DUST-BUSTING MEASURES PAY OFF FOR DESERT AREA.

Byline: Gary Polakovic Riverside Press-Enterprise

Roaring desert gales gouge the Whitewater River bed, a twisting ribbon of dust starved for moisture most of the year. The gusts spread billowing clouds across the Coachella Valley, but the worst of it falls on Indian Avenue, a Palm Springs traffic artery.

A severe storm buries the road under dunes. They grow and engulf cars, prompting authorities to call in the sand squad to immediately clear streets before traffic grinds it, stirring more air pollution.

Forget brooms. This cleanup requires bulldozers, road graders and dump trucks.

``It blows like the dickens through there. We've had upwards of eight feet of sand on the road. We've had several vehicles covered with sand,'' said Jim Berryhill, assistant director of transportation for Palm Springs.

The sand squad is one tool local governments developed to defeat dust that sullies the reputation of America's playground for the well-heeled and famous. Afraid air pollution will cloud the valley's postcard image, local officials have launched what is widely considered the nation's most aggressive and successful program to tackle wind-driven particles.

New ordinances require wind breaks, soil stabilizers, more frequent street sweeping and dust-control plans for construction sites. Other innovative approaches, such as gluing the sand in its place, aim at keeping the desert dust where it belongs.

The effort is beginning to pay off. Five years after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency designated the valley one of the five worst places in the nation for particle smog, desert air is improving.

In the past three years, the valley violated the federal particle pollution standard just one time, down from an average of a dozen violations per year a decade ago.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District will ask the federal government this summer to declare the region free from health-threatening particles. If the Environmental Protection Agency agrees, it would mark the first time a community with severe particle pollution attained federal air quality standards.

``They've had a lot of success. It is very impressive,'' said Barbara A. Bates, particle pollution coordinator for the EPA's California office. ``They lead the country in controlling dust.''

About three-quarters of particle pollution in the desert comes from dust. In its natural state, desert topsoil seals itself with a crust that renders it impervious to most windstorms. But disturbed soil can scatter in a light breeze. Severe gusts can hurl 8,000 tons of fine particles into the air in a matter of hours, said Melvin D. Zeldin, particle pollution coordinator for the South Coast district.

Desert dust sources include housing pads, polo rings, dirt roads, bus stops and farms. Turf rakers that are used to seed golf courses produce about one pound of flyable particles a day.

Southern California's highest particle pollution reading ever came from Indio in July 1989, when concentrations reached 712 micrograms per cubic meter, nearly five times the federal limit.

To control the pollutant, Riverside County and nine Coachella Valley cities developed more than 100 dust-busting measures. About $6 million in state and federal funds will have been spent on particle pollution research in the Coachella Valley by September 1997.

The Sunline Transit Co., which provides bus service for the valley, last year became the first bus fleet in the nation powered entirely by alternative fuel. Sunline's 40 natural-gas-powered buses take a big bite out of diesel exhaust.

Local officials are considering spending $700,000 on high-efficiency street sweepers that run on alternative fuels and remove up to 90 percent more dust than conventional models, said Jerry Mechanick, particle pollution coordinator for the Coachella Valley Association of Governments.

Builders spray polymer cement to glue sand in place. Chris L. King, field superintendent for Del Webb California Corp., swears by the stuff, which the company uses at a construction site near a dust epicenter at Washington Avenue and Interstate 10. The glue costs one-tenth as much as paving, creates a windproof coating within three days and saves money by stabilizing housing pads that used to erode.

Miles of trees and fences have been built as dust screens. Rows of tamarisk upwind of the Rio Vista neighborhood in Cathedral City remove 80 percent of the sand, keeping it from inundating backyard swimming pools, said Jerry Jack, engineering associate for the city.

Wind-tracking stations were built in Desert Hot Springs, Indio, Palm Springs and Cathedral City. Air quality officials issue daily wind forecasts and builders must curtail earth-moving operations and reduce driving when gusts exceed 25 mph, which happens about 50 times a year.

And, of course, the cities rely on the sand squad. Cleanup crews from Temecula-based Apollo Street Sweeping and Utah Pacific of Murrieta must respond within 24 hours to remove sand from desert roads. If it sits too long, cars and trucks crush it into microscopic specks smaller than the width of human hair and winds deposit it in people's lungs.

``We're not trying to change the environment. We're trying to reduce the impact of man on the environment,'' Mechanick said.