Title
Air Quality Management District (AQMD) recommending the Board, acting as the AQMD Board of Directors:
1) Approve and authorize the Chair to sign Resolution 141-2017, approving the Sacramento Regional 8-Hour Ozone Attainment and Reasonable Further Progress Plan (Plan); and
2) Direct staff to forward the Plan to the California Air Resources Board for transmittal to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a revision to the State Implementation Plan.
FUNDING: None required.
Body
DEPARTMENT RECOMMENDATION
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. The Plan was adopted by the Sacramento Metropolitan AQMD on August 24, 2017 and will be considered for adoption by the other Sacramento Federal Non-Attainment Area (SFNA) air districts’ (Placer County, Yolo-Solano and Feather River) Boards in the coming months.
DISCUSSION / BACKGROUND
Ozone is created by a reaction between Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) in sunlight. Breathing ozone has short and long term negative health effects. In 1997 a health-based National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) of 84 parts per billion (ppb), averaged over eight hours, was established. In 2008 the NAAQS was lowered to 75 ppb. The SFNA, including the western portion of El Dorado County, is in "nonattainment" of the 2008 federal 8-hour ozone NAAQS. Federal regulations require the adoption and implementation of a plan to meet “reasonable further progress” goals and achieve 2008 NAAQS attainment “as expeditiously as practicable.”
The SFNA was initially classified as a "serious" nonattainment area for the 1997 NAAQS and an attainment deadline of June 15, 2013, was established. On February 14, 2008, CARB requested a 1997 NAAQS reclassification to "severe." US EPA granted the reclassification and the attainment deadline was extended to June 15, 2019. US EPA...
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