South Coast Air Quality Management District
South Coast Air Quality Management District
BOARD MEETING DATE: June 21, 2002 AGENDA NO. 1
Adopt the 2002 Coachella Valley PM10 State Implementation Plan
SYNOPSIS:
The Coachella Valley is a serious PM10 non-attainment area and the federal Clean Air Act (CAA) requires attainment of the PM10 standards by 2001. Despite local and AQMD efforts that significantly reduced PM10 emissions in the mid-90s, PM10 levels from 1999 through 2001 exceeded the annual average PM10 standard. U.S. EPA can grant up to a five year extension of the 2001 PM10 deadline. AQMD staff, in cooperation with local stakeholders, has prepared the 2002 Coachella Valley PM10 State Implementation Plan (2002 CVSIP), which includes a request for extension of the PM10 deadline and meets all applicable federal CAA requirements, including a Most Stringent Measures analysis, control measures, and attainment demonstration. The control measures represent enhancements to the existing local dust control ordinances, AQMD rules, and SIP commitments.
COMMITTEE:
Mobile Source, January 25, 2002, April 26, 2002, May 24, 2002, Reviewed
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Adopt the attached resolution:
- Certifying the Final Negative Declaration (ND) for the 2002 Coachella Valley PM10 State Implementation Plan; and
- Adopting the 2002 Coachella Valley PM10 State Implementation Plan
Barry R. Wallerstein, D.Env.
Executive Officer
Background
The South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) is the local agency responsible for air quality assessment and improvement in the Coachella Valley. The Coachella Valley is the desert portion of Riverside County in the Salton Sea Air Basin. The Coachella Valley and the AQMD have a demonstrated history of adopting and implementing PM10 dust controls to ensure healthful air for local residents and tourists. These efforts are summarized in the 1996 Coachella Valley PM10 Redesignation Request and Maintenance Plan (1996 CV Plan). U.S. EPA has not taken action on the 1996 CV Plan nor previous Coachella Valley PM10 SIPs. (U.S. EPA did SIP-approve the Coachella Valley’s local dust control ordinances and AQMD’s fugitive dust rules.) The attainment date for serious non-attainment areas to achieve the PM10 NAAQS is 2001. After years of demonstrating attainment of the PM10 standards, PM10 levels in the last three years (1999-2001) do not demonstrate attainment of the annual average PM10 National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). If U.S. EPA does not grant an extension of the deadline, it can find that the area has failed to attain by the deadline and swiftly impose significant planning and control requirements (e.g., 5% PM10 emission reduction per year until attainment) on that area. (Coachella Valley has attained the 24-hour PM10 standard since 1993.) Under the federal Clean Air Act (CAA), an area can request an extension of up to five years to attain the PM10 NAAQS, if certain requirements are met. According to U.S. EPA, the request for extension must be part of an attainment SIP that includes control program enhancements that meet the Most Stringent Measure (MSM) requirements, as well as other regulatory requirements. Combined with the commitments in the Governing Board Resolution (Attachment A), the 2002 CVSIP (Attachment B) contains all the required elements for U.S. EPA to approve the enclosed request for extension of the PM10 NAAQS attainment deadline.
Public Process
Continuing its tradition of proactive dust control, local Coachella Valley stakeholders have worked closely with AQMD staff in preparing this 2002 CVSIP. Shortly after being briefed on the potential non-attainment status, the Executive Committee of the Coachella Valley Association of Governments (CVAG) established the Coachella Valley Ad Hoc Air Quality Task Force (CV Task Force) on February 14, 2002. The CV Task Force is charged with assisting AQMD staff in crafting proposed revisions to local and AQMD dust regulations that would meet the MSM criteria necessary for U.S. EPA to approve the request for extension of the PM10 attainment deadline.
The CV Task Force includes mayors and city council members of all Coachella Valley cities, a County Supervisor from Riverside County, tribal chairs or vice-chairs from all local Indian tribes, CVAG Energy and Environmental Resources subcommittee members (city managers), the Coachella Valley Economic Partnership, and representatives from the local farm bureau, building industry association, developers, Caltrans, as well as staff from AQMD, CARB, and U.S. EPA (see Appendix A of the 2002 CVSIP). Other interested stakeholders, including SunLine Transit Agency, Coachella Valley Water District, Southern California Gas Company, local developers, the Construction Industry Air Quality Coalition (CIAQC), local farmers, and local dust plan review and enforcement staff, have also participated. The CV Task Force also established separate sub-committees to review and comment on SIP development and implementation issues. The sub-committees included: construction activities MSMs, roadways/open areas/parking lots MSMs, agricultural activities MSMs, enforcement, and funding. The CV Task Force met on March 14 and April 25, 2002. The MSM and enforcement sub-committees met on April 17, 18, and 24, 2002. The funding sub-committee met with Caltrans and FHWA in January 2002 and continues to hold meetings on an as-needed basis. A public workshop for the draft 2002 CVSIP was held on May 23, 2002 in Coachella Valley. Over 130 people attended, representing the public, developers, local government and government agencies, farmers, business interests, and the media.
It is intended that the CV Task Force will continue to meet after the adoption of the 2002 CVSIP to assist in adoption and implementation of the control measures that it helped develop. Pursuant to the direction from CVAG’s Energy and Environmental Resources Committee, these control measures will be developed into a model ordinance for consideration and adoption by all local jurisdictions and/or SIP commitments for government PM10 control actions. AQMD staff will continue to support the CV Task Force in the implementation of the 2002 CVSIP.
Proposal
This attainment plan builds upon a historically proactive and successful dust control program by Coachella Valley jurisdictions and the AQMD. The 2002 CVSIP details the modifications to the previous analyses and programs, but a more complete description of previous efforts is contained in the 1990 SIP for PM10 in the Coachella Valley (1990 CVSIP) and the SIP for PM10 in the Coachella Valley: 1994 "BACM" Revision (1994 CVSIP) and the 1996 CV Plan. Many elements of these previous plans are included by reference in the 2002 CVSIP. The federal Clean Air Act requires the following elements for an attainment date extension request and accompanying SIP:
Local and AQMD efforts that implemented previous SIP commitments and significantly reduced PM10 emissions in the mid-90s. Despite this, PM10 levels from 1999 through 2001 exceeded the annual average PM10 standard, demonstrating that the 2001 attainment date was impracticable. U.S. EPA can grant up to a five year extension of the 2001 PM10 deadline. The Coachella Valley continues to maintain the 24-hour average PM10 standard. (24-hour average PM10 readings determined to have been high-wind natural events (e.g. blowsand storms) have been removed from the attainment determinations as allowed under U.S. EPA’s Natural Events Policy.)
The 2002 CVSIP specifically addresses the following federal Clean Air Act request for extension requirements and other federal policies as applicable to the Coachella Valley: presentation of PM10 monitoring data, including identification of high-wind natural events, demonstrating that Coachella Valley did not attain the annual average PM10 standard by 2001; a PM10 emissions inventory for current and future years, including emission budgets for transportation conformity purposes; MSM analysis comparison of local jurisdiction and AQMD dust regulations to dust regulations in other serious PM10 non-attainment areas; a control strategy to expeditiously attain the PM10 standard; a PM10 attainment demonstration based on implementation of the proposed control strategy; a status report and update of the 1996 Natural Events Action Plan; and a formal request for extension of the PM10 attainment deadline.
The control strategy is based on enhancements to the current federally-approved dust control ordinances and AQMD rules. Control measures will incrementally improve dust control and compliance for construction and other earth moving projects, farming operations, paved and unpaved roadways, open vacant lands, and unpaved parking lots. New measures include increased construction signage, construction dust monitors, stricter track-out control measures, agricultural best management practices, ensuring limited access or control of vacant lands, stabilizing or paving of unpaved shoulders, medians, and unpaved roads, and additional control of unpaved parking lots. New test methods and requirements for notification and recordkeeping are also proposed. The PM10 modeling attainment demonstrates that, based on current and projected emissions inventories and the most expeditious implementation of the control strategy feasible, the attainment deadline should be extended to 2006 as the most expeditious alternative attainment date.
Chapter 8 of the 2002 CVSIP contains the official request for extension of the 2001 PM10 attainment deadline and a discussion of how CAA requirements for an attainment date extension have been met by the 2002 CVSIP. It includes a SIP commitment to revise the 2002 CVSIP in 2003 using the latest technical information, including the latest approved EMFAC version and planning assumptions.
Policy Issues
Unless U.S. EPA approves the AQMD’s request for extension of the PM10 NAAQS deadline, the Coachella Valley could be subject to a failure to attain notice by U.S. EPA as soon as July 2002. If U.S. EPA finds that the Coachella Valley has failed to attain, it could impose planning requirements to demonstrate a 5% per year reduction in PM10 primary or precursor emissions as soon as December 31, 2002. To preclude a failure to attain notice, AQMD staff has prepared a request for extension of the PM10 NAAQS deadline. The required supporting elements for this request are included in the 2002 CVSIP and the accompanying Governing Board Resolution. These elements include a MSM analysis and corresponding control strategy that increases the stringency of currently adopted rules and ordinances on all dust sources. AQMD staff has identified several policy issues, based on staff analysis and public comment by Task Force members, other agencies, and the public.
In general, building representatives, particularly those representing large developers, felt that they already shoulder a significant control burden and that other sources should be regulated to the same extent. Prior to releasing the draft 2002 CVSIP, staff had already tightened the original control measure discussion regarding control and noticing requirements for smaller construction sites and unpaved surfaces, based on CV Task Force and U.S. EPA comments. Farmers expressed concerns that proposed controls could potentially eliminate certain types of farming (e.g. certain vegetable crops). AQMD staff, based on their experience with Rule 403 agricultural provisions, believes that rule development with local Coachella Valley farmers will result in meeting the control measure goals with minimum impact on local farming. In early CV Task Force and other meetings, Caltrans and Riverside County staff have expressed concerns about the resources for paving and stabilization requirements for unpaved shoulders and roads. AQMD staff lengthened the paving schedule, which is included in the May 10, 2002 draft 2002 CVSIP and continues to work to expedite federal Congestion Management and Air Quality (CMAQ) funds and other funds for these programs. It should be noted that the Mobile Source Air Pollution Reduction Review Committee (MSRC) recently approved $1 million dollars for Coachella Valley mobile source PM10 control projects.
Another major issue that has recently arisen is the matter of PM10 emissions and controls on government lands, including the Fringe-toed lizard preserve, the proposed Multi-Species Habitat Conservation Plan (MSHCP) lands, and the Whitewater channel. At the May 23rd public workshop, residents directly downwind of these areas and representatives of the development and business community expressed the belief that these areas are a predominant source of airborne PM10 and are not subject to controls. AQMD staff studies from previous SIPs show that although disturbed areas (non-natural) are the major contributor to the high annual average levels of airborne PM10, natural areas do deposit large amounts of sand on downwind areas, particularly during high-wind events. (The AQMD addresses airborne PM10 from natural and controlled disturbed areas during high-wind events through the Natural Events Action Plan, which calls for feasible mitigation and protection of public health through warnings and recommended actions to prevent exposure). The smaller amounts of direct airborne PM10 from natural lands during non-high-wind events can be minimized by preventing the disturbance of the natural surface by restricting access (e.g. fencing). AQMD staff is working with Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and others to implement this SIP commitment in the 2002 CVSIP to ensure that both applicable federal laws and air quality objectives are met.
Larger sand particles from the natural lands that deposit on streets can be ground up and entrained into the air by vehicle traffic. These deposits can be prevented using sand fencing or mitigated using post-event street sweeping, which are elements of the current Clean Streets Management Program implemented using CMAQ funds. AQMD staff will continue to work with stakeholders, including BLM and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, developers, and local governments, to identify and implement these types of controls for areas impacted by sand movement from the natural lands, as called for in the SIP commitment in the 2002 CVSIP. It should be noted that the Endangered Species Act and other federal and state regulations may limit control options on certain government lands.
Local Indian tribes, including the Cabazon, Aqua Caliente, and Torres Martinez tribes, control certain areas within the Coachella Valley. The AQMD, local and state agencies are generally precluded from regulating Indian lands, but many of the tribes have already adopted current dust control ordinances and the plan review guidance. They have indicated to AQMD staff their intention of adopting the revised regulations and dust control handbook when they are developed as part of the implementation of the 2002 CVSIP. The Torres Martinez tribe is working with U.S. EPA to create an air quality plan for their lands, which will better quantify local PM10 sources and identify control measures to be implemented. AQMD staff will continue to work with local tribes and to assist them in their dust control efforts.
The 2002 CVSIP contains transportation conformity emission budgets for the years 2003 (milestone) and 2006 (attainment). The budgets are based on EMFAC model and transportation planning assumptions used in the 1996 CV Plan, since the latest EMFAC and transportation planning assumptions were not finalized before the 2002 CVSIP deadlines. At the request of the U.S. EPA and to address future conformity needs, the attached resolution commits the AQMD to revising the 2002 CVSIP in 2003 to include the latest approved EMFAC emission factors and transportation planning assumptions. At that time, emission budgets will also be developed in the out years (post-2006) as necessary for SCAG to complete its conformity analysis for its 2004 RTP.
California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)
Pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), staff has prepared a Negative Declaration (ND) for the 2002 CVSIP. The Draft ND, which was made available for a 30-day public review period ending May 29, 2002, concluded that the 2002 CVSIP would not have any significant adverse effects on the environment. Three comment letters were received on the Draft ND: (1) the California Department of Transportation (District 12); (2) the City of Anaheim; and (3) the Department of the Interior, Fish & Wildlife Service. The Final ND, including response to comments, is included as Attachment C.
Resource Impacts
It is anticipated that there will be a workload increase relative to the Coachella Valley related activities to prepare a new model local dust control ordinance and amendments to Rules 403, 403.1 and 1186 to implement the control measures in the 2002 CVSIP. There will also be increased efforts from compliance staff to develop improved enforcement protocols for the local jurisdictions, train local permit review and code enforcement personnel, and expand the outreach to local jurisdiction, agencies, and developers/ builders. These increased efforts will be accounted for through adjustments to existing staff and office assignments.
Attachments (6,482 KB)
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