EPA Set to Impose New Rule Limiting Airborne Particles

In a long-awaited action, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will impose a new federal air quality standard that proponents said Tuesday will lead to not only more healthful air but bluer skies by controlling small suspended particles in the atmosphere.

The particulate matter rule, to be announced today in Washington and take effect immediately, is expected to lead to new controls on oil refineries and power plants--even char-broil restaurants and livestock waste.

The standard is intended to reduce concentrations of particulate matter that is 10 microns or smaller. A micron is one-thousandth of a millimeter. Such fine particles, unlike larger ones, can get past the human body’s defenses and lodge deep in the lungs and cause respiratory problems, especially in children. Particulate matter also reduces visibility by absorbing light and forming atmospheric haze.

Reducing the tiny particles also will lessen the chemical ingredients that make up ozone, the invisible but health-damaging air pollutant commonly known as photochemical smog.

The so-called PM 10 rule will require the South Coast Air Quality Management District to submit to the EPA within nine months plans for meeting the standard within three years. The district could ask for a two-year extension beyond that. Failure to meet the deadline could result in the loss of federal clean air grant funds.

James Lents, executive officer of the AQMD, said Tuesday that he does not believe that some areas of the South Coast Air Basin can meet the standard for 10 to 20 years.

The basin includes Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Although some monitoring stations, such as those in Banning, Indio, El Toro and Los Alamitos, meet the standard, the eastern portion of the basin--particularly Riverside and San Bernardino counties--exceeds the standard.

Briefly, the health standard will limit particulate concentrations to no more than an annual average of 50 micrograms per cubic meter.

By comparison, annual averages are 86 in Riverside, 76 in Ontario, 85 in San Bernardino and 59 in Los Angeles.

The EPA will also impose a separate 24-hour standard.

A secondary standard or so-called welfare standard to increase visibility will be identical to the primary or health-based standard.

Despite problems in meeting the standard in all locations, Lents said each step will improve visibility.

“There will be more days of higher visibility, and the worst days will be better once we attain the standard,� Lents said.

Pressure for Controls

Federal, state and regional officials and environmental activists interviewed agreed Tuesday that the standard will increase pressure on the state Air Resources Board and South Coast Air Quality Management District to impose new controls on sources of particulate matter.

“This will make a big difference in control of nitrogen oxides and sulfates,� Gladys Meade of the American Lung Assn. of California said.

Mark Abramowitz of the Coalition for Clean Air added, “PM 10 is directly linked to nitrogen oxide controls, because a significant portion of PM 10 is nitrates.�

In the South Coast Air Basin, emissions of oxides of nitrogen and sulfur account for half of all particulate matter. That would indicate that new attempts will have to be made to control particulate emissions from power plants and oil refineries.

The EPA has debated issuing such a standard since 1984.

California has had a tougher rule since 1983 but, unlike the federal standard, the state standard has served more as a goal than a standard because it contains no deadline for achieving it.

Nonetheless, the state’s standard or goal has been cited as an added legal basis for tougher controls on emissions of certain air pollutants in order to reduce ozone levels. Additionally, the state standard was directly responsible for the state Air Resource Board’s decision last year to apply progressively tougher emission controls on heavy-duty diesel buses and trucks. Those controls will not begin to be felt until 1991, however.