State Air Panel Scolds County, but OKs Plan : Pollution: Air Resources Board accuses S.D. of sloth in dealing with abuses of industry.

The state Air Resources Board conditionally approved San Diego County’s anti-smog plan Thursday after criticizing local officials for moving too slowly to organize the fight against air pollution.

Although praising the plan’s effort to reduce solo vehicle trips, a major cause of smog, the board said the county’s timetable for clamping down on industrial pollution isn’t aggressive enough.

“We believe San Diego County can move more rapidly,” James Boyd, the board’s executive officer, said at a hearing in San Diego.

In defense, county Air Pollution Control Officer Richard Sommerville told the board, “we’re moving as fast as we can,” despite obstacles. But board Chairwoman Jananne Sharpless mildly upbraided him because San Diego’s smog plan missed its legally mandated July, 1991, deadline.

“Obviously we don’t want the San Diego plan to come under legal jeopardy,” she said. “I would just remind you we are under a legal obligation, Rich.”

Voting 8-0 to approve the plan, the board required that deficiencies be remedied and a progress report be provided in a year.

San Diego County Supervisor Brian Bilbray, who sits on the air board, referred to the board resolution approving the clean air plan as “a passing grade.”

Despite complaints, some key parts of the plan were touted for tackling an environmental problem made complex because much of San Diego’s air pollution blows in from Los Angeles and comes from unregulated Mexican-owned vehicles driven to jobs here.

Boyd noted that the plan “has some very significant strengths.”

Here’s what the plan, which would cost $133 million to $338 million annually, would do:

* Businesses with more than 100 employees have a 1994 deadline to create ride-sharing programs for their work force. Businesses with 60 to 99 workers must comply by 1996.

* Colleges and universities must encourage ride-sharing.

* Regulations to require solar heating in new home construction will be drafted in 1995.

* Controls on industrial pollution will include seeking new technology for power plants, less polluting paints, adhesives and solvents, and tighter controls on fiberglass and plastics makers, dry cleaners, sterilizers and gasoline storage tanks.

The board acknowledged that San Diego County’s air quality is slowly improving, but said standards were exceeded 106 days last year and this year will probably be about the same. The county is legally classified as having a “severe” smog problem.

However, the board was distressed that local officials wanted until September to adopt permit rules for stationary sources of pollution such as factories.

Sommerville explained that it would take considerable socioeconomic study before such rules should be imposed, but state officials insisted that other air pollution districts are getting a faster start.

Waiting for studies to be finished “is not a convincing reason for a delay,” board analyst Kurt Kasperos said.

The board also faulted local officials for seeking to postpone regulations to reduce vehicle trips until California deals with the problem of polluting Mexican vehicles that are exempt from periodic smog checks.

According to state officials, vehicles garaged in Mexico represent 1% of the vehicles on the road here, but crank out 5% to 15% of the vehicle emissions.

However, it appears that problem is being solved as several agencies--the Air Resources Board, the Bureau of Automotive Repair and the Department of Motor Vehicles--stated they would cooperate to put vehicles kept in Mexico and driven to San Diego County under the state’s inspection and maintenance program.

“California is already moving to develop regulations which will reduce the impact of emissions from California-registered cars and trucks operated by commuters from Mexico,” according to a statement Thursday from James Strock, chief of the state’s Environmental Protection Agency.

Although state officials complimented San Diego’s goals of reducing single occupancy vehicle trips, representatives from business and industry told the board that they remain worried that they would bear the economic burden of improving air quality.

Some doubted the effectiveness of ride-sharing.

Christopher Neils, of the Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce, said, “Even the most optimistic view (of trip reduction measures) reveals that, while increasing government bureaucracy and the cost of doing business, they will accomplish very little in terms of real reduction in air pollution.”

Businesses, he added, “remain greatly concerned about the volumes of regulations facing employers already beset with surviving in a troubled economy.”

James Lantry of the California Retail Coalition testified that classifying San Diego as having a severe smog problem, when Los Angeles is largely to blame, has a chilling effect on attracting industry.

“Our struggle to bring new industries to San Diego to replace those jobs lost to other states is hampered by a needlessly restrictive classification,” he said.

Officials agreed that pollution blows in from Los Angeles, but they strongly defended the ride-sharing goals, pointing out that vehicles cause 60% of the county’s smog and must be regulated.

“The automobile is the real culprit in San Diego County,” Bilbray said.