SANTA CLARITA / ANTELOPE VALLEY : Antelope Valley Officials Considering Change of Air Districts

LANCASTER —  When it comes to air pollution, some Antelope Valley political and business leaders would rather answer to regulators in Bakersfield than to the agency that cracks down on smog-choked Los Angeles.

To escape the nation’s toughest anti-smog rules, Lancaster and Palmdale are talking about pulling out of the South Coast Air Quality Management District and joining the less restrictive Kern County Air Pollution Control District.

Such a defection would be only the second time a community has left the vast South Coast district, which administers air pollution control regulations in Los Angeles and Orange counties and parts of San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

Secession proponents say the Antelope Valley, with relatively clear air, is being penalized for its ties to the South Coast district, which is trying to clean up some of the most polluted air in the nation. To do so, the district charges stiff emission fees, orders the installation of pollution-control devices and requires employers to encourage ride sharing.

The Antelope Valley does not need such measures, and less restrictive Kern County district rules would make it easier to attract new employers to the job-starved high desert, local leaders say.

But some environmentalists fear that looser pollution rules and more factories could turn the Antelope Valley into just another smoggy suburb--and jeopardize the area’s flight-testing jobs.

“In a way, you could look at this as permission to pollute four times more than if we were tied to Los Angeles,” said Zona Myers, a Palmdale activist. “It’s much less stringent (in Kern County). The heavy polluters would very much like this.”

Jane Williams, an environmental economist who lives in Rosamond, just over the Kern County line, said she believes Antelope Valley leaders will spoil their air quality in their haste to attract new jobs.

“People are failing to look at the trade-offs,” she said. “Rosamond is one of the most contaminated places in the country. Why? Because of lax enforcement by Kern County.”

Myers and Williams say increased air pollution will threaten the future of the Antelope Valley’s largest employer, Edwards Air Force Base, where NASA and Air Force test pilots flying highly advanced jets require virtually perfect visibility.

But members of the Antelope Valley Board of Trade, which is seeking the change in air quality regulations, say the move would cut red tape and fees, without smothering the area in a brown blanket of San Fernando Valley-type haze.

“I understand what (the environmentalists) are saying, but it’s just not true,” said Denise Henderson, president of the Board of Trade, composed of local business representatives and local government officials interested in promoting business development.

“We all still need to live by the rules of the (federal) Clean Air Act. We’re not talking about adding more pollutants to the air. We’re talking about having a new agency manage us.”

Henderson’s group received a boost last week when the Lancaster City Council urged the Board of Trade to continue talks with the Kern County district and pledged the help of the city’s staff. The Board of Trade will seek a similar endorsement next month from the Palmdale City Council.

“It appeals to me,” said Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford. “I think it’s more conducive to the solicitation of businesses to relocate up here. And it’s important to note that the aerospace industry seems to be endorsing this.”

Bret Banks, environmental control specialist at Lockheed’s Palmdale plant, said his company sees joining the Kern County district as “a more common-sense approach to regulation” that would not foul the Antelope Valley’s skies.

“We make airplanes, so we don’t want to degrade Edwards Air Force Base’s mission,” he said.

Banks and Henderson said Edwards officials have participated in the air regulation talks and support the switch to Kern County’s agency. But base spokesman John Haire said, “It’s an issue that’s political, and we’re not going to take sides.”

State law requires all communities to be part of an air pollution control district, but switching from one to another may not be easy.

Last year, the South Coast district allowed part of Riverside County, including the city of Blythe, to move into the Mojave Desert Air Quality Management District, based in Victorville. The state law that created the Mojave district would also allow it to add the Antelope Valley, if South Coast officials agreed.

But Antelope Valley leaders say a better match would be the Kern County district, which already includes the Antelope Valley cities of Tehachapi, California City and Ridgecrest; unincorporated towns such as Rosamond, Mojave and Boron; and most of Edwards Air Force Base.

Although the Kern district’s offices are in Bakersfield, it no longer regulates that city or other western sections of Kern County. Since 1992, the western, non-desert portion of Kern has been regulated by an agency that oversees the San Joaquin Valley.

Eastern Kern County shares weather conditions with and has strong economic ties to the Lancaster-Palmdale area, local leaders say. For example, many people who work in the Kern County portion of Edwards live in northern Los Angeles County.

But does the Kern County district want to take in the rest of the Antelope Valley? The answer is: Maybe, but with some misgiving.

Tom Paxson, head of the Kern County Air Pollution Control District, said his reaction, when Antelope Valley leaders first sought to expand his jurisdiction last year, was to worry.

His district has eight employees and an $800,000 annual budget. By comparison, the South Coast agency has 790 employees and a $97-million budget. “My initial concern was that we have a small, manageable district, and I think we are about as efficient, with the least bureaucracy, as any air control district you can find in the state,” Paxson said.

“My statement was that I would be reluctant to make any changes that would cause us to lose that.”

But Paxson’s governing board reacted favorably to a presentation in December by the Antelope Valley Board of Trade. In March, he will give his board a report on the pros and cons of merging with the Antelope Valley.

An expanded district would need a larger staff, he said, and it is uncertain whether the South Coast district will give up the Antelope Valley without a fight.

The South Coast board has not yet considered the issue. But district spokesman Sam Atwood pointed out that most of the Antelope Valley’s air pollution originates in the Los Angeles area and is carried north by the wind.

“In a sense, (the Antelope Valley’s) clean-air fate is tied to ours,” he said. “You can’t breathe clean air up there until we clean up the South Coast Air Basin.”

In recent years, Atwood said, the South Coast district has streamlined its bureaucracy and drafted some special, less restrictive pollution rules for the Antelope Valley.

“If there are other things we can discuss to address their concerns, we’d like to do that,” he said.