Now that a task force has decided that the Allegheny County Health Department should keep its pioneering air pollution regulatory program, the county will push for an overhaul of its outdated air toxics regulations as well.

County Executive Dan Onorato will ask the Board of Health Wednesday to form a committee to work on new guidelines that would be used by the Health Department to assess toxic emissions when it considers permits for new, expanded or existing air pollution sources. The board of health oversees the Health Department.

"[Mr. Onorato] will ask the board to create a well-balanced advisory group to review best practices for air toxics regulation from across the country and come back to the board with recommendations," said County Manager James Flynn Jr., who is also a member of the Board of Health.

The county's existing air toxics rules, adopted in 1988, lists 800 chemicals that were thought to be pollutants hazardous to human health. But those rules lack specific risk assessments, have never been updated and contain no exposure limits.

Mr. Onorato's new air toxics initiative comes just six months after Mr. Flynn, his representative on the Health Board, moved to table new air toxics guidelines proposed by a citizens advisory committee to the board. Board members voted 8 to 1 to table the new guidelines.

That proposal, which a subcommittee worked on for four years, would have covered 300 hazardous chemicals, including all 187 hazardous air pollutants listed in the federal Clean Air Act as well as those on local industries' federal Toxic Release Inventory listings.

In November, at a University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health program on air toxics regulation, Mr. Flynn said he was content to wait until new statewide air toxics guidelines were enacted.

A state Department of Environmental Protection Air program official said at that meeting that enacting new air toxics rules wasn't a high priority and could take up to three years to complete.

Mr. Flynn said last week that he led the move to table the Air Quality Advisory Committee's air toxics proposal in July because it did not represent a consensus of the full 19-member committee and was brought to the board on a split vote by six members.

"We want and need a broad-based task force that includes academics, industry and environmental representation to do this and get buy-in from all stakeholders," Mr. Flynn said. "That's what was missing before."

Myron Arnowitt, state director of Clean Water Action and a member of the air toxics subcommittee, took issue with Mr. Flynn's assessment of the subcommittee's makeup -- it was chaired by a Neville Chemical company official. But he said he welcomed the county's decision to reconsider new toxics rules.

"For the Board of Health to take this off the table and commit to updating the toxics guidelines is certainly a positive," Mr. Arnowitt said. "We don't want to waste four more years talking about it but we would be happy to participate in any new rule-making effort."

Mr. Flynn said the Health Board will establish the time frame for formulation and approval of new air toxics rules.

"My hope as county manager and a board member is we're going to have enough representation from all stakeholders," he said. "That will be key."

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