imposed nationally.

Last week the South Coast Air Quality Management District staff announced that proposed measures for reducing ozone, the main ingredient of smog, will also eliminate enough particulates in the Los Angeles region to meet current health limits. That means additional steps for vehicles and industry that had long been anticipated--especially costly and controversial rules aimed at diesel exhaust--are now considered unnecessary.

Nichols, in an interview with The Times, called the AQMD’s conclusion a “bombshell.” The public and business community in Southern California will be lulled into thinking that the AQMD’s new plan cures the area’s severe particulate problem when it does not, she said.

By failing to take into account the EPA’s intent to focus on smaller sizes of particles, the regional plan will soon be obsolete and fail to sufficiently protect the public, she said.

“We are concerned about the policy implications,” said Nichols, a former Los Angeles environmentalist and chairwoman of the California Air Resources Board. “If the district spends a lot of time on the plan and then EPA steps in with a new standard, that would paint us as the bad guys, even though we’ve been very upfront about this from the very beginning.”

AQMD officials acknowledge that their new draft smog plan will be far too weak to achieve health requirements that the EPA expects to propose in November. Air in Riverside in 10 years will still contain up to 5 1/2 times more of the fine particles than the limits the EPA staff has recommended.

But the AQMD officials said it would be premature and unwise for the region to base its sweeping smog strategy on a decision that the federal agency has not yet made. The situation may change, especially if a new administration is in the White House before a more stringent standard becomes official next spring.

“I felt there was no legal basis to tell my board to adopt a plan to meet a standard that doesn’t exist,” said AQMD executive officer James Lents. “We think the plan will have to be tightened up, but we think the appropriate way to handle that is when a new standard is put on the books.”

Lents said he will consider EPA’s concerns before the plan is brought to the air board for adoption in three months.

“This is just a draft plan out on the table and we will listen to people. Maybe we can develop a pseudo-plan [for reducing more particulates] by November,” he said. “EPA’s an important enough player that we give what they say a lot of weight.”

EPA Administrator Carol Browner, under a federal court order, must propose a new national standard for particulates by Nov. 29 and make it official in June.

Under the current standards, particles of pollution measuring less than 10 microns--a fraction of the width of a human hair--must be brought below certain concentrations. But the EPA is expected to add limits for much finer particles--under 2.5 microns.

An emphasis on the ultra-fine particles will have a dramatic impact on what sources of pollution must be regulated in Southern California. The smaller ones come almost entirely from combustion--largely nitrates from cars and trucks--while the coarser ones are mainly road dust.

The EPA wants to emphasize cleanup of the finest particles because the latest medical research shows that they pose the most serious health danger. Many studies have linked them to a substantial increase in premature deaths due to cardiac and respiratory ailments.

Nichols said the AQMD’s decision to observe the old standard is legal for now. But the earlier the Los Angeles region focuses on the smaller particles, she said, the better for public health as well as for industries that seek certainty in preparing for pollution limits.

Cleaning up particulates is an expensive endeavor, perhaps costing billions of dollars per year, and the AQMD has found it politically unpalatable to adopt a tougher plan. The agency two years ago proposed a set of stringent particulate measures, but dropped them after a protest led by Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, who feared that they would harm the city’s port, airport and various industries.

The AQMD’s decision about particulates is a welcome relief for many businesses. But environmentalists agree with Nichols.

Under the AQMD’s plan, Riverside residents in 2006 will breathe air with small particles reaching a daily average concentration of 98 micrograms--while the EPA staff has recommended a health target between 18 and 65.

The AQMD cannot simply wait to develop a smog plan until the EPA’s new standards are set in June. California under federal law must adopt a statewide particulates plan by February, so the AQMD board expects to vote on its portion in October or November.

Lents said his agency will still have plenty of time to craft more rules after new standards are set. New plans would be due in 2000 and EPA may grant regions until 2012 to reduce the smaller particles.

“We’re not trying to make EPA the bad guy on the new standard. We’re the first to say if there’s a health problem, the standard needs to be set to protect the public,” Lents said.