http://www.bakersfield.com/local/story/2675868p-2716458c.html
http://www.bakersfield.com/local/story/2675868p-2716458c.html
By VIC POLLARD, Californian Sacramento Bureau
e-mail: vpollard@bakersfield.com
Monday February 24, 2003, 10:34:47 PM
SACRAMENTO -- State Sen. Dean Florez has introduced a sweeping package of clean-air bills that would impose strict new rules on farms and dairies, take dirty old cars off the road and limit wood-burning fireplaces.
The measures immediately drew applause from environmentalists and health advocates.
"We're quite excited by what he's proposed," said Paul Gipe, chairman of the Kern-Kaweah chapter of the Sierra Club.
Agriculture representatives said they fear the new rules will only make farming more expensive without doing much to clean up the air, but they said they knew this was coming.
"We know that we're going to see a number of these types of bills come out of the Legislature this year," said Loron Hodge, manager of the Kern County Farm Bureau, "and while it may be a bitter pill to swallow, we know that we're going to have to do something."
Florez said it is a balanced proposal that imposes rules that are certain to be controversial among farmers, but also provides funding programs to help them pay for the cleanup measures.
"It's an aggressive package but I don't think it's offensive," Florez said. "The goal is to keep our eye on the bottom line, which is people's health."
The San Joaquin Valley has some of the dirtiest air in the nation, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been putting increasing pressure on state and local officials to crack down on polluters. Less than two weeks ago, the EPA issued a second demand for the state to end agriculture's exemption from clean-air rules that apply to other industries.
A proposal to do that is the centerpiece of the 10-bill package introduced by Florez, who chairs a special Senate Committee on valley air pollution.
The wording of all the bills is open to negotiations, but if passed, the exemption measure likely would require farmers to oil dirt roads, end open burning, install pollution controls on all kinds of now-exempt equipment, and change their plowing and discing practices.
A key target of critics of the exemption is the large number of diesel engines on irrigation pumps throughout the valley.
Hodge said that is a major point of friction because many of the relatively new pumps already meet emission standards.
"All it does is make you pay a fee to get a permit to qualify an engine," he said.
Another problem may be the timing of the end to the exemption.
The EPA has demanded that the state end the exemption by Nov. 23 of this year if it wants to avoid sanctions that could cost California millions of dollars in transportation funding.
Florez noted that any bill the Legislature passes probably could not go into effect until next Jan. 1. He said he hopes to negotiate a delay with federal officials.
Hodge and other farm representatives were delighted at another of the bills, which would outlaw a fee that PG&E charges to keep irrigation pumps hooked up to electricity year-round, even when they're not operating.
Farmers say the "standby" charges are a major cost factor, which is why many of them have switched to diesel engines.
Florez said there are some 4,500 diesel pumps in the valley and if they were converted to electricity, it would have a dramatic impact on air quality.
While elimination of the agricultural exemption would apparently outlaw open-field burning, a separate bill in the package would set a June 1, 2005, deadline to end the burning.
Florez hopes to ease the impact of such burning by another measure. It would require biomass plants, which turn plant waste into electricity, to use more farm waste. Critics say many of them prefer waste wood from urban building sites because it is cheaper to prepare as fuel for their boilers.
Two bills in the package would help farmers pay the costs of the anti-pollution measures.
One would provide new low-interest loans to farmers to install and upgrade all kinds of anti-pollution equipment. The other would expand an existing grant program that helps farmers upgrade diesel pump and tractor engines.
In another of the bills, Florez makes good on an earlier promise to seek expansion of the membership of the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District board beyond the elected city and county officials who now comprise it.
It would require state officials to appoint three additional members. They could come from a wide variety of fields, but the idea is to get experts on the board in medicine, economics and air pollution, Florez said.
Two of the bills are aimed not at agriculture, but at fireplaces and old automobiles.
One would prohibit traditional fireplaces in new homes, limiting them to low-emission fireplaces that meet new federal standards. It would also outlaw the use of wood-burning fireplaces on heavy smog days.
Another would end the state's current exemption from smog tests of cars built before 1974. Environmentalists say that allows some of the dirtiest cars to remain on the roads.
Florez's bill would apply the exemption only to cars over 45 model years old. This year, that would mean cars built before 1958.
Hodge said that although farmers and dairy owners are wary of the new wave of regulatory proposals, they would rather have Florez sponsoring them than some urban environmentalist lawmaker who doesn't know much about farming.
"We would hate to see someone who really doesn't understand agriculture try to write something to make us comply," Hodge said.