It’s a Gloves-On Smog Fight

California air quality officials on Thursday unveiled a new smog-fighting plan for the state aimed at achieving healthful air for everyone by 2020.

Compared with past strategies, the latest plan uses gentler approaches along with traditional regulations.

Future reductions in emissions will come in nibbles rather than bites because few major polluters remain. Cuts will move beyond smokestacks and automobile tailpipes to include fumes from cow manure and exhaust from bulldozers, farm machinery, locomotives and dirt bikes. Even landscaping is targeted. The plan suggests incentives for people to plant low-pollen trees and shrubs and to avoid eucalyptus and other trees that release chemicals that contribute slightly to smog.

“This is something we haven’t done in the past. We wanted to take a look at air quality for the state as a whole and what we have to do to have healthy air for everyone,” said Michael Kenny, executive officer for the Air Resources Board. “We’re looking at a larger number of sources so we can achieve a greater number of reductions from more places.”

The plan is not binding or legally enforceable, but rather a menu of measures that officials can pick from. Some of the individual control measures have been on the books for years. Some of them, such as regulations for ships, planes and trains, are largely outside California’s authority and require assistance from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies.

Whether the Legislature and regulators have the political will to adopt all the measures is a question. While California has been a world leader in the fight for clean air, progress has slowed in recent years, particularly in the San Joaquin Valley. Some places, including the Bay Area and the Coachella Valley, have seen air quality worsen.

“The ARB has rattled its saber, but must still take up the sword,” said Todd Campbell, policy director for the Coalition for Clean Air.

Some smog-reduction options are politically difficult. Air pollution agencies are prohibited from imposing detailed emissions permits on farms, for example, although some pollute more than factories. And some major polluters, such as airports, harbors and rail yards, are primarily under federal jurisdiction and have gone largely unregulated.

The Legislature also has limited the regulation of aerosol spray cans, although they are big contributors to the 267 tons of hydrocarbons produced each day by consumer products. Hydrocarbons mix with other chemicals in the presence of sunlight to form ozone, an abundant pollutant that irritates lungs and causes headaches and shortness of breath.

Each day, 25 million vehicles and thousands of businesses statewide release about 14 million pounds of smog-forming chemicals into the air. With about 550,000 new residents added to the state each year, cleaning California’s air is a constant battle.

The state’s smoggiest regions must pursue tough measures to meet a target in the federal Clean Air Act of healthy air year-round by 2005 in the San Joaquin Valley and by 2010 in all parts of the Los Angeles Basin.

If all the control measures are approved, about 500 tons of smog-forming pollutants and 50 tons daily of soot and smoke would be eliminated statewide by 2010. Additional measures, such as controls for ships, trains and construction equipment, could yield an additional reduction of 150 tons per day, officials say. State officials estimate that implementing the plan would cost about $2.3 billion over the next several years. But officials say the benefits would outweigh the costs by 3 to 1.

The plan identifies agriculture as a big target for cleanup. In the San Joaquin Valley, livestock waste has surpassed vehicles as the top source of smog-forming fumes. Among the controls proposed for farms are reformulated feedstock, manure management, restrictions on pesticide spraying, and cleaner tractors and irrigation pumps.

“The emissions are very high, and we have to figure out a way to reduce them.” Kenny said.

But Ed Yates, senior vice president of the California League of Food Processors, said such approaches are misguided.

“Our contribution to air pollution is minuscule,” Yates said.

Diesel engines, including trucks and buses, must have add-on controls, including soot traps and catalysts, Kenny said. Those devices may be prescribed for trash trucks when the ARB meets in June.

The plan also identifies strategies to reduce pollution in low-income and minority communities, reduce greenhouse gases linked to global warming and trim releases of toxic air emissions.

Public workshops on the plan are scheduled around the state April 2-11. The ARB is scheduled to consider approval of the proposal when it meets April 25-26 in Sacramento.