AQMD staff presented the initiatives to the Board in a 60-page white paper . The recommendations in today's white paper contain the most feasible options from those proposals. It currently includes about 360 facilities in the Los Angeles Basin, including all of the major power plants and oil refineries. The program is designed to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions from 105 tons per day to 27 tons per day by 2003, at a lower cost than traditional pollution control programs. The program also targets reductions for sulfur oxides.
Nitrogen oxides combine with hydrocarbons to form ozone, one of the region's worst pollutants.
Both nitrogen and sulfur oxides also form particulates, which have been linked to increased death rates. The region's largest spray booth operations will have to further reduce their smog-forming emissions under a measure adopted by AQMD's Board today. Alternative compliance options and certain exemptions are provided to lower compliance costs. The program pays for the cost difference between a new diesel engine and a lower-emissions model. A bidder's conference is scheduled for Feb. 8 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. in AQMD's auditorium in Diamond Bar.