Page One

The Associated Press 

SAN FRANCISCO— San Francisco Bay area air quality officials released a new smog-reducing plan to cut emissions from water heaters, concrete coatings and wood varnishings. 

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District board, which oversees nine counties, voted Wednesday to call on consumers to use wood products with less solvents and stricter standards for coatings applied to concrete piles, traffic barriers, underground vaults and other structures. Under the plan, households planning to replace their gas-fired water heaters would find only cleaner-burning ones on the market. 

The agency estimates these measures will cost $1,000 to $11,400 per ton of pollution saved. 

ougher regulations are expected in 2003, when a study for better emissions savings is completed, said Jean Roggenkamp, district planning manager. 

Roggenkamp said the region met California’s stiff pollution standards — 30 percent tougher than federal standards — for 99 percent of the year. 

Emissions have dropped 1,500 tons per day 10 years ago to 1,100 tons today. That’s despite the region’s 30 percent population jump in the past 20 years. 

Roggenkamp said that reduction is mainly due to cleaner automobile engines. 

Environmentalists, however, say officials aren’t working aggressively enough to control traffic or come up with new mass-transit initiatives.