| June 1, 2007 The South
Coast Air Quality Management District’s Governing Board today adopted a
far-reaching clean air plan to address the public health crisis resulting
from the nation’s worst air pollution.
“Air pollution has created a silent epidemic responsible for up to 5,400
premature deaths each year,” said William Burke, Ed.D., AQMD’s Governing
Board Chairman. “We must go beyond business-as-usual solutions to achieve
healthful air for Southland residents.”
AQMD’s Governing Board today adopted its 2007 Air Quality Management Plan
following a public hearing at its Diamond Bar headquarters.
The plan lays out a detailed strategy for meeting the federal
health-based standards for PM2.5 (fine particulate) by 2015 and 8-hour ozone
by 2024 while accounting for and accommodating future expected growth.
The overall benefits of the plan exceed its cost by a factor of more than
6 to 1. The plan is forecast to cost $2.3 billion annually while its
benefits, principally from reduced health effects, will be $14.6 billion
annually.
Most of the pollution reductions must come from mobile sources, a
category that includes everything from cars to heavy-duty trucks to
locomotives and ships, and is currently responsible for about 75 percent of
all smog- and particulate-forming emissions.
To achieve these goals, the plan relies on successful implementation of
dozens of air pollution control measures -- primarily by the state Air
Resources Board, but also by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),
AQMD, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and the Southern California
Association of Governments.
The plan includes 37 control measures proposed for adoption by AQMD,
including mitigating emissions from new commercial and residential
developments; further reductions from industrial facilities through
modernization of equipment and proposals to reduce pollution from
wood-burning fireplaces and restaurant charbroilers.
The plan now must be approved by the state Air Resources Board and
submitted to EPA for its review and approval.
You may view the entire
clean air
plan on the web.
AQMD is the air pollution control agency for Orange County and major
portions of Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
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