It's Been a Dirty Winter

Kurtis Alexander, SFGate Blog, March 6, 2014

This year’s dry winter is making history not only for a lack of rainfall but for a lung-blasting surge in air pollution.

With few storms to clear out the stagnant wintertime skies, dirty air has built up more often than usual, prompting air-quality regulators in the Bay Air to issue a record-tying number of advisories, known as Spare the Air alerts.

On 30 occasions between November and February the Bay Area Air Quality Management District advised that pollutants such as particulate matter in smoke and haze were approaching or would hit unhealthy levels.  The number of Spare the Air alerts this winter was the highest since the 2006-07 season.

The story was similar in other parts of the state. While not a record, the notoriously polluted San Joaquin Valley recorded 66 days of air quality approaching substandard levels, up from 52 the prior winter.

Read the complete post here.

Judge Strikes Down Air Quality Rules

An Alameda County (California) Superior Court judge recently struck down CEQA guidelines established by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD).  The Guidelines sought to "better protect the health and well being of Bay Area residents by addressing new health protective air quality standards, exposure to toxic air contaminants and adverse effects from climate change."  A challenge to the Guidelines was brought by representatives of the building industry, economic development groups and others claiming that the new rules would make the cost of development prohibitively expensive.

As often happens in court decisions, the judge did not rule on the substance of the Guidelines, but rather found that  BAAQMD, itself bound by CEQA, had not undertaken the necessary environmental review of the impacts of the Guidelines.  Solely on this basis, the rules were determined to be improper.

While the plaintiffs in the lawsuit are claiming victory, it is important to remember that his ruling was based on BAAQMD not following the proper procedures; the agency may promulgate the same Guidelines after conducting the necessary environmental review.

Proposed Amendments to 'New Source Review of Toxic Air Contaminants'

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) is accepting comments through this Thursday, December 3, on proposed amendments to Regulation 2, Rule 5, New Source Review of Toxic Air Contaminants and the Health Risk Screening Analysis (HRSA) Guidelines for this rule.

Regulation 2, Rule 5 prevents significant increases in health risks resulting from new and modified sources of toxic air contaminants based on preconstruction permit review. The program also reduces existing health risks by requiring updated control requirements when older, more highly polluting sources are modified or replaced.

The proposed amendments incorporate revised California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) health risk assessment methodologies for proposed projects throughout the district. The proposed amendments revise Table 2-5-1 to incorporate changes to risk assessment guidelines that have been adopted by OEHHA as of June 1, 2009. These revisions include cancer potency factors, RELs, and emission trigger levels. The proposed amendments contain a toxics tracking provision for each Priority Community under the BAAQMD’s Community Air Risk Evaluation program. Under this provision, the BAAQMD will track and report emissions changes of toxic air contaminants from permitted stationary sources, mobile sources, and area-wide source over time.

On Wednesday, December 16, 2009, the BAAQMD Board of Directors will conduct a public hearing to consider the proposed amendments and to consider adoption of a CEQA Negative Declaration. The hearing will be held in the 7th floor Board Room of the BAAQMD office, 939 Ellis Street, San Francisco, commencing at 9:45 am.