PECHANGA INDIAN RESERVATION 

Ternecula Band of Luiserio Mission Indians 

Post Office Box 1477 Temecula, CA 92593 

Telephone (95 1 ) 676-2768 Fax (95 1 ) 695- 1778 

June 23,2009 

Deborah Jordan 

Director, Air Division 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region IX 

75 Hawthorne Street 

Sm Francisco, CA 94105-39(!1. 

Tribal Chairman: 

Mark Macarro 

Council Members: 

Mark Calac 

Corrine Garbani 

Marc Luker 

Andrew Masiel, Sr. 

Russell "Butch" Murphy 

Kenneth Perez 

Tribal Treasurer 

Christina "Tina" McMenamin 

Tribal Secretary: 

Darlene Miranda 

Re: Request to Create a Separate Wonattainment Area for the Pechanga Indian 

Reservation or, Alternatively, Move the Northern Boundary of the San Diego 

Nonattainmeilt Area to Include the Reservation of the Pechanga Band of Luiseno 

Indians 

Dear Ms. Jordan: 

This letter, submitted on behalf of the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians ("Pechanga" or 

"Tribe"), requests that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or Agency) 

create a separate nonattainment area for the Pechanga Reservation or, alternatively, move 

the northern boundary of the San Diego Nonattainment Area in the San Diego Air Basin 

(SDAB) northward to include the Pechanga Reservation. 

The State of California's recent petition to EPA to "bump up" the ozone classification for 

the South Coast Air Basin (SoCAB) from "severe-1 7" to "extreme" will result in a 10 tpy 

major source threshold for ozone precursor (i.e., NOx and ROC) emissions, compared to 

the current 25 tpy threshold. This change will: 

(s thwart or sigrlil~ciat!y iripair the Tribe's plan tc devzlop a tribal air perniit 

program for minor sowces by increasing the numbs:r of faci1i1.i~~ potentially 

subject to Nonattaiment New Source Review (NNSR); 

e increase the use and cost of Pechanga Environmental Department resources; 

severely compromise the Tribe's capacity to engage in economic development in 

the absence of a program for obtaining emission reduction credits for onReservation facilities subject to NNSR requirements under the lower major 

source threshold, which places on-Reservation facilities at a distinct disadvantage 

relative to similar facilities operating outside the Reservation; and 

e reduce the threshold for the applicability of General Conformity requirements 

similarly from 25 tpy to 10 tpy. 
The Tribe's request that EPA create a separate nonattainment area for the Pechanga 

Reservation would address these tribal concerns, and is a logical and technically sound 

initiative that addresses the nine factors suggested in EPA guidance for establishing or 

changing nonattainment area boundaries (see Attachment A). Moreover, although the 

accompanying rationale for a separate nonattainment area for the Pechanga Reservation 

is compelling, the accompanying discussion of the nine factors also would support a 

determination by EPA to move the northern boundary of the San Diego Nonattainment 

Area to include the Pechanga Reservation. 

Accordingly, the Tribe respectfully requests that EPA fully consider and support the 

Tribe's request and justification for creation of a separate nonattainment area for the 

Pechanga Reservation. However, should EPA determine that creation of such an 

attainment area is not approvable, the Tribe requests that EPA adjust the boundary of the 

San Diego Nonattainment Area to include the Pechanga Reservation. In either event, we 

expect that EPA will closely consult with the Tribe before reaching a final decision. 

We look forward to your response and working with EPA on these important issues. 

Coordination of your agency's consultation with the Tribe should be arranged through 

Ms. Syndi Smallwood, Director of the Pechanga Environmental Department. Questions 

or issues of a legal nature should be directed to Jim Cohen, Deputy General Counsel. 

Questions or issues of a technical nature should be directed to Gary Rubenstein at Sierra 

Research. 

Sincerely, 

Mark Macarro, 

Tribal Chairman 

cc: Colleen McKaughan, EPA Region 9 

Gary Rubenstein, Sierra Research 

PECHANGA INDIAN RESERVATION 

Temecula Band of Luiseno Indians 
Attachment A 

Draft for Agency Review and Comment 

Request to Create a Pechanga Nonattainment Area or Move the 

Northern Boundary of the San Diego Nonattainment Area to Include 

the Pechanga Indian Reservation 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

On October 14,2008, a land transfer from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) 

by Act of Congress modified the boundaries of the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians 

(Tribe) to increase the previous reservation area of 5,500 acres by more than 1.7 square 

miles (1,088 acres) including 119 acres in San Diego County, which county is 

geographically identical to the San Diego Air Basin (SDAB) and the San Diego 

Nonattainrnent Area. The SDAB, which includes this 1 19-acre area, has a less restrictive 

"basic or Subpart 1" ozone (8-hour) nonattainment designation compared to the "severe17" designation for the South Coast Air Basin (SoCAB) or South Coast Nonattainment 

Area, in which the remainder of the reservation exists. 

Because of the uniformity of topography and low level of air pollutant emitting activities 

throughout the reservation, the entire reservation should be designated as the Pechanga 

Nonattainment Area, or, in the alternative, included within an expanded San Diego 

Nonattainment Area. The SoCAB has had a more restrictive "severe-1 7" ozone 

nonattainment designation than is appropriate for the Pechanga Reservation. The June 1, 

2007 Air Quality Management Plan of the South Coast Air Quality Management District 

requested that the SoCAB ozone nonattainment designation be "bumped up" from 

"severe-1 7" to "extreme," which would give the reservation an even more inappropriate 

designation. 

Leaving the majority of the Pechanga Indian Reservation in the South Coast 

Nonattainment Area will impose additional, unanticipated delays in developing 

Pechanga's air program, including the Tribe's plan to implement a tribal air permit 

program for minor sources. First, by reducing the major source "potential to emit" 

threshold for ozone precursor (i.e., NOx and ROC) emissions in the SoCAB from 25 tpy 

for the severe-1 7 nonattainment designation to 10 tpy for the extreme nonattainment 

designation under the 8-hour average ozone standard, the reclassification will increase the 

number of facilities potentially subject to Nonattainment New Source Review (NNSR) 

requirements, thus increasing the use and cost of Pechanga staff resources. Second, the 

number of future facilities subject to Title V would be significantly increased because the 

threshold of 25 tpy is being reduced to 10 tpy. Finally, if the threshold for the 

applicability of General Conformity requirements is reduced from 25 tpy to 10 tpy, many 

more projects will be required to demonstrate that their emissions of criteria pollutants 

will not impede progress toward attainment with NAAQS. 

1 
For both existing and future facilities subject to NNSR on tribal lands, there is currently 

no system in place through which such facilities can obtain emission reduction credits. 

Unless EPA allows such sources to use emission reduction credits from the adjacent air 

basins, either through its own program or through a tribal permitting program, Native 

American-owned facilities will be placed at a disadvantage relative to similar facilities 

operating outside of Indian country. 

Based on the nine factors in EPA guidance and common sense, the Pechanga Indian 

Reservation logically and technically should be its own nonattainment area, or, in the 

alternative, part of the San Diego Nonattainment Area. The factors pertaining to causes 

of nonattainment, low population density and lack of urbanization, low level of local 

traffic, slow growth rate, and level of emission source control show that the reservation 

holds far more in common with the San Diego Nonattainment Area than with the South 

Coast Nonattainment Area, while the factors dealing with air quality, lack of local 

emission sources, meteorology, and geography show that the Pechanga Reservation can 

just as logically be its own nonattainment area or a part of either the San Diego or South 

Coast Nonattainment Areas. The factor of jurisdictional boundaries suggests that the 

reservation should logically be its own nonattainment area. 

INTRODUCTION 

On October 14,2008, a land transfer from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) 

by Act of Congress modified the boundaries of the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians 

(Tribe) to increase the previous reservation area of 5,500 acres1 by more than 1.7 square 

miles (1,088 acres) including 1 19 acres in San Diego County, which county is 

geographically identical to the San Diego Air Basin (SDAB) and the San Diego 

Nonattainment Area. The SDAB, which includes this 1 19-acre area, has a less restrictive 

"basic or Subpart 1" ozone (8-hour) attainment designation2 than the "severe-17" 

designation for the South Coast Air as in^ (SoCAB), in which the remainder of the total 

reservation4 exists. 

Because of the uniformity of topography and low level of air pollutant emitting activities 

throughout the reservation, the entire reservation should be its own Pechanga 

Nonattainment Area, or, in the alternative, contained within an expanded San Diego 

Nonattainment Area. The SoCAB has had a more restrictive "severe-17" ozone 

attainment designation than is appropriate for the Pechanga Reservation. The June 1, 

2007 Air Quality Management Plan of the South Coast Air Quality Management District 

' Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians, http://www.pechanea-nsn.gov/page?pageld=6, accessed 

December 30,2008. 

USEPA. Classijications of 8-Hour Ozone Nonattainment Areas, Green Book, 

http:llwww.epa.govloarloa~psl~reenbk/gnc.html#Note, updated as of March 12, 2009, accessed May 1, 

2009. 

Ibid. 

Based on (5,500+1,088-119)/(5,500+1,088). 

2 
requested that the SoCAB ozone nonattainment designation be "bumped up" from 

"severe-17" to "extreme," which would give the reservation an even more inappropriate 

designation. 

Keeping the Pechanga Indian Reservation in a nonattainment area with such a restrictive 

major source threshold means that the Tribe cannot implement a meaningful Minor 

Source permitting program because the regulation would be applicable only to a small set 

of potential future emitting sources, whose emissions would be lower than 10 tpy of both 

NOx and ROC. Several additional years will be needed for the Tribe to develop a Major 

Source permitting program and gain approval for such a program from EPA. 

The purpose of this document is to present the logical and technically-based rationale to 

create a Pechanga Nonattainment Area, or, in the alternative, move the northern boundary 

of the San Diego Nonattainment Area northward to include the entire Pechanga 

Reservation, rather than having it bisect the reservation as it does now. It will be shown 

that the reservation has substantial differences from the South Coast Air Basin, and 

properly belongs in its own nonattainment area, or at least in the San Diego 

Nonattainment Area. It makes no sense for the reservation to remain inside the SoCAB 

nonattainment area, which is the principal source of the emissions that cause the 

monitored violations of the ozone NAAQS on Tribal lands. EPA has authority under 

Clean Air Act Section 1 10(k)(6) to create a new nonattainment area, or make a correction 

to the San Diego Nonattainment Area boundary to include the remainder of the Pechanga 

Indian Reservation. 

RATIONALE 

The following discussion is organized according to the nine factors published in USEPA 

guidance.6 

Factor 1: "Air quality data" 

The air quality on the Pechanga Reservation is generally good (i.e., highest 8-hour 

avera e ozone concentration of 0.057 ppm during the period July 1 - December 3 1, 9 2008) , much like the remainder of the SDAB to the south, except where air quality is 

degraded for locales near the coastal cities. In contrast, air quality throughout the SoCAB 

to the north and west is degraded not only by the regional mix of pollutants, but also by 

dense industrial and population centers. SoCAB emissions are high enough to also 

The South Coast Air Quality Management District described the request in the June 1,2007 Boardapproved 2007 Air Quality Management Plan, and initiated the request September 27,2007. 

USEPA. Area Designations for the 2008 Revised Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards, 

memorandum from Robert J. Meyers, Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator, Office of Air and 

Radiation, to Regional Administrators, December 8, 2008. 

The Pechanga monitoring station has only been operating since May 28,2008. 
degrade the air quality of coastal portions of the SDAB by "overwhelming" transport of 

regional air pollutants (e.g., ozone).' 

Ozone, generated by atmospheric reactions of its precursor emissions of NOx and ROC 

over periods of hours, is by its nature a regional pollutant. High levels that exceed the 8- 

hour ozone NAAQS are widespread throughout the SoCAB, and because of the 

combination of local emissions and transport, are also widespread throughout the coastal 

portions of the SDAB. 

As can be seen in Figure 1, the average annual number of exceedances of the current 8- 

hour ozone NAAQS from monitoring stations near the Pechanga Reservation is highest at 

Lake Elsinore, much higher than the exceedances at the other four monitoring stations 

(see Figure 2 for the locations of the monitoring stations). Figure 3 shows that the 

temporal trends of the number of ozone exceedances as measured at the Anaheim and 

Mission Viejo monitoring stations in the SoCAB are relatively synchronous with those at 

the Escondido and El Cajon monitoring station in the SDAB. Figure 4 shows that the 

average annual maximum 8-hour ozone concentration is relatively uniform between four 

of the monitoring stations, but a substantially higher concentration occurs at Lake 

Elsinore. Figure 5 shows the relatively uniform and synchronous temporal changes 

between the stations from year to year. Figure 6 shows the uniformity of the annual 4h 

highest 8-hour ozone concentrations between four of the stations, much as Figure 4 

showed for the average annual maximum 8-hour ozone concentrations. Figure 7 does not 

show the same consistent synchronous temporal changes from year to year in the annual 

4th highest 8-hour ozone concentrations that were seen in Figure 5 for the average annual 

maximum 8-hour concentration. 

Air Resources Board. Assessment of the Impacts of Transported Pollutants on Ozone Concentrations in 

California, March 200 1, http://www.arb.ca.gov/regact/transO 1 /isor.pd f. 

4 
Figure 1. Average Annual Number of Excedances of the 8-Hour Ozone 

NAAQS (0.075 ppm) from 1998-2008 

. Anaheim % MissionViejo I Lake Elsinore Escondido El Cajon 

South Coast Nonattainment Area + San Diego Nonattainment Area +----------------------------- .................... + 

Full site nameof El Cajon, Exondido, Anaheim, Mission Viejoand LakeElsinoreareEl CajowRedwocd Avenue, Escondido-EValley Parkway, Anaheim-Pampas Lane, Mission Viep26081 Via Pera and LakeElsinore-W Flintstreet, respectiwly. 

Notes: The vertical line acrossthetopof each barrepresentronestandarddeuationaround the arithmetic mean. 

Figure 3. Average Annual Number of Exceedances of the 8-Hour Ozone 

NAAQS (0.075 ppm) Normalized to Lake Elsinore 

+El Cajon 

+ Escondido 

+Anaheim 

e'r * .. . Mission Viejo 

--,*., . Lake Elsinore 

Figure 5. Annual Maximum 8-hour Average Ozone Concentration 

Normalized to Lake Elsinore 

1.20 

+El Cajon 

-D- Escondido 

+Anaheim 

- 

w Mission Viejo 

0.40 0 

u +Lake Elsinore ..- 

0 
Figure 6. Average Annual 4th Highest 8-hour Ozone Concentration Averages 

from 1998-2008 

Anaheim m Mission Viejo E Lake Elsinore * Escondido . El Cajon 

r 1 

South Coast Nonattainment Area 

- 

T 

Full site name of El Cajon. Escondido, Anaheim, Mission Viejo and Lake Elsinoreare El CajorrRedwod Avenue, Escondido-EValley Parkway, Anaheim-Pampas Lane, Mission Viejo26081 Via Pera and Lake Elsinore-W Flintstreet, respectively. 

Notes: lhe verticalline acrossthetopofeach barrepresenkonestandarddeuationaround the arithmetic mean. 

Table 1 lists the maximum ozone concentrations measured at the three monitoring 

stations stretching northwest from the Pechanga Reservation into SoCAB (i.e., Lake 

Elsinore, Mission Viejo, and Anaheim), and at two monitoring stations stretching 

southeast from the reservation into the SDAB. 

As can be seen in Table 2, the two-station average peak ozone concentration measured at 

the SDAB monitoring stations is less than the three-station average peak measured at the 

SoCAB monitoring stations. 

Table 1 

Maximum Ozone Concentrations " 

2008 (ppmv) 

Because air quality monitoring on the Pechanga Reservation did not begin before 3rd 

quarter 2008, the second half of 2008 is used to compare 8-hour maximum ozone 

concentrations as shown in Table 3. 

Table 2 

Basin Comparison of Maximum Ozone Concentrations " 

2008 (ppmv) 

" Data Source: California Air Quality Data, California Air Resources Board website, 

http /IVWIV orb cu gov udum cnc-hrn db2ww1v adumlop-lb d2w s~url. 

b~RB Site No. 30178 

"ARB Site No. 30002 

d~RB Site No. 33158 

'ARB Site No. 80115 

f~~~ Site No. 80131 

L. Elsinore 

Monitoring 

Station 

0.139 

0.1 19 

Pollutant 

03 

Pollutant 

03 

Anaheim 

Monitoring 

Station 

0.105 

0.086 

Averaging 

Time 

1 -hour 

8-hour 

Mission 

Viejo 

Monitoring 

Stationc 

0.1 18 

0.104 

Escondido 

Monitoring 

Station 

0.1 16 

0.099 

" Data Source: California Air Quality Data, California Air Resources Board 

website, hllp II~II'II! arb cu .gov adum cgr-brn dh?~'lt~~t adumtop-ib d21v slurt. 

b~RB Site No. 30178. 

ARB Site No. 30002. 

d~~~ SiteNo. 33158. 

Averaging 

Time 

1 -hour 

8-hour 

El Cajon 

Monitoring 

Station 

0.107 

0.093 

SoCAB 

Monitoring 

Station Average 

0.121 

0.103 

SDAB Monitoring 

Station Average 

0.1 12 

0.096 
Quality Assurance Consulting. Third and Fourth Quarter 2008 Ambient Air 

Monitoring Data Reports, Pechanga Ambient Air Monitoring Station, November 4, 

2008 and February 13,2009, respectively. 

Although comparable data is available only for a half year, the low magnitude of the 

maximum 1 - and 8-hour ozone concentrations measured on the reservation suggests that 

the Pechanga Reservation should be its own nonattainment area. 

Factor 2: "Emissions data (location of sources and contribution to ozone concentrations)" 

Due to the sparse population of the Pechanga Reservation, the limited emissions from the 

few sources on the Reservation are close to only a few nearby receptors. This same 

sparse distribution of emission sources and nearby receptors characterizes the other 

Indian reservations and communities located throughout most of the SDAB. Far different 

is the close proximity of the dense residential areas of the Riverside County portion of the 

SoCAB to transportation, commercial, and industrial emission sources clustered in urban 

centers such as the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario Metropolitan Statistical Area. 

Table 4 presents a comparison of emissions from the Pechanga Reservation, the SDAB, 

and the Riverside County portion of the SoCAB, separated into stationary, area, and 

mobile source categories. The emissions in both the SDAB and Riverside County portion 

of the SoCAB are well in excess of the emissions on Tribal lands and, as a result, these 

data suggest that the Pechanga Reservation can just as logically be its own nonattainment 

area, or, in the alternative, a part of either adjoining nonattainment area. 
The ozone precursor emission density on the Pechanga reservation is about 1/50 that in 

the SDAB or in the Riverside County portion of the SoCAB, as shown in Table 5. 

The emissions from the Pechanga ~eservation~ are from similar sources and in similarly 

small amounts as from other Indian reservations and communities located throughout the 

SDAB, far smaller in quantity and less industriaVcommercia1 in nature than emissions 

from the large urban centers in the SoCAB, including the Los Angeles Consolidated 

Metropolitan Statistical Area (CMSA). 

These emission data suggest that the Pechanga Reservation can just as logically be its 

own nonattainment area as be a part of either the San Diego or South Coast 

Nonattainment Area. 

For example, 2007 NOx emissions were approximately 4.2 tons per year. 

14