Title
El Dorado County Air Quality Management District (AQMD) recommending the Board, acting as the AQMD Board of Directors:
1) Approve and authorize the Chair to sign Resolution 157-2023, approving the 2015 Sacramento Regional 8-Hour Ozone Attainment and Reasonable Further Progress Plan (Plan);
2) Find that adoption of the Plan is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act under 14 California Code of Regulations §§ 15061(b)(3) and 15308; and
3) Direct staff to forward the Plan to the California Air Resources Board (CARB) for transmittal to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) as a revision to the State Implementation Plan.
FUNDING: N/A
Body
DISCUSSION / BACKGROUND
AQMD recommends adoption of the Plan to satisfy the requirements of Clean Air Act (CAA) Sections 110, 172, 176, 181, 182 and Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulation Part 51 Subpart CC planning requirements for nonattainment areas. The other Sacramento Federal Non-Attainment Area (SFNA) air district Boards have all recently adopted the Plan. The Plan was adopted by Sacramento Metropolitan AQMD on September 28, 2023, by Feather River AQMD on October 2, 2023, by Placer County AQMD on October 12, 2023, and by Yolo-Solano AQMD on October 11, 2023.
The USEPA first promulgated a National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for ozone in 1971, and promulgated revisions to the NAAQS in 1979, 1997, 2008, and 2015. The 2015 ozone NAAQS was set at 70 parts per billion averaged over an 8-hour period.
On June 4, 2018, USEPA classified the Sacramento Federal Nonattainment Area (SFNA) as a Moderate nonattainment area for the 2015 ozone NAAQS based on air quality data from 2013 - 2015. On May 26, 2020, the SFNA air districts requested a voluntary reclassification from Moderate to Serious nonattainment because ambient air quality data available and modeling conducted by CARB at that time indicated attainment would not be achieved by the deadline for Moderate nonattainment areas of August 2024. In May of 2022, the SFNA air districts requested another voluntary reclassification from Serious to Severe-15 because more recent ambient air quality data and modeling indicated attainment would not be achieved by the Serious attainment deadline of August 2027. This request was forwarded by CARB and is pending action by the USEPA. If the reclassification to Severe-15 request is approved as anticipated, the new attainment deadline will be August 2033.
The SFNA includes Sacramento and Yolo counties, the western portion of El Dorado and Placer counties, the southern portion of Sutter County, and the northeastern portion of Solano County. The five air districts with jurisdiction in the SFNA are the El Dorado, Feather River, Placer, Sacramento, and Yolo-Solano air districts.
The USEPA’s Final Rule to Implement the 8-Hour Ozone NAAQS requires nonattainment areas classified as Serious, Severe and Extreme to demonstrate progress toward attainment of the NAAQS by conducting a Reasonably Available Control Measures analysis, compiling emissions inventories, establishing new motor vehicle emissions budgets, and complying with the timeline for State Implementation Plan submissions. In continuation of AQMD's efforts to achieve the NAAQS, and to demonstrate how the region will meet RFP requirements for the Severe-15 classification, AQMD collaborated with the other SFNA air districts to prepare the Plan.
By adopting the Plan, the only new requirement for EDC AQMD will be for the Board to consider the adoption of a contingency measure that will be implemented if the region fails to achieve attainment of the ozone NAAQS by the August 2033 deadline. The contingency measure to be considered will be an amendment to AQMD's existing Architectural Coatings Rule that will align the Rule with the Volatile Organic Compounds limits in CARB's 2019 Suggested Control Measure (SCM) for Architectural Coatings. Several air districts in California have already aligned their architectural coatings rules with the SCM. AQMD staff have reviewed the current inventory of coatings available from the vendors in the County. Staff found that the coatings in all but a few categories (floor coating and waterproofing) comply with the SCM limits. By 2033, it is expected that the coatings manufacturers will be producing coatings in every category that are SCM compliant and all coatings available for sale in California will be SCM compliant.
ALTERNATIVES
The Board of Directors may wholly approve, deny, or revise the proposed Plan.
OTHER DEPARTMENT / AGENCY INVOLVEMENT
County Counsel approved the Resolution.
CAO RECOMMENDATION
Approve as recommended.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
No direct fiscal impact is anticipated from adopting the Plan.
CLERK OF THE BOARD FOLLOW UP ACTIONS
1) Clerk to obtain the Board Chair's signature on three (3) original Resolutions, and
2) Clerk to provide AQMD with two (2) certified copies of the Resolution to be forwarded to the California Air Resources Board.
STRATEGIC PLAN COMPONENT
Healthy Communities
CONTACT
Dave Johnston
Air Pollution Control Officer