CALIFORNIA AIR RESOURCES BOARD
South Coast Air Quality
Management District
21865 East Copley Drive
Diamond Bar, CA
October 15, 1992
9:30 a.m.
AGENDA
Page
92-16-1 Public Meeting to Consider Approval of a Plan 001
for Developing a Small Business Assistance Program.
92-16-2 Public Meeting to Consider Approval of the South 032
Coast Air Quality Management District 1991 Air
Quality Management Plan as Required by the
California Clean Air Act of 1988.
OCTOBER 16, 1992
8:30 a.m.
92-16-2 Continuation of a Public Meeting to Consider Approval
of the South Coast Air Quality Management District 1991
Air Quality Management Plan as Required by the
California Clean Air Act of 1988.
ITEM NO.: 92-16-1
Proposed Plan for Developing a Small Business Assistance Program
(Program).
RECOMMENDATION
The staff recommends that the Board approve the proposed Program
to provide assistance to small businesses in California.
DISCUSSION
This Board item is to fulfill one of the many requirements under
the 1990 amendments to the federal Clean Air Act (Act). Title V,
section 507 of the 1990 amendments, requires the California Air
Resources Board (ARB) to establish a statewide Program to assist
small businesses that are required to obtain operating permits
under the Act. The Act requires the ARB to submit a plan for the
Program to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a
SIP revision by November 15, 1992.
The proposed plan describes the major Program elements that are
required by the Act: 1) a small business ombudsman's office, 2) a
compliance advisory panel, and 3) a compliance assistance program
for small businesses that are required to obtain operating
permits under the Act. As described in the proposed plan, many
of the Act's requirements are already being met by various
existing programs in California. The plan provides a schedule
for developing and implementing those Program elements that are
still needed in order to fully meet the Act's requirements.
The ARB is responsible for creating a small business ombudsman's
office. The role of the ombudsman includes the following: to
oversee the Program, represent small businesses to the local air
districts, disseminate information, provide referral services,
and resolve complaints. In addition, the ARB is responsible for
ensuring that the compliance advisory panel is appointed. The
role of the compliance advisory panel includes the following: to
monitor the Program, render advisory opinions, make periodic
reports on Program effectiveness to the EPA Administrator, and
review published documents to ensure they are in layperson terms.
The ARB will provide technical and clerical support to the
ombudsman and the compliance advisory panel.
The federally-mandated Program would provide assistance to a
limited number of small businesses that are required to obtain
operating permits under the Act. However, the federally mandated
Program would exclude many small businesses in California that
need assistance to obtain local operating permits issued under
air district regulations.
Therefore, the proposed plan would implement a broader program
than that required by the Act. The proposed plan provides for
the continuous development of the Program in cooperation with the
Department of Commerce and other state agencies, local air
districts, and the small business community.
IMPACTS OF PROPOSED BOARD ACTION
The proposed plan is expected to have a positive impact on small
businesses because it will lower the cost of compliance and
provide for quicker permitting. The proposed plan is also
expected to benefit air quality because it will enable small
businesses to achieve the required emission reductions sooner.
An additional positive impact of the proposed plan that it would
provide for a Program in small local air districts that lack
sufficient resources to develop local programs. The ARB Program
will be coordinated with the programs of larger districts that
already have, or are developing such programs.
ITEM NO.: 92-16-2
Public Meeting to Consider the Approval of the South Coast Air
quality Management District's 1991 Air Quality Management Plan
Under the State and Federal Clean Air Acts.
RECOMMENDATION
Approve individual elements of the south Coast plan as
appropriate under state law, and direct the district and SCAG to
remedy outstanding deficiencies. Staff is making no specific
recommendation with respect to federal law at this time.
DISCUSSION
The South Coast 1991 AQMP is the most complex plan to come before
the Board thus far. The plan is wider in scope, contains more
measures, and covers a longer time period than any other district
plan. In addition, the 1991 AQMP contains a dramatically
different approach to stationary source control: a market-based
program known as the Regional Clean Air Incentives Market
(RECLAIM). Finally, the 1991 AQMP is the first comprehensive
plan to be submitted as a potential revision to the State
Implementation Plan (SIP) under the 1990 Federal Clean Air Act.
Since the requirements for state and federal approval are
different, staff has separated its evaluation of the plan into
two parts. The first part concerns the approvability of the plan
under the California Clean Air Act. In making this evaluation,
staff took the same general approach as has been taken on all
district plans considered by the Board to date.
The second part of the evaluation focuses on federal
approvability and is preliminary in nature. Additional guidance
from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is needed on many
elements. Also, the existence of more recent South Coast plans
for individual pollutants must be considered. Finally, there is
pending litigation (Coalition for Clean Air vs. EPA) that may
influence the course and schedule California wishes to follow in
amending the SIP.
The primary issues associated with the first evaluation relate to
all feasible measures and RECLAIM. Environmental groups have
challenged ARB's interpretation of all feasible measures, arguing
that either more measures or a compelling demonstration of
infeasibility is needed. With respect to RECLAIM, the issues
concern the scope of the program and whether it should be
attempted at all.
The primary issue related to the second evaluation is the legal
consequence of placing the 1991 AQMP into the SIP. It is not
entirely clear what the consequence(s) might be. However, there
is some jeopardy of exposing the region to nonimplementation
findings, since the 1991 AQMP is no longer current.
SUMMARY AND IMPACTS
Approval of the plan under the California Clean Air Act will
affirm the South Coast's selection of control strategies, which
the District, SCAG and other agencies (including ARB) are in the
process of implementing. The combination of measures in the plan
is expected to reduce emissions between 1987 and 1994 by the
following amounts: ROG--610 tons per day; NOx--308 tons per day;
and CO--2473 tons per day.
The preliminary evaluation of the plan under federal law has no
immediate impact. However, if the Board chooses to include the
1991 AQMP within the SIP for the South Coast Air Basin two
outcomes are likely: the commitments in the plan would become
federally enforceable; the remainder of the plan would be
disapproved.