EPA Proposal to Toughen Air Quality Rules Faces Strong Opposition

On the eve of a major Senate hearing, a senior Republican senator with strong environmental credentials said that the Clinton administration’s proposal to toughen national air quality standards is too harsh, signaling that the plan is in serious trouble in Congress.

The comments by Sen. John H. Chafee (R-R.I.), chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, are the strongest indication yet that the Environmental Protection Agency will come under strong pressure from the Republican-led Congress to modify its proposal.

At the heart of Chafee’s message is his concern that, if the proposal is not modified, conservative senators will try to weaken the underlying legislation--the 1970 Clean Air Act, one of the nation’s broadest, most successful environmental laws.

Opponents of the new standards said that they are based on questionable science and even a lack of data. They also warn that they would add billions of dollars to industry costs and force some regions to impose such strict regulations that smoky backyard barbecues and gasoline-powered lawnmowers would be outlawed.

The EPA said that years of research support its decision and that the new standards would save 20,000 people a year from premature death from respiratory illness.

The competing claims will be at the center of a hearing today when Carol Browner, the EPA administrator, testifies on the air standards for the first time before Chafee’s committee.

The EPA proposal would lower the standard for ozone, or smog--a standard that the Los Angeles basin and many other regions still do not meet regularly--to 0.08 parts per million when averaged over eight hours from the current 0.12 parts per million average over a single hour.

The plan also would set new standards for particulate matter, or soot. Pieces 28 times smaller than the width of a human hair can lodge in the lungs and reduce their capacity.

Under the proposal, particles 2.5 microns or larger could not exceed 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air in a day, or an average of 15 micrograms per cubic meter annually.

Under existing law, the threshold is 10 microns. Particles less than 10 microns cannot exceed 150 micrograms per cubic meter of air in a day or 50 micrograms on an annual average.

The EPA developed the proposal under a court order and has until July 19 to prepare final standards. Congress can vote to approve the proposal, change it or ignore it--in which case the final standards would take effect without changes.