San Joaquin Valley 

AIR POLLUTION CONTROL DISTRICT 

1%1c 

HEALTHY AIR LIVING" 

July 10, 2012 

Jared Blumenfeld 

U.S. EPA Region IX 

75 Hawthorne Street 

Mail Code: ORA-1 

San Francisco, CA 941 05 

Re: San Joaquin Valley I-hour Ozone Plan 

Dear Mr. Blumenfeld: 

As you know, on January 20, 2012, the Ninth Circuit Co~~rt in Sierra Club v. U.S. EPA 

found EPA's 201 0 approval of the District's 2004 Extreme Ozone Attainment 

Demonstration Plan to be arbitrary and capricious due to the length of time that had 

expired since the plan was first received by the EPA in November of 2004. 

Indeed, much has changed since 2004. While the 2004 Plan included a "black box" 

(long-term measures allowed under CAA 182(e)(5)) of 5 tons per day (tpd) of NOx and 

5 tpd of VOC, the District submitted its quantification of sufficient black box measures in 

August 2008. ARB has released newer versions of EMFAC, and ARB and the District 

together have made numerous improvements to the emissions inventory and other 

technical analyses through both the 8-hour ozone and PM2.5 planning processes. EPA 

found that the Valley failed to attain the I-hour ozone standard in 2010, but in this 

failure to attain, noted that the District had already implemented its contingency 

measures and adopted its Clean Air Act section 185 fees. 

Despite this failure to attain, the Valley has experienced significant improvement in its 1- 

hour ozone levels, exceeding just 3 days in 201 1 compared to the historic high of 56 

exceedance days in 1996. On these few remaining exceedances days, peak I-hour 

ozone concentrations are also lower than in previous years, and the exceedences last 

for fewer hours than in previous years. Beginning in 201 1, the District introduced its 

summertime Air Alert program to directly avert violations of the federal I-hour ozone 

standard by advising residents and businesses to reduce vehicle use. In fact, 201 1 was 

the first time there were no exceedances of the I -hour standard recorded in the month 

of August. Furthermore, control measures adopted under the more challenging and 

more health-protective 8-hour ozone standard will reduce the Valley's ozone precursor 

emissions even more over the next several years. 
Jared Blumenfeld, €PA 

July 10, 2012 

Page 2 of 2 

Significant time and resources will be wasted if the District waits for EPA to withdraw its 

previous SIP approval and take final action to disapprove the now-outdated plan. Under 

this scenario, EPA will then need to provide an additional 18 months to submit a new 

plan in mid to late 2014. The time and resources would be better spent if we focus on 

putting together an effective and approvable I-hour ozone plan to attain the standard as 

expeditiously as possible. Towards that end, it is our intention to withdraw the District's 

2004 Extreme Ozone Attainment Demonstration Plan with a commitment to submit a 

new a new I-hour ozone plan to EPA by June 30,2013; a year sooner than would 

otherwise be required . 

With this 2013 P!an, the District and ARB will take advantage of improvements to the 

emissions inventory and air quality modeling tools that have been made through the 

District's 2007 Ozone Plan (for 8-hour ozone), the 2008 PM2.5 Plan, the currently-inprogress 2012 PM2.5 Plan, and related scientific research in progress under the Central 

California Ozone Study (CCOS). The 2013 Plan will also evaluate the strong control 

measures recently adopted and implemented under the 2007 and 2008 Plans to assess 

the benefits for I-hour ozone over the coming years, as this control program is fully 

implemented. The District will also consider any additional control measures that might 

be needed to attain the I-hour ozone standard as expeditiously as practicable. The 

District will hold at least one public workshop on the 2013 Ozone Plan and present the 

plan to its Governing Board for adoption at a public hearing. The District will then 

transmit the plan through ARB to EPA. 

The District looks forward to collaborating with EPA Region IX, and all stakeholders 

throughout the I-hour ozone planning process to ensure the 201 3 plan is both effective 

and approvable. 

Executive DirectorlAPCO 

CC: Deborah Jordan, EPA 

Kerry Drake, EPA 

James Goldstene, CARB 

Lynn Terry, CARB