Curbs on Dust in the West Targeted
The EPA wants to drop the clean-air rules for rural areas. An official with the air quality district for Owens Valley calls it 'outrageous.'
By Janet Wilson, Times Staff Writer
Bush administration officials are moving to strip significant clean-air protections from broad areas of California and other Western states, saying that rural areas should no longer have to meet federal rules for windblown clouds of dust, and that mining and farming operations also should be exempt.
The proposed rules were published in the Federal Register on Tuesday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. They would become final later this year after a public comment period.
In contrast to rural areas, the proposal would toughen rules on so-called coarse particulates in urban areas, including parts of Southern California. In Riverside and San Bernardino counties, dust from roads and construction sites has been a major contributor to smog. That part of the proposal has not been a subject of major controversy.
The pullback in rural areas, which drew praise from the mining industry and condemnation from air regulators and environmentalists, would particularly affect places such as the Owens Valley, which has the worst dust storms in the nation — a product of Los Angeles' draining of Owens Lake. The head of the regional air pollution control agency there called the administration's proposal "outrageous."
Although the rule would apply nationwide, its greatest impact would be in the Western states because the West has much larger rural areas and because dust is a greater concern in arid regions....
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dust18jan18,0,2575406.story?coll=la-home-local