Businesses Back Change in Smog Classification

Some San Joaquin Valley business owners are reluctantly supporting a proposal by state air regulators to downgrade the valley into the federal category reserved for the country’s worst smog offenders.

The San Joaquin Valley Air Quality Coalition, which includes agricultural, petroleum and manufacturing groups, backs the plan, though it will probably cost the groups up to $36 million annually.

Valley air regulators want to reclassify the problems of the region’s air basin from severe to extreme, allowing more time for the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District to develop a plan to fix the problem, among the nation’s worst.

Under the “severe” designation, the valley would have to meet Environmental Protection Agency air-quality guidelines by 2005. The “extreme” designation would give the region until 2010.