AQMD wants large firms' rideshare plans PDQ: major businesses face stiff fines if they miss deadline.

AQMD wants large firms' rideshare plans PDQ 

Thousands of large Southland businesses late in submitting mandatory rideshare plans are being given an ultimatum of sorts by regional air quality officials: Submit plans by June 30 or face stiff fines.

In a new twist, even big companies not contacted by the AQMD are required to submit trip-reduction plans, officials at the South Coast Air Quality Management District said last week.

Three years ago the AQMD approved a landmark regulation forcing all businesses in the four-county South Coast Basin with 100 or more employees to detail ways they would reduce traffic by organizing carpools, vanpools, offering subsidies for mass transit and implementing flexible work schedules.

Originally the district estimated only about 3,000 Southern California businesses would be affected, but has it revised that figure to 8,980.

Since July 1988, the air district has sent out 6,823 notices. As of last month, 4,331 plans have been submitted, 3,121 have been approved and 1,066 are being evaluated right now. The district says 144 plans have been disapproved recently.

That leaves about 2,500 notified firms that must meet the June 30 deadline or face penalties that range from $500 to $25,000 a day.

"In the past, companies sent in their plan only after we notified them," said AQMD spokesman Bill Kelly. "We aren't going to do that any more. The onus is now on the companies to submit the plans by June 1."

That's not the end of the story. The AQMD said it believes there are another 2,157 businesses that have not been notified but must still meet the deadline anyway. To determine who those firms are, the district is attempting to obtain mailing lists from the state and are holding public outreach workshops.

"We are trying to let them know there is a rule out there and that if we don't receive the plans in time, they will be subject to penalties," Kelly said.

Separately, the AQMD board, as part of its 1991 update to its 20-year pollution plan, is considering ratcheting down its rideshare rule to firms with as few as 50 employees -- a move that would bring thousands of smaller firms under the rideshare fold.

The goal of the original rideshare rule -- Regulation 15 -- was to increase the number of Southland commuters to 1.5 people per car from its present average of 1.1. If that was achieved, emissions of the two primary ingredients of smog, nitrogen oxide and reactive hydrocarbons, throughout the basin would be reduced by 2 percent.

That would translate into a reduction of one quarter of all commuter miles driven each day in Southern California. In general, the rule requires workers to carpool, vanpool or use buses or commuter rails one day a week.

In a sign that the AQMD has become more aggressive in enforcing Regulation 15, settlements reached by businesses with the district have gone up dramatically. Two years ago the AQMD settled with 16 companies for $230,500. In 1990 that figure went up to 26 companies and $564,010 for AQMD coffers. The largest settlements have been with Barbara-Ann-Langendorf Bakeries ($245,000), May Co. ($150,000), Hitachi Consumer Products of America ($70,000) and Humana Hospital West Hills ($30,000).