Pollution Control

What's on Congress' to-do list The Senate left town Friday for its August recess, a week after the House. Both chambers are scheduled to reconvene Sept. 8. When the lawmakers return, a proposed overhaul of the nation's healthcare system will be just one of the weighty matters on their agenda. Here is a look at the status of several measures before Congress. Healthcare reform President Obama's effort to expand and improve insurance coverage is likely to dominate Capitol Hill for most of the fall.

A program to cut diesel emissions at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach by phasing out older cargo trucks is far ahead of schedule, and already has delivered cleaner air to nearby neighborhoods that have been enveloped by fumes, the mayors of both cities said Thursday. A year after the adjacent ports launched their "clean trucks" program, new, low-emission big rigs now account for about a third of the trucks hauling cargo to and from the complex, the busiest harbors in the nation.

The Environmental Protection Agency would require oil- and coal-burning power plants to dramatically reduce hazardous air pollution under an agreement announced Friday that ends a long-standing lawsuit filed by environmentalists. The agreement -- which would probably boost electricity prices but could potentially save thousands of lives -- commits the EPA to set pollution standards by 2011 for the power plants that are responsible for nearly half of all emissions of mercury, which can harm brain development in fetuses and children.

The Assembly on Wednesday defeated one of the most fought-over environmental bills of the year, a measure that would have relaxed laws used to prosecute polluters of California waterways. But the bill's author, state Sen. Jim Costa (D-Fresno), vowed to continue the fight and predicted that he could turn around the vote before the session ends next week. "Partisan testing went on today," Costa said after the bill, (SB 649), only mustered 37 of the 41 votes needed for approval.

Urban runoff lured Julia Louise-Dreyfus early Wednesday to the Hard Rock Cafe in West Hollywood, where the "Seinfeld" co-star hosted a continental breakfast on behalf of a controversial plan to manage the debris draining into the Pacific Ocean. Appearing in support were Ed Begley Jr., Donna Mills and Theresa Randall. Warren Littlefield of NBC Entertainment, Hard Rock owner Peter Morton, Castle Rock's Alan Horn and Norma Lear came, too. So did members of Heal the Bay, Environmental Media Assn.

Standing a few blocks from the sites of two 1988 accidents that sent crude oil oozing through the streets of Encino and Sherman Oaks and into the city sewer system, Los Angeles City Atty. James K. Hahn on Monday announced his opposition to a bill in the state Legislature that he said "would make it nearly impossible to prosecute a case like that today."

The idea was a simple one. If polluted Aliso Creek water were prevented from contaminating nearby Aliso Beach, swimmers and surfers could enjoy a cleaner ocean in the summer. It sounded good to the county's Environmental Management Agency and the Aliso Water Management Agency, which recently took their proposal to pump the creek's water far out to sea before the city's Design Review Board.

The sickness hits you slowly. Your body winds down like a turntable unplugged. Your muscles ache as if they've been bruised in a pro wrestling match. Your throat feels like Sam Kinison's must have after a show. It all starts with a morning of surfing in Venice. The jetty is firing off fun little faces that break right-handed. It's the day after a storm, so the swell is swell. Except for all the trash in the water that collects near the right-angled jetty--which forms nature's own toilet bowl.

It's a cool, sunny morning when Jim Conner revs up the outboard on the Boston Whaler and heads out for a run around what was once the second-largest lake in Florida. "You'll be surprised," he says. "And you'll think, 'What a shame we've allowed this to happen.' " Along the lake's north shore, Conner notes new growth in recently planted beds of bullrush and eelgrass.

In a White House ceremony, 3M Camarillo received the 1996 Presidential Award for Sustainable Development for its pollution prevention program. The award, given to company officials by Vice President Al Gore, was for 3M's Pollution Prevention Pays program, instituted in 1975. It is believed to be one of the first corporate-wide environmental programs in the United States with measurable results.