Ventura County's air will fail to meet state and federal health standards through the end of the century, according to a draft 1991 Air Quality Management Plan due to be released today.

But for the first time since the Air Pollution Control District was created in 1968, the plan shows that pollution-causing emissions will decline through the year 2000 in Ventura County, despite population and business growth.

The county's population is expected to increase to 893,040 by 2010, an increase of 45% since the last Air Quality Management Plan was written in 1987. The air quality plan outlines the county's strategy to reduce pollution and is required for all districts that fail state standards.

"When you are looking at that kind of growth and continue to see emissions decrease, that's significant improvement," said William Mount, the district's planning chief and principal architect of the air quality plan.

The plan would reduce pollution-causing emissions by about a third, far short of the 50% to 70% in reductions needed to meet federal and state standards.

As new technology becomes available, Mount said, the district will continue to revise the plan and add new regulations.

But environmentalists said Monday that the Air Pollution Control District should have created a plan that would clean up the county's air enough to meet state and federal standards more quickly.

"We think our district has a legal obligation to create a plan that allows the citizens to breathe clean air," said Pat Baggerly of the Ventura County Environmental Coalition. "That's the only job they have. Their job is not to compromise with industry."

Baggerly cited a plan created by the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which includes Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

"They have shown that they can attain health-based standards, and they have the dirtiest air in the country," she said.

But Mount said the South Coast plan depends in part on technology that does not yet exist. For instance, he said, the plan would require conversion of almost all motor vehicles to electricity and require completely non-polluting paints.

"Those are pie-in-the-sky controls," Mount said. However, if the technology evolves, the Ventura district will implement new regulations, he said.