Trump administration delays smog cleanup plan

June 09--The elusive Clean Air Act goal for all Americans to breathe healthy air has been delayed for a year.

The Trump administration has declined to move forward with an Obama- era health standard for ozone, the hallmark pollutant for summer smog, saying it needs more time for analysis.

The decision by Scott Pruitt, U.S Environmental Protection Agency administrator, has the practical effect of giving states and local jurisdictions an additional 12 months to develop and later impose air pollution cleanup plans needed to meet the standard.

In a June 6 letter to Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, Pruitt wrote that the delay needed is for the EPA evaluating the impacts of naturally occurring "background" ozone, ozone that blows in from overseas and unusual events that cause ozone levels to rise.

Pruitt's letter also said that he established a task force "to develop additional flexibilities for states to comply with the ozone standard."

Southern California air quality officials say the local impact will be minimal because they are already working on various strategies to reduce ozone to meet less stringent health standards set by the Clinton and Bush administrations in 1997 and 2008, which have respective deadlines of 2023 and 2031.

"We are doing everything we can, and attaining the shorter-term goals are pretty challenging," said Philip Fine, the deputy executive officer of the South Coast Air Quality Management District. The district regulates air pollution in Orange County, and the urban areas of Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Pruitt's directive is expected to push Southern California's anticipated deadline to meet the 2015 ozone standard from 2037 to 2038, Fine said.

This standard calls for nearly every day of the year to have no more than 70 parts parts per billion of ozone over eight hours. That level was recommended by an EPA-commissioned panel of mostly university scientists who had reviewed hundreds of health studies.

Ozone is a gas that attacks the moist tissues in eyes, noses, throats, and lungs. It aggravates cardiac and respiratory conditions and causes nausea, coughing, burning eyes and runny noses. It is also associated with early deaths.

It forms when different kinds of pollutants react in the atmosphere and it is at its worst during the afternoons of hot, stagnant days.

Last year, Southern California's ocean-to-mountains air basin failed the 2015 ozone standard during 132 days. This year's smog season, with 39 unhealthful days so far, is off to a worse start, according to state data.

Fine said the reasons for the regulatory delay cited by Pruitt, including the flows of pollution from overseas, are well-known issues that have not caused delays of previous health standards.

David Pettit, a Santa Monica-based attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said, "It's a step backward in a longer process to move backward on the Clean Air Act."

Earlier this year, the Trump administration asked a federal judge to hold off on hearings for a lawsuit in which an industry group is suing to EPA to block the ozone rule. The administration didn't want the litigation to move forward because it was reviewing the standard.

In his June 6 letter, Pruitt wrote the costs of complying with the ozone health standard "have significantly increased."

He added that the EPA is committed to implementing the standard "without interfering with local decisions or impeding economic growth."

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