EPA Action Meets With Widespread Area Support : Pollution: The dropping of anti-smog measures, including two key proposals, is hailed by local industry and government officials.

Taking cues from community leaders on how to clean up Ventura County’s smoggy skies, the federal government Tuesday dropped many of its toughest measures to crack down on pollution from smokestacks, trucks, boats and planes.

The anti-smog plan unveiled Tuesday by the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency was met with strikingly widespread support from local industry and government officials.

It even won some measure of praise from the environmental group that sued the EPA in 1988 to force a reduction in smog so the county could reach federal health standards within the next decade.

“Ventura County can now, for the first time ever, point to the year 2005 as the date that residents will have healthful air quality,” said Marc Chytilo, an attorney for Citizens to Preserve the Ojai.

In a concession to business, the EPA’s final plan no longer proposes that the county’s medium and large manufacturing plants will have to scale back air pollution more each year--even if it meant cutting back on production.

It has also omitted a proposal to forbid heavily polluting out-of-state trucks from making more than one stop in the county to either pick up or deliver goods.

Business and agricultural leaders had complained bitterly that those two proposals--more than others--could cripple local commerce. They spent months last year working with county experts to suggest alternatives to meet federal health standards.

“We found their participation especially constructive,” said Dave Howekamp, chief of the EPA’s regional air program. “Many of their suggestions were accepted by us.”

EPA officials said they could relax some rules because the area was closer to air quality goals than previously believed.

Although the sweeping federal plan was released Tuesday, it will not take effect for another two years under a court-ratified agreement among environmentalists, government and industry leaders. In addition to Ventura County, the plan affects Sacramento and the greater Los Angeles basin.

The delay allows experts to complete work on a state air cleanup plan that promises to meet the same smog reduction goals with less cost to business and society.

“Two years will give us time to work through a lot of things,” said Carolyn Leavens, head of the Ventura County Economic Development Assn. “The pressure is still on to develop new cleaner technology. But fortunately, we are not facing imminent economic disaster.”

If the state and local officials are successful, the federal plan would become obsolete.

But environmentalists said they remain skeptical, after years of nudging the government to comply with the federal Clean Air Act.

They wanted strong measures in the federal plan to compel local and state officials to take serious steps toward cleaner air.

Stan Greene, president of Citizens to Protect the Ojai, said his experts will analyze the federal plan. “It’s possible that some of the alternatives proposed are workable,” Greene said. “If they can be done with cost-effective methods, that’s great. But basically, our overall goal is human health.”

Smog levels in Ventura County have improved greatly over the years, dropping from 122 days that violated health standards for ozone in 1974 to only 13 days in 1993.

But local residents could save $45 million to $69 million a year in health costs if air quality met federal standards, one study concluded.

Richard Baldwin, the county’s air pollution officer, said business leaders are pleased the EPA dropped the harshest proposals.

“They’ve clearly listened to what we were saying about some of the measures,” Baldwin said. “They withdrew the ones we thought were most onerous and that is really good.”

The threat of disruptive federal proposals, he said, made some businesses reluctant to expand their business or move to the county for fear they might have to cut production to meet federal rules.

The EPA plan also:

* Dropped its proposed fees on older, dirtier engines used by boats and private airplanes.

* Postponed the rerouting of ocean-going freighters along the Ventura County coast. The agency said it will take two years to study the issue with county and Navy officials to reach a solution that reduces exhaust blown on shore, but does not disrupt the Navy’s missile tests off Point Mugu.

* Required a 30% reduction in emissions from solvents used to help spread pesticides on crops. The EPA said it is working with state officials to develop an alternative program to reduce pollution from pesticides.

* Eliminated its program to force the rebuilding of old engines on tractors, bulldozers and other off-road construction equipment. Instead, the EPA will focus on low-emission standards for new engines.

* Toughened its requirements for companies owning fleets of cars or trucks to convert a percentage of their vehicles to electricity or natural gas.

* L.A. ROLE

Scaled-back plan includes ideas from Mayor Riordan. A3