EPA Criticizes Air Agencies in California

Air pollution agencies in California, including the Los Angeles area, are failing to adequately penalize businesses that violate smog rules and pose a public health threat or nuisance, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says in a audit.

The probe concludes that fines are too low, especially for repeat offenders, to ensure that companies are taking air quality violations seriously.

“While [the] program was designed to deter companies from violations, it was not working as designed,” the audit by the EPA’s Office of Inspector General states.

Fines imposed by the South Coast Air Quality Management District are higher than those in other regions, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area. But they are still far lower than ones imposed by the federal government in air pollution cases.

The South Coast AQMD is responsible for enforcing clean air regulations--including a broad rule that prohibits fumes from posing a public nuisance--at thousands of businesses in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

*

In the audit’s sampling of 54 cases between October 1994 and March 1996, the average fine was $2,525 at the South Coast AQMD, compared to $1,253 at the Sacramento Metropolitan AQMD, $409 at the Bay Area AQMD and $278 at Monterey Bay’s pollution agency.

All were substantially lower than the $30,900 average assessed by the EPA in its air pollution cases.

Disagreeing with the audit’s findings, South Coast AQMD officials said Friday that their fines are fair, especially because they face legal restraints under California law.

AQMD prosecutor Peter Mieras said large fines cannot be imposed unless people are seriously injured or there is proven negligence by a company. He also said the EPA auditors chose to investigate only 12 cases in the region and neglected others, including 83 during the 1 1/2-year period in which companies were fined over $30,000 apiece.

*

“If you look at the whole picture, you’ll see that in egregious cases, we get very, very substantial penalties,” Mieras said, “but when we’re dealing with a small source and a lesser violation, we are doing the appropriate thing and getting less of a penalty.”

Linda Waade, executive director of the Coalition for Clean Air, a Santa Monica-based environmental group, criticized the AQMD for failing to impose the highest penalties allowed by state law.

“When a violation involves a public nuisance, and it’s about public health, we think the district needs to do absolutely everything possible to prevent recurrence,” she said. “The district needs to be as tough as possible.”

The EPA auditors said repeat violators are treated by the local agencies like first-time offenders and that most fines are too small to make corporate executives take notice or offset the economic benefit a company may get from failing to comply with pollution rules.

For example, Texaco’s oil refinery in Wilmington was fined $500 for a violation that arose in January 1995, when sulfur dioxide was leaked during a power outage and nearby residents complained about odors and illnesses.

*

Based on federal Clean Air Act guidelines, the auditors said the fine should have been $15,000. Added Waade: “I think a $500 fine for an oil company is low.”

AQMD officials, however, say the maximum fine under state law is $1,000 when no one exposed requires medical treatment. Up to $10,000 can also be sought only when the agency can prove negligence. In the Texaco case, Mieras said, the power outage was beyond the company’s control.

In another example, Mobil’s oil refinery in Torrance was fined $7,500 for gasoline odors during a tank spill in February 1995, after it had been charged with 10 other public nuisance violations during the previous year.

“This evidence of recurring violations, in our opinion, supports the conclusion that the company was not deterred by the AQMD’s previous enforcement actions,” the EPA audit states.

*

AQMD officials say they always analyze a company’s record when setting fines. But in the Mobil case, Mieras said, none of the prior problems was similar enough to the tank spill to warrant a higher fine. Also, there was no direct evidence of negligence, so the $10,000 maximum was not imposed, he said.

The local pollution agency has been criticized by environmentalists and its scientific advisors for relaxing its enforcement program. In an attempt to ease up on businesses and cope with a shrinking budget, it has scaled back its inspections of small industrial polluters while focusing on the largest companies, such as oil refineries. The agency receives 10,000 complaints about odors or other air quality problems yearly.