A new federal clean-air standard released Thursday reaffirmed that smog in the Los Angeles basin is still the nation's worst. But critics fear the new standard for a troublesome pollutant - ozone - will take far too long to improve public health.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency tightened ozone standards but relaxed the deadline for meeting them. For the Los Angeles basin, which includes Orange County, the new deadline is 2021 - 11 years later than the previous deadline for the lesser standard.
That amounts to an unacceptable delay in cleaning up the air, according to the agency in charge of smog control in the region. The South Coast Air Quality Management District has been critical of the EPA in recent years, contending that the agency has failed to impose enough new regulations to cut air pollution from sources under its jurisdiction - ships, planes, trains and interstate trucking.
Air-quality activists also are unhappy with the EPA's decision. They say it could worsen an alarming trend: After years of steady improvement, the air in the Los Angeles basin appears to be getting worse.
EPA law tougher, looser
The nation's new smog standard looks tough at first glance: a much lower threshold of ozone pollution now will register as a violation of health standards.
And nearly all experts agree the new standard will better protect public health.
But the action taken by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday is viewed by many as a step in the wrong direction. Besides air-quality activists, even the agency that regulates smog in the region expressed deep reservations.
They are worried about a rollback of the deadline for meeting ozone standards. Instead of 2010 - the deadline under the old, less-stringent standard - the Los Angeles basin, which includes Orange County, now has until 2021 to meet the new, tougher standard. Areas that fail to meet their deadlines can lose federal highway funds.
The old deadline will be set aside in about a year, EPA officials said.
"We have some very serious concerns," said Sam Atwood, spokesman for the South Coast Air Quality Management District in Diamond Bar. "Take away the 2010 deadline, and that's like taking your foot off the gas and coasting toward clean air."
And the district says it's a bad time to be coasting; after years of steady improvement, air quality in the Los Angeles basin has begun to slip in recent years.
Weather accounts for some of the slippage. Much of it, however, might well be increased population, increased use of gas-chugging vehicles such as SUVs and, according to the South Coast district, a failure by the EPA and state regulators to take on their fair share of responsibility.
The way the South Coast district tells it, the EPA is not doing enough to regulate interstate trucking, planes, ships and trains. Those all fall within federal jurisdiction. The South Coast district mainly is confined to regulating "stationary" sources, such as industries and power plants.
The state Air Resources Board, which regulates "mobile" sources such as cars and trucks, the main sources of smog, has made strides recently in its commitment to increase regulation, Atwood said.
But he fears the rollback of the ozone deadline will take pressure off the EPA, the state and industry.
For their part, EPA officials point to new diesel-truck regulations that will take effect in coming years and say they will pursue a number of options for reaching the new standards.
"We are going to do everything we can to try to be innovative," said Wayne Nastri, administrator for the EPA's Pacific-Southwest region. "There's not anything off the table." The new ozone standard is aimed at longer exposure to lower levels of pollution, so it will do a better job of protecting the public, the EPA says.
Despite those assurances, Gail Ruderman Feuer, an senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council who tracks air quality in Southern California, sees the EPA's action as part of an ominous trend: the erosion of environmental protections by the Bush administration.
"Clearly, this proposal is part of an overall effort by this administration to weaken our clean-air laws," Feuer said. "While one hand of the administration is implementing new, tougher standards, at the same time they're weakening key provisions of the Clean Air Act."
Industry and business leaders see the rollback of the ozone deadline not only as welcome but also necessary. Julie Puentes, executive vice president of the Orange County Business Council representing about 300 businesses, called the rollback "helpful." Bob Wyman of the Regulatory Flexibility Group, which represents about 10 large companies in the Los Angeles basin including Boeing and Southern California Edison, said meeting increasingly demanding air-quality rules means developing technologies that don't exist today.
"This will give badly needed time for other technologies to develop," Wyman said. It also will "give us time for the natural turnover of vehicle and truck populations."
