Every Sunday, "Back in the Day" looks at an article that ran on this date in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. The items are verbatim, so don’t blame us today for yesteryear’s bad grammar.
The State Health Department today proposed regulations that would prohibit the emission of all visible exhaust from cars, trucks, buses and motorcycles.
The wide-reaching regulations would also prohibit the running of a vehicle while it is parked and would end the practice of tour buses of running engines to keep air conditioners going.
In addition, the rules would put limits on the amounts of smoke, industrial exhaust and dust that can be thrown into the air.
Up to now, exhaust, dust and smoke — other than the thick black variety — have not been controlled at all by the State.
The regulations were adopted by the Board of Health and approved by Dr. Walter B. Quisenberry, director of health, following more than three months of consideration and extensive public hearing.
The regulations will now go to the attorney general and Gov. John A. Burns for final approvals. They will become effective 60 days after approval by the Governor.
"Adoption of these amendments to the air pollution control regulations is a step forward in the attempt to meet Hawaii’s ecological and environmental pollution problem," Quisenberry said today.
A statement from the health department said:
"These amendments reflect the present demands and concerns of the public for a cleaner environment and may be amended at any future time to strengthen further or modify air quality regulations."
The adoption of the regulations also marks another first.
It is the first time that private citizens have proposed new regulations and demanded consideration and public hearings unders powers granted by the Administrative Procedures Act.
The original version of the amendments adopted today were proposed last May by the community associations of Halawi Hills and East Foster Village.
Those communities have been suffering for several years under a layer of dust coming from a commercial rock crusher at Halawa Quarry.
