Feds tighten air quality standards
By: DAVE DOWNEY - Staff Writer
Ships and trains facing engine change by 2014 | ∞
Air quality standards are getting tougher in San Diego County.
The new standards will require operators of ships and trains to change out dirty diesel engines by 2014 under new rules adopted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last week.
The federal agency also tightened standards for ozone, a primary ingredient of smog.
Rob Reider of the San Diego County Air Pollution Control District said the area had been on track to meet the federal smog standard by next year. But under the changes announced last week, he said, it will take several more years to achieve compliance.
It is expected to take much longer than that for the South Coast air basin, which takes in western Riverside County.
The region's could get some help from those new regulations that would force operators of locomotives, ships and some of the larger recreational boats all across the nation to retrofit diesel engines.
Diesel exhaust was declared a toxic air contaminant by state regulators in 1998. It generates smog and soot, the fine particles that color skies brown and penetrate deep into the lungs. Both have been shown to aggravate health problems for people with asthma and heart ailments, and to make it harder for healthy people to breathe.
By ordering a gradual phasing out of older engines, the EPA is aiming to slash trains' and ships' contribution to soot by 90 percent and their contribution to smog by 80 percent, by 2030.
As for soot, it is not now a problem for San Diego County air. But it is a major problem for the South Coast basin, which has the highest concentrations in the nation. That's in large part due to the huge amount of truck and train traffic heading out of Los Angeles' ports through Riverside County and the ships traveling to those ports.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District, which regulates pollution in western Riverside County and the Los Angeles area, is so concerned about soot that it recently adopted the region's first wood-burning restrictions.
Starting in November 2011, the district has banned all virtually all wood burning in fireplaces and wood stoves on days when soot levels reach the unhealthful range. Exceptions were made for those who build bonfires on the beach, burn wood to cook and live in colder areas at or above 3,000 feet above sea level.
Beginning in March of next year, builders in four counties -- Riverside, Orange, Los Angeles and San Bernardino -- will be prohibited from installing wood burning stoves in new homes and businesses. Gas fireplaces will be allowed.
That rule doesn't sit well with Borre Winckel, executive director for the Riverside County Chapter of the Building Industry Association of Southern California.
"I can see people rebelling on this one," he said.
He, for one, will be one of those tempted to rebel, as he enjoys burning almond wood at his San Juan Capistrano home.
"I fully, personally, plan to continue on burning a fine fire," he said.
District officials defended their new policy.
"Wood smoke from fireplaces and wood stoves causes more than four times as much fine particulate pollution as all the power plants in our region," said William Burke, the chairman of South Coast's governing board.
While the bans will affect those living in Southwest Riverside County, Reider said San Diego County residents aren't likely to see such a restriction anytime soon. The San Diego-area is in compliance with soot limits, and a recent survey concluded that wood-burning restrictions would have negligible results.
But San Diego County does have an ozone problem, said Ross Porter, spokesman for the American Lung Association in San Diego. While the clean-air advocacy group does not believe the new federal limits go far enough, they do bring the point home that the county has no business relaxing in its fight for clean air.
"We're like the coach who says, 'We are playing well, but we are not winning the championship. If we really want to win the championship, we need to keep moving toward standards that protect public health," Porter said.
The EPA set the new ozone standard at 75 parts per billion, an improvement from the former 84 parts-per-billion standard but not as low as the 70-parts-per-billion mark activists and some scientists have called for.
-- Contact staff writer Dave Downey at (760) 745-6611, Ext. 2623, or ddowney@nctimes.com.
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herb: wrote on Mar 18, 2008 5:01 AM: Sounds good to me. Anything that will truly improve our breathing air is alright by me. One thing that would help a lot is to limit dirty diesel use in residential areas. If it becomes necessary for the use of dirty diesel in residential area for construction or such, the user should have to get a permit from code enforcement in that city. We are talking about living longer and healthier lives. No one should be able to make their profit at the expense of the health of others.
Whoa, Stop! wrote on Mar 18, 2008 6:29 AM:What about the cancer causing Benzene in gasoline emissions, are they going to do anything about that??? I will take soot over cancer anyday!
Disel bad wrote on Mar 18, 2008 6:32 AM:Higher food prices due to truckers using disel, good. Truckers pass the cost to consumers, very good.
If we can get Gore wrote on Mar 18, 2008 6:50 AM:and other politicians to stop taking private jets everywhere they go, it would also help us with stopping global warming. But I guess it is like the crooks say, do as I say, not as I do.
LKF wrote on Mar 18, 2008 10:17 AM:This is what happens when the People sit by and let liberals and enviro-pagans make decisions. First, lets take a look at Ozone. Ozone is a good thing and the Sun is the primary producer of Ozone. Lightening also produces Ozone. Can someone tell me how to control the Sun & lightening? As for smoke from fireplaces... Anyone ever heard of the annual fires that ravage So. Calif? The soot from wood burning fireplaces is so miniscule that it boggles the mind to think that a beaurocrat would even think up such a stupid rule. Diesel engines are the best, most efficient method used to transport goods. The Federal and State agencies are the most efficient groups in existence whose purpose is to destroy jobs based on false studies and outright lies used to deceive the People. Bottom line here is that I will burn wood anytime I get cold and to hell with the AQMD and all the other enviro-pagans who have dedicated themselves to taking away basic, common sense freedoms.
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