Accord Sets Strict Path for Smog Cleanup

Air quality officials and environmentalists announced a landmark agreement Friday that for the first time sets an exact course for cleaning up smog in the Los Angeles region for the next decade.

The agreement to settle a long-standing lawsuit means Southern Californians will be guaranteed major reductions in air pollution and specific deadlines for carrying them out each year through 2010. The South Coast Air Quality Management District has agreed to adopt a detailed set of smog-fighting rules, enforceable by a federal judge, and will have limited leeway to veer from that path.

The rules--many of them controversial with businesses--are aimed at a variety of sources, including oil refineries, aerospace plants and restaurants, targeting such diverse causes of pollution as household paints, industrial cleaning solvents and charbroilers. Vehicle emissions, which account for most of the smog in the Los Angeles Basin, are covered under a separate agreement with the state.

Only under special economic or technological conditions can the AQMD board weaken the outlined rules or the deadlines. And if it does, the board must compensate by rapidly adopting other measures that are just as effective in cutting smog.

“This settlement sets an enforceable road map for the AQMD to follow from today until our smog-free future with no off-ramps for falling behind,” said Gail Ruderman Feuer, a Natural Resources Defense Council lawyer and lead counsel for the case that three environmental groups filed against the AQMD.

Approved unanimously by the AQMD board in a closed-door session Friday, the settlement could turn out to be one of the most important decisions that the powerful agency has made in recent years because it will govern its anti-smog efforts through the next decade.

The settlement agreement will be sent next week to U.S. District Judge Harry L. Hupp, who has final authority over the case.

For 25 years, air quality regulators and environmentalists have battled in court over various smog plans required under the Clean Air Act. Both sides vowed Friday to end the long, costly feuds over the plans.

Under the deal, regardless of politics, the makeup of future AQMD boards or economic recessions, the board must follow a defined course of rules designed to ensure that residents of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties breathe air that complies with federal health standards by 2010.

“This is a very important day in the annals of air quality planning for Southern California,” said AQMD Executive Officer Barry Wallerstein. “This is good for the environment but provides flexibility for our regulated businesses and will serve the public well in years to come. This is a giant stride forward for the nation’s leading air quality improvement program.”

The AQMD promises to adopt 12 new rules over the next four years that will eliminate 48 tons of hydrocarbons from the air a day. The agency also pledges to implement without any rollbacks 15 other rules that have already been adopted to cut an additional 154 tons per day.

One of the most controversial and costly new measures will require manufacturing plants to control fumes when they operate large spray-painting equipment, beginning in 2003.

Business representatives were not a party to the secret negotiations and were surprised by Friday’s announcement. But after a meeting Friday with AQMD staff, some influential business leaders reacted favorably to the terms.

“This settlement strikes the right balance between additional environmental progress on the one hand and additional economic accountability on the other hand,” said Robert Wyman, a Latham & Watkins attorney who represents oil refineries, aerospace companies and other major manufacturers in the Los Angeles region.

Wyman said businesses are especially glad to see a provision that if a rule costs more than a specified amount, the AQMD is allowed to seek an alternative.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which has oversight over the AQMD and has been tied up in decades of litigation too, also declared the agreement a good deal for Los Angeles-area residents.

Felicia Marcus, the EPA’s regional administrator, said the federal agency will approve a new AQMD smog plan that implements the terms.

“With the logjam broken, we can all get out of the courtroom and devote more energy to the business of cleaning the air,” Marcus said.

The latest legal case dates back two years, when the major environmental groups active in local smog issues--the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Coalition for Clean Air and Communities for a Better Environment--asked a federal court to force the agency to implement 30 rules from a 1994 smog plan that had been abandoned.

Hupp had already announced his intent to rule against the AQMD and force the agency to implement the 1994 plan. Both sides say the settlement is far superior to the expected court order because everyone involved believes that the 1994 measures were impractical. The old plan included such unpopular proposals as a requirement that shopping malls and sports arenas provide ride-share programs for their patrons.

Until now, the AQMD had revised its clean air plan and proposed new rules, emission targets and deadlines every three years. That became especially problematical in 1997, when the agency came under fire for approving a plan that was far less aggressive than its 1994 plan.

Under the new agreement, the AQMD can cut more pollution every year than the provisions require but it cannot, under any conditions, eliminate less pollution.

“The people of Los Angeles and the basin have been waiting a long time for something like this,” said Augustine Eichwald of Communities for a Better Environment. “This is critical to people in our low-income communities who live next to polluters.”

The AQMD’s Wallerstein said his staff is “very comfortable that we can achieve the tons identified here and we’re optimistic we can do even better.”

The crux of the agreement comes down to the tons of pollution that must be eliminated from the region’s air.

If the judge approves the agreement, the AQMD will now be locked into eliminating 202 tons of hydrocarbons a day by 2010. That is the size of decrease the agency says would achieve federal health standards for ozone, the region’s main pollutant.

Under the terms, the agency can deviate from specific measures or deadlines only if it holds a hearing and has evidence that the necessary technology does not exist or that it would cost more than $13,500 per ton of emissions reduced. That is considered a high cost, exceeded rarely recently.

If, however, a rule is dropped for cost or technology reasons, the AQMD must during that same year substitute other rules that cut at least as many tons of pollution.

Wallerstein said the “escape hatch” is important so that, if his staff’s current calculations are wrong, it is not stuck with rules that are too harsh.

Wyman, representing manufacturers, said the settlement is good for businesses because for the first time they have assurances that the AQMD will consider cost-effectiveness. “The benchmark for cost-effectiveness was missing in previous [clean-air] plans,” he said. He called the $13,500 level “just about right” to ensure affordability.

Businesses also are happy to see the 1994 plan finally dropped because it contained rules they considered impractical. Wyman cautioned, though, that business leaders don’t necessarily endorse all the proposed rules, because more specifics and review of each one are necessary.

Pollution rules for cars, trucks and other mobile sources come under state jurisdiction and are not covered by the agreement. The state’s Air Resources Board, however, settled a similar suit with the environmental groups earlier this year, agreeing to adopt certain measures.

Air pollution in the Los Angeles region has been steadily declining because of rules for vehicles, industries and consumer products. This summer was especially clean--with no full-scale smog alerts anywhere in the basin for the first time in half a century. Also, for the first time, the region’s smog was not the worst in the nation--Houston now holds that distinction.

Environmentalists hope the EPA will require other smoggy regions, especially Texas and the Northeast states, to follow similar plans.

Everyone involved thinks the prospect of peace between environmentalists and the AQMD is one of the biggest benefits of the new plan. If the AQMD violates the terms, the two sides would not have to fight it out in long, complex legal battles. Instead, the case simply goes back to the judge as a much simpler settlement violation.

“Today will go down in the history books,” Feuer said, “as the day the cycle of litigation ended and a new clean air partnership began.”(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Smog-Control Plan

Under a new agreement, the AQMD has committed to following a course in smog control over the next decade. Included in the terms are 12 smog-control rules for businesses that would be adopted over the next four years. They would eliminate 48 tons of pollution a day by 2010.

Source: Industrial parts cleaning

Adoption date: 1999

Implementation: 2002

Tons reduced: 11.0

*

Source: Adhesives

Adoption date: 2000

Implementation: 2007-08

Tons reduced: 1.3

*

Source: Solvent use in industry products

Adoption date: 2000

Implementation: 2002

Tons reduced: 1.0

*

Source: Household paints, cleanup solvents

Adoption date: 2003

Implementation: 2006-08

Tons reduced: 9.8

Source: Industrial painting

Adoption date: 2002, 2003

Implementation: 2004-08

Tons reduced: 5.0

*

Source: Industrial spray painting

Adoption date: 2000, 2002

Implementation: 2003-06

Tons reduced: 7.0

*

Source: Oil refinery, chemical plant leaks

Adoption date: 2001-2003

Implementation: 2003-08

Tons reduced: 3.0

*

Source: Gasoline stations

Adoption date: 2000

Implementation: 2001-02

Tons reduced: 2.0

*

Source: Restaurant charbroilers

Adoption date: 2000

Implementation: 2001-03

Tons reduced: 0.9

*

Source: Resins, rubber, plastics

Adoption date: 2001

Implementation: 2004-07

Tons reduced: 3.0

*

Source: Livestock manure

Adoption date: 2002

Implementation: 2004

Tons reduced: 3.3

*

Source: Hazardous waste facilities

Adoption date: 2000

Implementation: 2002

Tons reduced: 0.8