Civic Leaders Urge Freeway Completion

Leaders from several San Gabriel Valley cities warned Thursday that without the construction of the Long Beach Freeway extension, the region will not be able to comply with the Clean Air Act and could lose federal funding for other transportation projects.

But later in the day, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials discounted that claim, saying that no single project would make such a significant difference to regional air quality.

Officials from Alhambra, Monterey Park, Monrovia, La Puente and San Gabriel made the claims at a news conference where they called for state lawmakers to reject a Senate bill that would give freeway opponent South Pasadena the right to veto the roadway’s construction inside its borders.

“If we fall out of compliance [with the Clean Air Act] and we lose the money . . . we’re looking at about a $4.5-billion loss,” said Alhambra Mayor Paul Talbot.

The freeway, if built, would cut through South Pasadena and parts of Pasadena and El Sereno. An Assembly committee hearing on the bill introduced by state Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) is scheduled for Monday.

EPA officials said the freeway extension, which would plug a 6.2-mile gap between the Foothill and San Bernardino freeways, may actually do more harm than good for air quality.

“There may well be aggravations in air quality, not improvements. But generally one project has little impact when compared to the massive region,” said Mark Brucker, EPA transportation liaison.

The bill is the latest battleground in the fight over the much-delayed project. For more than three decades, South Pasadena has battled the roadway’s construction while neighboring Alhambra and several other cities impacted by commuters have advocated its construction.

“I don’t know where the information is coming that the freeway is going to create more pollution than bumper-to-bumper, gridlocked traffic at a stoplight in front of a grammar school; it’s arcane,” Talbot said.

Talbot and other San Gabriel Valley municipal leaders say the proposed freeway is part of the Regional Transportation Plan developed by the Southern California Council of Governments.

Brucker said a federal judge issued a temporary injunction against the freeway’s construction last summer, citing among other problems its compliance with the Clean Air Act.

That injunction came after South Pasadena sued the U.S. Department of Transportation and Caltrans to prevent the freeway’s construction. A trial in the case is yet to be scheduled.

South Pasadena officials are now hoping, however, that Schiff’s bill will put an end to the freeway debate. But a similar bill by Assemblyman Jack Scott (D-Altadena) was rejected by the Assembly recently.

South Pasadena lost the ability to veto the freeway in 1994, when the governor signed a bill eliminating the need for the city to approve the eight-lane highway’s passage through it borders.