The District’s three Regional Hearing Boards offer another example of citizen participation in cleaning up Valley air. Under California Health and Safety Code, Section 40801, a hearing board shall consist of: one member admitted to the practice of law in this state; one member from the medical profession whose specialized skills, training or interests are in the fields of environmental medicine, community medicine, or occupational/toxicologic medicine; one member who is a professional engineer registered as such pursuant to the Professional Engineers Act (Chapter 7, commencing with Section 6700) of Division 3 of the Business and Professions Code; and two public members. Therefore, each hearing board is comprised of one attorney, one member from the medical profession, one engineer and two public members. Under California Health and Safety Code, Section 40804, the terms of the members of a hearing board shall be three years. That section also requires that those terms be staggered.

Meetings are scheduled monthly in each region and are used primarily to hear requests by permitted sources for temporary relief from District rules and regulations, known as variances. A variance may be issued to allow a source to continue operating legally while temporarily in violation of regulations, in order to avoid undue economic hardship. The source may not create a public nuisance and must agree to return to compliance as quickly as possible.