Ecology: Menace in the Skies

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Evolution of Control. Alarmed by ever-murkier skies, increasing property damage, unpleasant odors and more frequent pollution alerts, communities, states and the Federal Government have finally begun to mount a systematic attack on air pollution. They have been able to use as a model the pioneering antipollution program of Los Angeles, which evolved out of sheer necessity. Though the city has frequent temperature inversions and lies in a mountainrimmed bowl that traps the pollutants, Los Angeles had practically no pollution problem until the 1940s, when it began its explosive growth in population and industry.

Almost overnight, the clear air that had played so important a role in drawing moviemakers to Hollywood was replaced by palls of smoke, a brownish haze and offensive odors that made city life irritating and unpleasant. Concerned Angelenos began to come forward with California-size plans to solve the problem. One suggestion was to bore mammoth tunnels through the surrounding mountains, install huge fans in them and literally suck the smog from the Los Angeles basin into the desert to the east. There was one drawback: operating the fans for a day would require the total annual power output of eight Hoover Dams. A proposal to install giant mirrors to focus the sun's rays, heat the air, and thereby cause it to carry pollution up through the inversion also turned out to be impractical; even if the entire basin were a giant mirror, scientists calculated, not enough heat would be generated to do the job.

Then, backed by aroused citizens, Los Angeles County established a control board and vested it with the authority to control any pollution released into the atmosphere from Los Angeles County, an area of 4,000 sq. mi. Running roughshod over objections from many business leaders, the board established regulations to limit the amount of pollutants released into the air by industry, banned the use of high-pollution fuels and the burning of junked cars and garbage. To further limit pollution, the board even ordered that paint containing volatile, smog-forming chemicals not be sold in containers larger than quart size. It reasoned that such a regulation would discourage large users from purchasing high-pollutant paints.

To prove that it meant business, the board brought to court and won conviction of thousands of pollution violators. It was backed to the hilt by Angelenos. In protest against an oil company that was convicted of a pollution offense, 1,500 residents returned their credit cards issued by the firm. On a single day in 1958, the board closed down $58 million worth of incinerators; instead of burning garbage, the county began hauling it as far as 40 miles away to use as land fill. Aided and goaded by the board, Los Angeles oil refineries developed new techniques to reduce sulphur and to trap and recycle malodorous wastes; the refineries became the cleanest and least offensive in the world. Power companies were ordered to use low-sulphur natural gas whenever available, and required to use fuel containing a minimum amount of sulphur the remainder of the time.