Smog Panel Gets 60-Day Warning on Suit

Three major environmental groups notified the Southland’s smog board and the Wilson administration Thursday that they will file suit charging that the government agencies have failed to adopt two dozen anti-smog measures they committed to implementing three years ago.

The lawsuit, to be filed in August, seeks to force the South Coast Air Quality Management District and the California Air Resources Board to reinvigorate efforts to clean the Los Angeles region’s air, which have slowed in recent years.

“If the AQMD and ARB won’t listen to reason and stop their backsliding, they will have to listen to the courts,” said Gail Ruderman Feuer, an attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, which is teaming up with the Coalition for Clean Air and Communities for a Better Environment.

Under federal law, the public has the power to sue to enforce clean air plans after giving the state and local agencies 60 days notice, and similar lawsuits have forced the smog agencies and federal government to act.

Among the rules at issue, one with broad potential impact would require scrapping about 75,000 high-polluting cars per year in the Los Angeles Basin. In 1994, the state Air Resources Board included that measure in its smog-fighting plan at the last minute to appease oil companies. The companies, led by Texaco, vowed to help the Wilson administration persuade the Legislature to budget millions of dollars in annual funds to buy and destroy the older cars. A funding plan has been approved by the Legislature but it has not gone into effect. Two other state measures would increase the use of lower-emission diesel trucks and the scrapping of older trucks.

California’s 1994 smog plan--which outlines more than 100 rules--establishes how the Southland will meet a national deadline to achieve healthful levels of smog by 2010. The plan was the first in California to be approved by the federal government as meeting the demands of the Clean Air Act.

The environmental groups charge that the AQMD has violated the federal law by failing to implement 21 regulations as promised. The AQMD has delayed or abandoned many of the rules, while others were implemented but do not require cuts in pollution as large as intended.

AQMD officials say the environmental groups named measures that are no longer considered politically feasible or cost-effective. A revised smog plan, which shelves about two dozen anti-smog proposals, was adopted in November and awaits approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“We don’t think there’s been a rollback,” said AQMD spokesman Tom Eichhorn. “The AQMD has maintained its momentum toward clean air rule adoption. We feel we’re ahead of the ARB [state air board] and EPA in doing our fair share.”

Joe Irvin, an Air Resources Board spokesman, said the agency has made progress on many smog proposals--including an agreement with the diesel industry and federal government to cut fumes from heavy-duty trucks and buses in half by 2004.

“Clearly we’re aware that there are deadlines to be met and we’re confident we will pursue vigorously what it takes to meet our . . . obligations on time,” Irvin said.