Holes in air rules prompt lawsuit

Clean-air advocates say farmers get too much slack; report may resolve the issue.

By Mark Grossi
The Fresno Bee

(Updated Thursday, January 30, 2003, 5:18 AM)

Clean-air activists again are suing the federal government over loopholes for farmers, claiming a dust-control rule is unfairly skewed for the San Joaquin Valley's largest industry.

Medical, community and environmental groups filed Wednesday in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to challenge partial federal acceptance of the rule, which is designed to control particle pollution from unpaved roads, construction sites and open areas.

On-field farming is exempt from the rule. The activists also noted an overall cleanup plan for such Valley particle pollution should have been ready in 1993.

The same activists -- the Sierra Club, Medical Advocates for Healthy Air and the Latino Issues Forum -- last year sued the federal government over a 25-year-old farm exclusion from a federal air permit program. The government has agreed to enforce the permit program.

In the new lawsuit, activists say farmers gain other loopholes as well. "Implements of husbandry" -- such as tractors -- on unpaved roads are exempt, and farms less than 320 acres are not covered in the rule.

Federal officials on Wednesday said all of the activists' issues would be answered this spring with an overall particle-pollution cleanup plan from the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District.

"We are disappointed that

[activists] take this approach," said Jack Broadbent, air division chief for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Pacific Southwest region. "I understand their concern, but we believe we can work together to solve the Valley's air problems."

But activists say the government must be challenged.

"We've already seen 10 years of delay," said lawyer Mike Sherwood of Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, representing the activists. "We have little faith in their promises at this point."

Farming accounts for about 25% of the particle pollution in the Valley, and unpaved roads another 25%, according to state figures.

"The loopholes in this regulation exempt nearly half of all the sources," said Sierra Club member Kevin Hall of Fresno. "That is not regulation; that is playing favorites."

Efforts to reach the California Farm Bureau for comment were unsuccessful.

Particle pollution -- dust, soot, chemical and other specks -- can trigger asthma attacks and other lung problems. It also has been linked with increased rates of heart attacks.

"We have found that particulate pollution is the most harmful form of air pollution to the human lung," said Kevin Hamilton, Fresno respiratory therapist and member of the Medical Advocates for Healthy Air.

The Valley air district has passed controls that have taken many tons of this pollution out of the air over the last decade, officials said. "We have 50 different control measures in [the rule in question]," said Josette Merced Bello, a spokeswoman with the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District.

She said the district is working with several researchers to determine the best ways to curb dust on farms. Different types of crops will have different particle-pollution control strategies, she said.

The strategies would be included in an overall particle pollution cleanup plan. The first draft should be available in late February, Bello said. Officials hope to have a completed plan for the EPA by April.

If a complete plan is not submitted by Aug. 28, Bello said, the district faces federal sanctions, which would begin with extra costs for large businesses trying to locate or expand in the Valley. Eventually, federal road-building funds for the Valley could be held up.

The reporter can be reached at mgrossi@fresnobee.com or 441-6316