Air quality and industrial growth: the location of new industrial sources of pollution in non-attainment areas

The non-attainment issue is a complex social, economic, and environmental question in which the government's effort to make economic growth and industrial development compatible with environmental quality may result in timely and appropriate technological fixes. The Clean Air Act Amendments set standards for retaining ambient air quality, but those areas already in a non-attainment status are where the strongest pressure for new development is felt. Current policies use an offset or net benefit standard review to allow flexibility in reviewing some new sources, but further legislative steps are necessary for a rational urban growth policy. The author commends the Act for recognizing that industrial expansion should be regulated in order to protect the public health and welfare and air quality, but criticizes its focus on undefined ''major'' sources, the extension of the deadlines for compliance, its failure to set an attainment data for previously unregulated pollutants or for secondary ambient standards, and its failure to address areas reaching non-attainment status after the compliance data. 192 footnotes.