Clean Air Target Set: 2024

Two-thirds of speakers at a public hearing advocated delaying a vote on Valley benchmark.
By Mark Grossi / The Fresno Bee
05/01/07 04:17:03

Despite a wave of public opposition, the local air board decided Monday to accept a controversial plan to clean up smog by 2024, more than a decade beyond the current deadline.

If state and federal officials also approve it, the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District will be alone in the nation's worst category for smog offenders -- extreme nonattainment. The South Coast Air Basin also is expected to ask for the same designation.

More than 90 speakers spoke in the public hearing session, about two-thirds of them asking for the board to delay voting for six months. Many said the district should figure a way to clean up the air by 2017 and save residents from further suffering.

"This plan has not won the confidence of the community," said Kathryn Phillips of Environmental Defense, a national environmental advocacy group.

Air board members said the plan must go to the state for approval and move on to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency by June 15. If it is late, EPA would give the Valley 18 months to submit the plan. Failure to submit an acceptable plan would eventually lead to sanctions, such as freezing up to $2 billion in road-building funds.

"We've been criticized for not having a plan in on time before," said board member William O'Brien, a Stanislaus County supervisor. "Now we're being criticized for having one in on time."

The vote was 9-2, the two dissenters being board newcomers Henry T. Perea of Fresno and Raji Brar of Arvin. Arvin had more than 60 violations of the federal health standard last summer, the highest number in the country.

"For me to go back and tell my constituents that there's nothing we can do," Arvin Council Member Brar said, "that's unacceptable. Something's wrong. Something's not working."

District leaders said engine technology simply will not exist soon enough to clean up smog from diesel engines, the biggest pollution source.

Seyed Sadredin, executive director, said the district would push state and federal governments, which control vehicle emissions.

The Valley must reduce 75% of a smog-forming gas called oxides of nitrogen, which come from combustion sources such as vehicles. After 2020, the final pollution reductions in the plan rely on technologies that have not yet been identified.

Air officials also said they want to develop other pollution-control strategies, such as a complex scheme to move shipping ports from Southern California to Northern California. The move would eliminate a lot of south-to-north diesel truck traffic that makes its way through the Valley.

Environmentalists, health advocates and community activists said that idea and others already should be in the plan. On bad smog days, for instance, the district should enforce a ban on old, polluting trucks, cars, boats and commercial equipment, such as tractors, some advocates said.

Air officials said such a ban would be too harsh on businesses, resulting in three months of no-farm days for many growers or no-drive days for people just going to work. Advocates replied that now is the time to consider all possibilities to prevent more exposure to unhealthy air.

Medical advocates said ozone, the corrosive main gas in smog, can damage skin, eyes and lungs. Research has shown it triggers asthma, bronchial problems and other diseases. Many who spoke Monday have lung problems.

"I always have to take my inhaler when I go somewhere," said asthmatic Stephanie Camaroda of the Latino Issues Forum, an activist group in Fresno. "It will only worsen the quality of life to wait until 2024."

The reporter can be reached at mgrossi@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6316.

For more information go to www.cleanairconstruction.org.