Upcoming Ozone Plans

Revoked 1-hour ozone standard

The San Joaquin Valley Air District will be developing a new plan for EPA’s revoked 1-hour ozone standard. Although EPA approved the District’s 2004 plan for the 1-hour ozone standard in 2010, EPA withdrew this approval as a result of litigation. Although the District had intended to present the plan to the board at the June 2013 hearing, EPA has requested, and ARB has agreed to, additional modeling. The plan will now be presented to the District Governing Board at the September 2013 hearing.

The District hosted a public workshop to present, discuss, and take comments on the 2013 Plan for the Revoked 1-hour Ozone Standard on Tuesday, April 16, 2013 at 1:30 PM.

Notice of Public Workshop
Executive Summary
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Scientific Foundation, Trends, and Modeling Results
Chapter 3 Control Strategy (updated 4/12/13)
Chapter 4 Demonstration of Federal Requirements (posted 4/17/13)
Appendix A Ambient 1-hour Ozone Data Analysis
Appendix B Emission Inventory
Appendix C Stationary and Area Source Control Strategy Evaluation
Appendix D Vehicle Miles Traveled Emissions Offset Demonstration (updated 4/17/13)
Appendix E Modeling Protocol
Appendix F Modeling Approach and Results
Presentation

Comments may be submitted to airqualityplans@valleyair.org.

8-hour ozone standard

The next plan for EPA’s 8-hour ozone standard is the plan to address EPA’s 2008 8-hour ozone standard of 75 parts per billion (ppb). EPA designated the San Joaquin Valley as an extreme nonattainment area for this standard. This 8-hour ozone plan is expected to be due to EPA in 2015.

To receive email notifications related to ozone plan workshops and postings, sign up for the Ozone Plans email list.

What is ozone?

Ground level ozone impacts public health. Ozone is not emitted directly into the air, but is created by chemical reactions between oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOC) in the presence of heat and sunlight. The Valley experiences its highest ozone levels in the summer. EPA has established ozone standards based on 1-hour averaging periods, and for 8-hour averaging periods.

More information is available on EPA’s website.

Adopted Ozone Plans

• 2004 Extreme Ozone Attainment Demonstration Plan
  The District adopted this plan in October 2004 to address EPA’s 1-hour ozone standard. However, since EPA revoked this standard in 2005, EPA did not act on this plan until 2010, when a court decision required EPA action. EPA’s 2010 action approved the plan, but subsequent litigation led to a court finding that EPA had not properly considered new information available since the District adopted the plan in 2004. EPA thus withdrew its plan approval in November 2012, and the District and ARB withdrew this plan from consideration. While the 2004 plan is not a federally-approved plan, it is included here for reference.
  
  
• 2007 Ozone Plan
  The District adopted the 2007 Ozone Plan in April 2007. This plan addresses EPA’s 8-hour ozone standard of 84 parts per billion (ppb), which was established by EPA in 1997.
  
  
• 2009 RACT SIP
  The District adopted the RACT Demonstration for Ozone SIP in April 2009.