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http://www.bakersfield.com/state_wire/story/2614621p-2660373c.html
By KIM BACA, Associated Press Writer
Friday February 14, 2003, 12:25:04 AM
FRESNO, Calif.(AP) - Federal regulators have asked California lawmakers to remove a provision from state law that allows the agriculture industry an exemption from some federal air pollution regulations, an effort one state lawmaker says is already under way.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says the state needs to get the exemption off the books to help the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District - which is in charge of one of the dirtiest air basins in the nation - enforce a new plan it devised to clean up the air.
Valley air regulators have been trying to comply with the federal Clean Air Act so they do not get hit with sanctions that include millions of dollars in fines and a freeze in highway funds. To comply, valley regulators plans to require large farms, which previously had received the exemption, to go through a permitting program.
Even though valley air regulators do not plan to offer the exemptions any longer, the EPA worries that with the exemption still on the state's books, the valley regulators won't be able to enforce their permit plan.
The state is "hampering the district's effort to have a fully compliant program," said EPA spokeswoman Lisa Fasano Wednesday.
Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, who plans to introduce a series of bills to address the valley's air pollution, said he has already started the process by holding the first hearing on the issue last week.
The Senate Select Committee on Central Valley Air Quality will hear issues regarding agriculture, such as dairy emissions and agriculture burning, including bans on wood-burning stoves in the valley in the next eight months.
"I think the (EPA's) goal is absolutely correct - we absolutely need to end exemptions," Florez said.
The California Farm Bureau, which has filed a lawsuit to get federal officials to study further how much agriculture actually pollutes before it ends exemptions, said it wasn't surprised by the EPA's request.
"We had heard that this was possibly going to happen," said Cynthia Cory, a Farm Bureau lobbyist in Sacramento. "It's probably a moot point in the San Joaquin Valley because the San Joaquin Valley has already done what EPA has asked them to do. This is a signal to the rest of the state that they are going to have to do similar actions."
Farm bureau officials also question how the permitting process will work.
"I am concerned about the impact it has on the ag community. It is going to be a huge amount of paper work," Cory said. "It's going to be a challenge, and it's going to be an expensive challenge."
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On the Net:
U.S EPA Region 9: http://www.epa.gov/region09/
Californian Farm Bureau Federation: http://www.cfbf.com