A push by some lawmakers and Gov. Janet Napolitano to take new steps to clean the Phoenix area’s dirty air is coming to a head as the measure is prepared for formal consideration.
Initially a sweeping array of anti-pollution steps mostly targeting particulates and ozone, the bill introduced by Sen. Carolyn Allen, R-8, was immediately gutted early in the legislative session.
However, following months of behind-the-scenes negotiations by state officials, health advocates, industry representatives and others, numerous provisions either would be restored or added under a proposed large amendment that is to be considered by a House-Senate conference committee.
Still, the bill (S1552) represents a scaled-back version of the original proposal.
Surviving key elements include requiring local governments to pave roads, banning the use of leafblowers to blow debris onto a public roadway, prohibiting use of off-highway vehicles in certain areas on high-pollution days and expanding the use of the Phoenix area’s cleaner-burning gasoline to neighboring Pinal County, a semi-rural area that is increasingly becoming suburbanized.
Industry representatives succeeded in toning down or eliminating numerous provisions during the negotiations and some are still in play, said Allen and Rep. Ray Barnes, R-7, who is the leading House member working on the issue.
“Everybody likes the bill but they don’t want to be in it,” said Barnes, chairman of the House Environment Committee.
Backers: Inaction could mean cuts in federal highway funds
Barnes and Allen and other supporters of the bill, including Napolitano’s Department of Environmental Quality, say state action is needed to clean Phoenix’s air for health reasons and to avoid triggering federal Environmental Protection Agency sanctions that could restrict construction projects and cut federal highway money.
“It’s a little frightening to me to hear some of the attitudes of people that I’ve known to be bright that think that they’re not really going to do that. I don’t know (whether) a state that has such a problem with transportation now should be thumbing their nose at the EPA,” Allen said.
Provisions shorn from the bill early on would have subjected more vehicles to emissions testing in the Phoenix and Tucson areas, imposed new restrictions on farm tilling and implemented a new system to cumulatively measure requirements for anti-pollution steps.
And while Pinal County motorists still would be required to use the special blends of gasoline used in Maricopa County, the bill no longer would require residents to have their vehicles tested for emissions except for the existing requirement for commuters who drive into Phoenix.
Environmentalist Sandy Bahr, a Sierra Club lobbyist, said she wants more in the bill but supports the draft amendment as a package with steps being taken by Maricopa County.
“We’ll have to take a look at it along with county measures to see whether it’s enough” to satisfy the EPA, Bahr said. “If it’s not enough, they’ll have to come back in a special session.”
The EPA on March 15 gave the state until the end of the year to adopt a plan to reduce unhealthy levels of dust in the Phoenix area’s air.
Primary causes of dust pollution in the Phoenix area are windblown dirt from construction sites, vacant lots, road building, farm fields, unpaved parking lots and roads, both paved and unpaved, the EPA said.
Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.