Bay Area’s Plan to Clean Up Air Is Rejected by EPA

Upping the ante in a Northern California smog dispute, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday rejected a cleanup plan for the Bay Area, charging that it failed to deliver clean air.

The action, which came in response to a lawsuit brought by environmentalists, means the Bay Area no longer has a master plan to guide the region to healthy skies.

It also puts more pressure on local air-quality officials to come up with an aggressive control strategy or risk losing more than $1 billion in federal highway funds for 30 projects in the region--the penalty for failing to meet a Clean Air Act deadline.

“There’s a lot riding on this,” said Ellen Garvey, executive officer for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.

Local, state and federal air-quality officials are working to avoid the threat of federal sanctions. An improved plan is in the works, although state air-quality officials declined to approve a draft version in July.

The EPA opposed the new plan, too, but dropped its objections when Bay Area officials agreed to cut smog-forming emissions by an additional 23 tons daily.

A final version is due next month and sanctions would follow if it does not win approval from the state air board and the EPA by January. “It’s going to be a close call, but everybody involved is hopeful that we can avoid sanctions and get this thing done,” EPA spokesman Leo Kay said.

In the Bay Area, ozone, an invisible and toxic gas, violates federal health-based standards once or twice annually, especially in East Bay’s Livermore.

That is a mild smog problem compared with the Los Angeles region, but it is enough to put the Bay Area out of compliance with the federal Clean Air Act, which specified in 1990 that the region should have cleaned up to acceptable levels by last November.

Failure to meet that deadline prompted a lawsuit by Earthjustice, an advocacy group.

“This [decision] gives further motivation for the local [air] district to work harder. We’re glad to see the EPA nudging the local agency in the right direction,” Earthjustice attorney Deborah Reames said. Air quality in the Bay Area attained the ozone standard a few years ago, but growth overtook the gains, plunging the region back into “non-attainment” of the federal standard.

Downwind in the San Joaquin Valley, politicians, business leaders and health officials have demanded that the Bay Area crack down on pollution sources.

They say the Bay Area lacks a rigorous Smog Check program and can do more to reduce emissions from oil refineries.

As much as one-quarter of the smog in the valley originates in the Bay Area.