Environmentalists Call Revised AQMD Plan ‘Step Backward’

Just as the South Coast Air Quality Management District kicked off three days of public hearings Monday on the latest revisions to its regional clean air plan, five environmental groups charged at a press conference that the new proposals are too weak to be legal.

The suggested changes are “a giant step backward” from the 1989 AQMD plan, which was rejected by federal authorities, said Tim Little, executive director of the Coalition for Clean Air. The current round of hearings is designed to address problems in the earlier version.

“Ultimately,” said Joseph J. Brecher of the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, “I would not be surprised if at least one of these groups ends up taking the district to court.” The suggested plan, he said, consists of “beatific pronouncements unaccompanied by any tangible activity.”

Little and Brecher joined representatives of the Natural Resources Defense Council, Citizens for a Better Environment and the American Lung Assn. in a preview of testimony they plan to offer at today’s AQMD hearing in El Monte.

Meanwhile, the first hearing, held in Riverside, was sparsely attended. An audience of about 35 watched as three speakers voiced concerns. One was a local environmentalist and another spoke for the California Manufacturers Assn. about worries that AQMD has underestimated how many jobs the plan will cost. A third, from the Metropolitan Water District, had some technical recommendations.

Only 10 people asked to speak at an afternoon session in Santa Ana, most of them planners with technical questions. The audience numbered in the dozens.

AQMD board Chairman A. Norton Younglove said he was disappointed but not surprised by the turnout. “I think the public wants clean air but doesn’t necessarily want to get involved in how we go about it,” he said.

The environmentalists had plenty to say on that score.

They said AQMD should take responsibility for assuring the availability of mass transit to provide commuters with alternatives to highly polluting cars, in addition to the district’s plan for charging fees to make solo driving expensive.

They said the district should not leave decisions to local governments on such controversial measures as eliminating free parking, even in employee lots, and linking new developments to the proximity of bus lines.

They said the plan should not claim that highway construction can reduce air pollution--the plan says new freeways could do just that by easing congestion--and said the district should press for air quality education in schools and require employers to staple bus route maps to paychecks.

They also said the district should keep to its deadlines for meeting clean air standards, rather than rolling them back. The district has postponed its deadline for meeting federal standards to 2010, a delay of three years.

Finally, the environmentalists said AQMD needs to do a better job of measuring pollution.

In addition to today’s hearing in El Monte, the AQMD plans a fourth session Wednesday in San Bernardino. Another hearing is scheduled June 28, the day the board is expected to vote on the revisions.