Super-clean air is always welcome in an industrial area – but bread and butter are prime necessities. That apparently was the thinking, in part, of the Environmenta Protection Agency in deciding to permit U.S. Steel Corp. to delay air pollution controls for up to three years and to divert the savings into new mill equipment. EPA Administrator Annie Gorsuch said the move would free an estimated $90 million that had been required to meet the current compliance date of Dec. 31. The decision doesn’t eliminate the obligation but would allow U.S. Steel to “stretch it out,” after details are negotiated, channeling the money into productivity improvements. Coming at a time when the depressed steel industry is operating at only about half-capacity, the EPA concession is timely and appropriate. The nation’s fourthlargest industry, steel has been hard-hit by the recession and foreign imports. Nearly a third, or 100,000 of its blue collar workers, are idle. U.S. Steel Corp. Chairman David Roderick said steel shipments are at their lowest level in 40 years. Bethlehem Steel Corp., the nation’s second-ranked steelmaker, recently cut salaries and benefits of 21.000 white-collar workers in a move aimed at saving that troubled company $30 million a year. Bethlehem lost $113.8 million for the first half of 1982. The air pollution controls delay granted U.S. Steel Corp. would apply to the Gary Works in Indiana, Lorain Works in Ohio, South Works in Chicago. Fairless Work near Philadelphia, and plants in the Monongahela alley in Pennsylvania. It does not affect Geneva Works which currently fill requirements of a consent decree to finish environmental improvements by Dec. 31. Air pollution is a worthy goal but it can impose heavy burdens on industry, particularly when times are bad. For Monongahela Valley alone, U.S. Steel has agreed to install an estimated $400 million worth of controls. The $90 million “stretchout” may be only a small step in assisting in the steel crisis. But the fact that a yearold amendment to the Clean Air Act permits such a step on a case-by-case basis when conditions warrant, is commendable. Jobs and payrolls are necessary elements in the fabric of a strong economy and healthy industries should be a prime goal always.