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E-mail StoryAdvocates urge air district to rewrite cleanup plan
| Wednesday, Apr 25 2007 10:50 PM
Last Updated: Wednesday, Apr 25 2007 10:59 PM
Clean air advocates have launched an effort to send air regulators back to the drawing board to recraft a plan to clean up the San Joaquin Valley's smog problem.
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But they don't have much time.
The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District's Governing Board is set to vote Monday on whether to accept the district's proposed plan, which calls for delaying compliance with federal smog standards more than a decade, to 2023.
Air district staff, who have spent 18 months preparing the document, said it will take that long because the valley's smog problem is so bad and the technology needed to clean the air sooner isn't yet available.
The federal government had set 2013 as the initial deadline to meet smog standards in the valley.
The Central Valley Air Coalition, which represents 70 community, medical public health and environmental groups in the valley,argues the district's plan could include stricter measures to meet the federal standards a lot sooner.
If the district's plan is approved as it is, "a child born today will have to wait until high school graduation to breathe clean air," said Lisa Kayser-Grant, head of the Moms Clean Air Network, one of the member organizations in the Central Valley Air Coalition, during a news conference Wednesday.
To that end, clean air advocates recently asked the air district's governing board members to vote down the district's proposed plan Monday and instead require district staff to deliver another plan by November that achieves clean air by 2017.
Federal mandates require the air district to submit an approved plan to the state Air Resources Board by June 15. However, state officials confirmed the deadline has leeway. If the plan isn't submitted in a timely manner, they said, the district is given an additional 18 months to submit the plan before penalties kick in. Those penalties include, among other things, withholding federal road money.
The clean air advocates' request to forgo the deadline is laid out in an eight-page letter being circulated to the air district's governing board members.
District officials who drafted the plan said waiting would do no good. They have repeatedly said there is no feasible way to get cleaner air sooner than 2023 and they stood by that claim Wednesday.
"We've ... looked at all possible ways to make (emissions) reductions and the technology just isn't there to do it," said Rick McVaigh, one of the air district's top officials "The technology has to be available or on the horizon in order to include it in the plan as a way to reduce emissions."
As a result, a 10-year delay of the deadline "is our only legal option," he said.
While the federal standard wouldn't be met until 2023, air district officials said the air would become increasingly cleaner in the intervening years.
In order to meet federal standards, the valley must reduce by 75 percent the amount of nitrogen oxides in the air. Nitrogen oxides, emitted by tailpipes, factories and other sources, are one of the components that contributes to smog.
Under the plan, 90 percent of the valley would would reach attainment by 2020. Arvin and northwest Fresno, however, wouldn't reach attainment until at least 2023, district officials said.
In order to be considered in attainment, the entire valley must meet the federal standards.
Raji Brar, an Arvin councilwoman, and Kern County Supervisor Jon McQuiston represent Kern County on the air district's governing board. Both assumed their posts earlier this year. Neither would say Wednesday whether they would to vote in favor of the district's proposed smog plan on Monday.
McQuiston said he was still wading through the 700-page plan and had many questions he planned to ask prior to Monday's vote. But Brar said she didn't think the 2023 deadline was the only option.
"It's just hard to convince me there's nothing else we can do," she said.
How to get involved
The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District will hold a public hearing before Monday’s vote on the plan to clean up smog in the valley.
A presentation on the plan will begin at 11 a.m. The public comment period will start at 1 p.m. The air district governing board’s vote is scheduled to take place after the public comment period. The meeting will be held via videoconference in the air district Bakersfield office, 2700 M St., Suite 275.