AQMD BOARD ADOPTS ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE INITIATIVES

Oct. 10, 1997

Launching a new era in Southland air pollution control, the South Coast Air Quality Management District governing board today unanimously adopted guiding principles and a 10-point series of initiatives to ensure environmental equity.

Proposed last month by newly elected AQMD Chairman William A. Burke, the proposals are intended to avoid disproportionate environmental impacts on low-income or minority communities.

"Today’s action should leave no doubt in the minds of Southland residents about this board’s commitment to clean air, a commitment that extends to all communities and all corners of our four-county jurisdiction," Burke said after the vote.

Acting Executive Officer Barry R. Wallerstein called the board’s action "precedent-setting," saying it would better focus to the agency’s air quality programs.

"It will better integrate public input and make us more responsive to the cumulative impacts our communities face," Wallerstein said.

The four guiding principles endorsed by the governing board were:

• All basin residents have the right to live and work in an environment of clean air, free of airborne health threats;
• Government is obligated to protect public health;
• The public and private sectors have the right to be informed of scientific findings concerning hazardous and toxic emission levels, and to participate in the development and implementation of adequate environmental regulations in their communities; and
• The (AQMD) governing board is to uphold the civic expectation that the public and private sectors of the basin will engage in practices that contribute to a health economy and truly livable environment."

The board adopted Chairman Burke’s 10-point initiatives and staff’s recommendations to begin implementing them immediately:

1. Launch a series of monthly "town hall" in evenings and on weekends to give the public better access to AQMD officials and "improve citizen involvement" in air quality policies. The initial meeting will be in the Los Angeles port area in November and the next in the Rialto-Colton Inland Empire area in December, with others planned next year throughout the basin.
2. Embark upon the first comprehensive study of toxic hot spots in a decade. While AQMD monitors toxic emissions from individual sources, the only time it attempted to assess the cumulative impacts from multiple sources was in 1987. The agency will launch a 15-month update of this study. In addition, it will create two "special micro-scale monitoring" devices to measure neighborhood toxic levels. Equipment for this initiative is expected to cost up to $400,000.
3. Create "community response teams." AQMD already has an emergency response team to support firefighters in incidents when lives are endangered. But the new teams will respond to chronic community concerns that, while not immediately life-threatening, may have long-term impacts.
4. Step up review of environmental impact reports on projects that may impair air quality. Currently, AQMD receives 50 EIRs a month but only comments on one or two. Now, the agency will shift more staff to this effort. It also will increase support for local governments making land-use decisions.
5. Create a task force with representatives of business, environmental and community groups as well as board members to seek consensus on solutions to environmental justice concerns and make recommendations to the governing board.
6. Participate in the City of Los Angeles’ Environmental Justice Forum Oct. 25.
7. Create incentives to clean-up or remove diesel engines in the basin. Diesel exhaust is associated with a variety of toxic and cancer health effects and is a major smog contributor.
8. Spend up to $150,000 to buy better equipment to help inspectors responding to citizen complaints.
9. Propose new guidelines to ensure that the 4,400 portable engines operating in AQMD’s jurisdiction don’t create localized adverse air quality impacts, especially next to schools and hospitals.
10. Review AQMD’s two toxic air contaminant rules to determine if more chemicals should be covered, whether the rules’ health risk thresholds triggering safeguards need to be changed or any other approaches to reduce toxic risks need to be considered.

Wallerstein said implementing these initiatives can be done in an economically sensitive manner that will not adversely affect local businesses. Staffing resources will be redirected from other programs and equipment purchases will come out of the agency’s existing equipment reserve fund.

AQMD is the air quality control agency for all or parts of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

# # #