Regulators Order L.A., Orange Counties to Cut Fine-Particle Pollution

[papau]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-pollute30jun30.story

Regulators Order L.A., Orange Counties to Cut Fine-Particle Pollution
By Elizabeth Shogren and Miguel Bustillo
Times Staff Writers June 30, 2004

WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency declared Tuesday that 13 California counties, including Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego, are shrouded with unhealthy levels of fine particles and must reduce the deadly air pollutants or lose federal funding.

As a result of the EPA requirement, air pollution officials in the greater Los Angeles area must develop detailed blueprints to clean the air of the fine particles, just as they must for ozone, one of the main ingredients of smog. <snip>

Leavitt said much of the problem of particle pollution could be solved when two of the EPA's new programs — one to clean exhausts from off-road diesel engines and the other to reduce emissions from power plants — are fully implemented.

However, some California officials said they would need more help from Washington to meet the new standards. They said cars, trucks, planes, trains, ships and many of the other sources of particulate pollution are largely regulated by the federal government.<snip>

(but burning of farm waste, and residue from seasonal wildfires and wood-burning fireplaces are also problems)