Allegheny County advised to take its time on air rules

If Allegheny County speeds up a revision of its air pollution rules, it's likely to be a costly mistake, Health Department officials said on Thursday.

"It's a really large task and if we hire a consultant ... it's a multimillion-dollar task," said Jim Thompson, the air program manager. "And because nothing substantive can be changed, all you'd have is a cosmetic change to the format of the regulations."

The County Board of Health is slated to discuss a proposal on Wednesday that could put a consultant in charge of the project. Department director Dr. Bruce Dixon said he put the item on the board's agenda after discussions with County Executive Dan Onorato. Onorato wanted an update on last year's recommendations from the Environmental Air Quality Task Force, which included the revision, Dixon said.

Thompson's staff has been slowly working on it but lacks the manpower to do it any faster, department officials said. The revision isn't urgently needed, Dixon said, adding that some board members may disagree.

"I'm not going to pay a fortune for somebody to do work for a job that has questionable value in accelerating it," he said. "It's not like something we have to get done by next year."

Officials in the County Manager's Office, which has members on the board and task force, could not be reached for comment. A spokeswoman for Onorato, reached in the late afternoon, said it was too late in the day for his office to respond.

In January 2010, the task force said the county should simplify its code, among several recommendations. Base standards accepted from the state should be put into one section and more stringent additions from the county into another. But the process is too time-consuming to do quickly, Thompson said.

Further, many of the laws were passed so the county could meet federal Clean Air Act standards, and those laws can't legally be weakened in another part of the code. That ultimately means the revisions change little, though doing them takes resources away from enforcing the law, Thompson said.

Environmentalists have said that it could also undermine the department's autonomy and eventually lead to the state taking over air monitoring in the county.

It's "the terrible idea that's refused to die," said Joe Osborne, legal director for the Group Against Smog and Pollution. "It's a bad idea, a waste of time and it does not accomplish what they think it would accomplish."