Ecology: Menace in the Skies

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Losing Battle. Instead of disappearing, however, Los Angeles' characteristic whisky-brown smog has actually grown worse. The culprits are Los Angeles County's 3.75 million autos, which produce 12,420 of the 13,730 tons of contaminants released into the air over the county every day. (Some of the remainder is contributed by planes; a 4-engine jet expels 88 Ibs. of pollutants during each takeoff.) In addition to nearly 10,000 tons* of carbon monoxide, autos exhaust 2,000 tons of hydrocarbons and 530 tons of nitrogen oxides daily, enough to form a substantial brew of irritating smog.

At the urging of the pollution-control board, California decreed that cars sold in the state from 1964 on be equipped with a "blow-by" connection to feed unburned gasoline in the crankcase back into the engine manifold. Another law made it mandatory for all 1966 cars sold in the state to have devices that would reduce carbon monoxide emitted from the tail pipe by 50%, hydrocarbons by 65%. A further reduction in tail-pipe emissions will be required in 1970. Taking its cue from experts, the Federal Government has ordered Detroit to make similar improvements on all of its 1968 cars. But California-and the U.S.—are fighting a losing battle against the autos.

Inspections of California cars that have been driven more than 20,000 miles and are equipped with antipollution devices have shown that as many as 87% fail to meet state requirements for the suppression of hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide; the devices generally become less efficient with age and are improperly maintained. Even if the devices work perfectly, however, they cannot keep pace with the rapid growth of Los Angeles' auto population—which is expected to increase by another 2,000,000 vehicles by 1980. "Even if by then the average motor vehicle is producing only one-half of the pollution of today's average car," says County Air Pollution Control Officer Louis Fuller, "motor-vehicle pollution will be greater than it is now."

Electric Car Research. To solve the dilemma, Fuller believes, legal limitations may have to be placed on the movement of autos into heavily contaminated urban areas, Frank Stead, a top official in the state's public-health department, has a more drastic solution. "It is clearly evident," he says, "that between now and 1980 the gasoline-powered engine must be phased out and replaced with an electric-power package." The only realistic way of bringing about such a change, Stead feels, is to "serve legal notice that after 1980 no gasoline-powered motor vehicles will be permitted to operate in California."

Californians have not overstated the auto-pollution case. In a speech that had ominous implications for Detroit's automakers, HEW Secretary John Gardner suggested that "we need to look into the electric car, the turbine car, and any other means of propulsion that is pollution-free. Perhaps we also need to I find other ways of moving people around. None of us would wish to sacrifice the convenience of private passenger automobiles, but the day may come when we may have to trade convenience for survival."