Coalition pushes for teamwork at summit

Operation Clean Air unites lawmakers, industry leaders, more.

By Mark Grossi and Barbara Anderson
The Fresno Bee

(Updated Thursday, April 24, 2003, 7:22 AM)

An industry representative Wednesday borrowed from Fresno State football coach Pat Hill in challenging the San Joaquin Valley to clean up the country's second-dirtiest air basin.

"You need to shut up and do something about it," agriculture spokesman Roger Isom told several hundred people attending a summit on voluntary action to curb air pollution.

Isom was paraphrasing Hill, who tells his players, "Shut up and hit somebody." For the Valley's 3.3 million residents, Isom's comment means everyone must work together as a team to clean up the air.

The team approach was a major theme in the Operation Clean Air summit, the brainchild of Fresno Mayor Alan Autry, Fresno County Supervisor Bob Waterston and others.

The summit brought together government, nonprofit and industry representatives to start a battle plan that will operate separately from the legal process at the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District.

The Operation Clean Air coalition wants special status for federal money and tax credits to help businesses retool with cleaner technology, help industries replace old vehicle fleets and get people to leave their cars and ride the bus.

The special status would be called an Air Quality Empowerment Zone. Coalition officials said the zone would help clean air and promote economic growth.

Three Valley congressmen -- Reps. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa, Devin Nunes, R-Visalia, and Cal Dooley, D-Fresno -- attended the summit and reacted to the call for federal support.

"You kind of look at us as an ATM machine for doing this, and we're willing to be the ATM machine for Operation Clean Air," Dooley said. "But you have to put together a strategic plan and expand your coalition and groups."

The coalition must reach out to organized labor, including the United Farm Workers and the Building Trades Association, Dooley said. "You're going to have to put together that political coalition."

Operation Clean Air, which was criticized a few weeks ago as not representing the whole community, was again characterized as being less than inclusive. Coalition officials added a member of Fresno Metro Ministry, a major critic of the process, to join a discussion panel.

"We need to have farmworkers, rural communities and grass-roots organizations to reflect the diversity of the Valley," said Carolina Simunovic, environmental health coordinator for Metro Ministry. "You need the overlying community involved."

But, in addition to Metro Ministry, the coalition also added panelists from Fresno-based Medical Alliance for Healthy Air. Officials said they will continue seeking opinion from various community groups.

"We've heard inclusiveness today," Autry said. "We got the message."

Medical officials had a message for the coalition, too: Make health the No. 1 priority ahead of everything else.

A 16-year-old asthmatic described how bad bouts of Valley air affect him.

"It almost feels like you're drowning," said Caleb Schneider of Hanford. "I just wish every day could be a good day to breathe."

It is more dangerous to breathe in the 25,000-square-mile Valley than any other place in the country except Los Angeles, by most measures. In one category -- the eight-hour or long-term smog measures -- the Valley has been the worst in the nation for four years.

"We're living in a cesspool as far as the air is concerned," said Dr. Leo Shishmanian, a Fresno radiologist. Shishmanian was one of about a dozen doctors to attend the air summit.

The Valley must also make a case for new technology, Waterston said. The area should become a well-known testing ground for hydrogen-powered vehicles and other innovations.

The coalition released a 112-page draft plan, divided into 11 major working groups, such as agriculture, building industry and health care. Each group canvassed the Valley for opinions and came up with practical suggestions.

For instance, the Valley has 2,800 school buses, and most are diesel. More than 300 are a quarter-century old or older.

"One was built in 1933, and it's still being used," said California State University, Fresno, President John Welty, who discussed ideas to curb pollution in the education sector. "We need a clean fleet as well as the fueling and maintenance facilities for it."

Mark Grossi can be reached at mgrossi@fresnobee.com or 441-6316; Barbara Anderson can be reached at banderson@fresnobee.com or 441-6310.