Outline of an approach to management standards

Abstract

In its book SMOG: A REPORT TO THE PEOPLE (1972), the Environmental Quality Laboratory (EQL) proposed that "management standards" be used as an approach to air quality in the Los Angeles Basin. The concept of management standards is based on technical, economic, and social feasibility. It envisions a relatively long-term, relatively stringent ambient air quality goal to be achieved eventually through a specified series of time-phased steps. Each step would set a target date by which there must be achieved substantial percentage reductions in the number of days per year on which the long-term ambient air quality goal is violated, reducing this figure by the ultimate target date to no (or insignificant) days of violation annually. Management standards thus aim at long-term goals, but they insist as well upon short-term, time-phased improvements -- each of which demands all feasible control steps, and each of which enhances air quality relative to what it was before. The outline that follows represents a first attempt at thinking about application of the management standards concept on a nationwide basis. The purpose is to achieve the commendable objectives of the Clean Air Amendments of 1970 in a manner that takes into account the varying problems and conditions that exist in different air quality regions. The approach suggested in the outline would preserve the strong features of the Clean Air Amendments; it would also require by law certain planning steps to have in fact been taken under, though they were not a formal part of, the Clean Air Amendments.