BOARD MEETING DATE: October 6, 2006
AGENDA NO. 25

Report to Legislature and CARB on AQMD’s Regulatory Activities for Calendar Year 2005

SYNOPSIS:

The AQMD is required by law to submit a report to the Legislature on its regulatory activities for the preceding calendar year. The report is to include a summary of each rule and rule amendment adopted by AQMD, number of permits issued, denied, or cancelled, emission offset transactions, draft budget and forecast, and an update on the Clean Fuels program.

COMMITTEE:

Not Applicable

RECOMMENDED ACTIONS:

Receive and file the attached report, and direct staff to forward the final report to the Legislature and the California Air Resources Board.

Barry R. Wallerstein, D.Env.
Executive Officer

Background

AQMD is subject to several internal and external reviews of its air quality programs. These include an annual review of AQMD’s proposed operating budget for the upcoming fiscal year and compliance program audits. AQMD also performed triennial performance audits pursuant to Health and Safety Code Section 40453. However, this section of law was repealed in 2001 (SB 1191, Speier).

In 1990, the Legislature directed AQMD to provide an annual review of its regulatory activities (SB 1928, Presley), and specified the type of information required (Health and Safety Code 540452). Many of the required elements overlap with other requirements of separate legislation. For example, information on AQMD’s Clean Fuels Program is a requirement of this report, but is now also a separate requirement under legislation passed in 1999 (SB 98, Alarcón). The purpose of this report is to fill in pieces of additional data needed to compile a comprehensive regulatory overview. Most of the information included in this report is not new, but simply a compilation of information previously seen by the Board. For example, Chapter I lists all the rules and rule amendments adopted by the Board during 2005.

The specific requirements of this report include:

• A summary of each major rule and rule amendment adopted by the Board;
• The number of permits to operate or construct that were issued, denied, cancelled or not renewed;
• Data on emission offset transactions and applications during the previous year;
• The draft budget and forecast of staff increases or decreases for the following fiscal year;
• An identification of the source of all revenues used to finance the AQMD’s activities;
• An update on the results of the AQMD’s Clean Fuels program; and
• The annual RECLAIM Audit Report

Attachment

Report to the Legislature for Calendar Year 2005*

* Draft report sent to Governing Board members only with copies made available on request in the AQMDPublicInformationCenter. Final copies will be available after October 16, 2006 in the AQMDPublicInformationCenter and Library.