AQMD chooses former industry consultant, EPA administrator to head air district for six months

DIAMOND BAR >> A month after firing its long-time executive officer, the South Coast Air Quality Management District goveing board voted unanimously Friday to hire former EPA administrator Wayne Nastri as acting chief of the four-county air district.

Nastri, 57, an industry environmental consultant and govemental relations professional, was given a six-month contract at an aual salary of $271,080.

The district will conduct a search for a permanent executive officer during the next six months, said John Benoit, board member who made the motion to approve Nastri’s salary.

“I look forward to working with the SCAQMD’s board and staff to continue to implement strategic and progressive air policies and clean the air for the region’s 17 million residents,” Nastri said in a written statement.

His appointment was made after the district fired Barry Wallerstein, who had served for 23 years. Many in the environmental community called Wallerstein’s dismissal an attempt by the board to replace someone seen as a tough-minded enforcer of air quality rules with a more business-friendly administrator.

On one occasion, the four-hour meeting was interrupted by activists from the Sierra Club’s My Generation seated in the audience. Dressed as clowns, about seven protesters shouted a message that insinuated the anti-pollution district was aligned with the petroleum industry instead of public health. They were escorted from the building.

“We are deeply disappointed that the board chose to hire an industry lobbyist Wayne Nastri to be their new leader,” said Adrian Martinez, staff attoey for Earthjustice, a nonprofit that advocates for the environment throughout the United States.

“Nastri embodies the dangers of the revolving door — he has made a career out of using his govement experience to influence and lobby regulators on behalf of his corporate clients.”

Board Chairman William Burke took issue with one speaker who said the board’s process for hiring the acting chief was secretive, conducted behind closed doors and without input from the public.

“Twenty-three years ago, when Barry (Wallerstein) was hired, there was no public input,” Burke said.

There was no discussion, even after the board retued from closed session to approve Nastri’s contract. In a prepared statement, board member Clark E. Parker, Senate Rules Committee appointee, emphasized Nastri was a stop-gap replacement.

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“Wayne’s management skills, combined with his environmental expertise, will keep the agency on course to meet our clean air goals while a thorough search takes place for a permanent agency head,” he said.

The air district must prepare a clean air plan update within the next year that shows how Southe Califoia can meet federal clean air standards.

The region has not Clean Air Act safety standards for ozone, the most prevalent and caustic component of L.A. smog, which damages lungs, causes shortness of breath, asthma and lowers the body’s natural immunities. In order to do so, the region must reduce emissions of oxides of nitrogen, an ozone precursor, by half in the next seven years, a task that can only be achieved with help from federal and state regulators of tailpipe pollution from cars, trucks, diesel locomotives and ships, staff scientists explained.

The region has also failed to meet the federal standard for particulate pollution, a violation that is mostly centered in Riverside County. Particulates can lodge in the lungs and cause heart disease and premature deaths, according to the EPA.

Nastri served as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s weste region administrator from 2001-2009, an area that includes Califoia, Nevada, Hawaii and Arizona. He was appointed by President George W. Bush in November 2001, replacing Felicia Marcus, who today serves as chairman of the State Water Resources Control Board.

Marcus told a San Francisco newspaper at the time: “People see him as a decent human being who’s capable of listening and respectful of people, which means he’s a good manager.” Environmental groups later described Nastri as one of President Bush’s best appointments.

In 1998, Nastri was chosen to serve on the SCAQMD board by Gov. Pete Wilson. That appointment became a major controversy when it was revealed Nastri, who headed up the Newport Beach-based consulting firm Environmental Mediation Inc., failed to reveal his firm was owned by L.A.-based American Vanguard Corp., which owned a chemical company.

Nastri served about a year on the board. He left after the state Senate Rules Committee ruled against his appointment. The Senate was asked to investigate Nastri by SCAQMD Chairman Burke, who remains chairman today. Burke said Nastri’s coection to American Vanguard, which owned a pesticide company that was regulated by the air district, would undermine public confidence in the SCAQMD, according to media reports.

On Friday, Burke said in a statement that Nastri “brings a strong environmental record and decades of experience ... on clean air solutions.”

Nastri, who has a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from University of Califoia, Irvine, will oversee a staff of 800 and an agency with a $137 million aual budget tasked with cleaning the air in Orange County and the non-desert portions of Los Angeles, Riverside and San Beardino counties.