BOARD MEETING

STATE OF CALIFORNIA

AIR RESOURCES BOARD

JOE SERNA, JR. BUILDING

CALIFORNIA ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

BYRON SHER AUDITORIUM, SECOND FLOOR

1001 I STREET

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA

THURSDAY, JANUARY 22, 2009

9:00 A.M.

TIFFANY C. KRAFT, CSR, RPR

CERTIFIED SHORTHAND REPORTER

LICENSE NUMBER 12277

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APPEARANCES

BOARD MEMBERS

Ms. Mary D. Nichols, Chairperson

Dr. John R. Balmes

Ms. Sandra Berg

Ms. Dorene D'Adamo

Ms. Lydia Kennard

Mrs. Barbara Riordan

Mr. Daniel Sperling

Mr. John Telles

Mr. Ken Yeager

STAFF

Mr. James Goldstene, Executive Officer

Mr. Tom Cackette, Chief Deputy Executive Officer

Ms. Ellen Peter, Chief Counsel

Mr. Michael Scheible, Deputy Executive Officer

Ms. Lynn Terry, Deputy Executive Officer

Ms. Kathleen Quetin, Ombudsman

Mr. Albert Ayala, Chief, Climate Change Mitigation and

Emissions Branch

Mr. Tony Brasil, In-Use Control Measures SEction

Mr. Richard Corey, Assistant Chief, RD

Ms. Susan Gilbreath, Ph.D., Population Studies Section,

Research Division

### Th e following pages are the transcript of the

California Regional Haze Plan hearing only.232

1 CHAIRPERSON NICHOLS: All right, ladies and

2 gentlemen. I believe we have one more item.

3 The next item that's before us is the California

4 Regional Haze Plan. And this is a change of pace from

5 what we've been working on for a while here. Shows how

6 the State is going to improve visibility in California's

7 wilderness areas and parks. We have a number of them that

8 are of great value to not only Californians, but to people

9 all over the world. And the Federal Clean Air Act

10 protects the visibility over those places. And so one of

11 our obligations is to develop a plan for maintaining

12 visibility.

13 And now we're going to hear the staff's proposal,

14 Mr. Goldstene.

15 EXECUTIVE OFFICER GOLDSTENE: Thank you, Chairman

16 Nichols.

17 As you'll hear today, California has 29

18 wilderness areas and National Parks which requires

19 specific visibility protection. This plan lays the

20 framework for what could be achieved in the next ten years

21 on a long-term path towards reaching natural visibility

22 conditions. It's been developed in conjunction with our

23 partners in the neighboring western states.

24 I'm pleased to report that we expect to improve

25 visibility at all California areas by the first milestone

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1 year of 2018. This projected visibility improvement is

2 due to the actions that the Board and local air districts

3 have taken to meet health-based air quality standards.

4 I'll now ask Tina Suarez-Murias from the Planning

5 and Technical Support Division to present this item.

6 Tina.

7 (Thereupon an overhead presentation was

8 presented as follows.)

9 MS. SUAREZ-MURIAS: Thank you, Mr. Goldstene.

10 Good afternoon, Chairman Nichols and members of the Board.

11 Today, I will present staff's proposed plan to

12 improve visibility at significant parks and wilderness

13 areas in California by 2018.

14 This is the first step in a long-term national

15 initiative to improve visibility in these special natural

16 areas. Unlike State Implementation Plans, which require

17 specific targets and attainment dates, this plan provides

18 for a series of interim goals to ensure continued

19 progress.

20 --o0o--

21 MS. SUAREZ-MURIAS: I will review the

22 requirements for this plan, summarize current visibility

23 conditions and its causes, and discuss the existing air

24 pollution controls in California that will improve

25 visibility by 2018. I will also explain the context for

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1 future planning beyond 2018 and conclude with the staff

2 recommendation.

3 --o0o--

4 MS. SUAREZ-MURIAS: Very low concentrations of

5 particulate air pollutants that affect public health also

6 impair visibility. When we reduce man-made particulate

7 matter in the air, we also improve visibility.

8 The long-term national goal is to achieve

9 visibility reflecting natural conditions in the most

10 treasured natural areas by 2064. The plan before you

11 today sets California's visibility goals for 2018, the

12 first milestone.

13 The Regional Haze Rule specifies what elements

14 must be in the plan and describes the process each State

15 must follow to establish specific goals for improving

16 visibility, both within the state and in neighboring

17 states.

18 Reducing haze is a regional issue. This plan

19 sets forth California's visibility goals and represents

20 our element of a broader western regional effort.

21 California has therefore worked closely with our partners

22 in the other western states to develop this plan through

23 the Western Regional Air Partnership.

24 --o0o--

25 MS. SUAREZ-MURIAS: As I noted in the previous

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1 slide, particulate matter pollution is the main

2 contributor to poor visibility. The sources that we are

3 addressing in PM non-attainment areas are the same ones

4 that we also impact visibility: Nitrates, sulfates, and

5 directly emitted particulates. Thus, the control programs

6 that are providing emissions reductions for these

7 non-attainment areas will also provide visibility

8 benefits. As such, our ongoing health-based control

9 program will continue to address needed incremental

10 visibility improvements as we proceed towards the

11 long-term goal of natural conditions.

12 --o0o--

13 MS. SUAREZ-MURIAS: This slide shows the impact

14 of extreme visibility impairment. Both photos were taking

15 from the same spot on different days in the same year.

16 While these photographs were taken a number of years ago,

17 they are still representative of the types of very good

18 and very bad visibility days that we still see today.

19 Most days fall in between these two extremes.

20 The day on the right represents the very low particulate

21 matter concentrations that can occur after a rain storm,

22 resulting in pristine vistas.

23 In contrast, the day on the left illustrates how

24 the view of Half Dome can be significantly obscured when

25 smoke from wildfires is overlaid with transport of PM from

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1 upwind urban areas.

2 The rule requires California to improve

3 visibility on worst days and to assure that current

4 visibility on the best days can be maintained.

5 --o0o--

6 MS. SUAREZ-MURIAS: Yosemite is one of the 156

7 parks and wilderness areas throughout the United States

8 selected by the Federal Land Management Agencies and

9 designated by Congress as deserving special visibility

10 protection. These are known as the Class 1 areas.

11 California has 29 Class 1 areas, more than any

12 other state. They are distributed throughout the state

13 and are managed by either the US Forest Service or the

14 National Park Service. Staff worked closely with

15 representatives of these agencies while developing the

16 plan components.

17 --o0o--

18 MS. SUAREZ-MURIAS: These pictures of five Class

19 1 areas in California highlight the diversity of

20 locations. They include coastal sites such as Point Reyes

21 National Seashore and Redwoods National Park; locations in

22 the far northern high plateau such as Lava Beds National

23 Monument, and Lassen Volcanic National Park; areas in the

24 Sierra Nevada such as the John Muir Wilderness and the

25 Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks; and in southern

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1 California, places such as the Joshua Tree National Park

2 in southern desert.

3 --o0o--

4 MS. SUAREZ-MURIAS: The Regional Haze Rule

5 establishes the key elements required for a statewide

6 Regional Haze Plan.

7 Current visibility for best and worst days at

8 each Class 1 area must be established for monitoring data

9 during the baseline years 2000 through 2004. Natural

10 visibility conditions to be achieved by 2064 are

11 determined by the U.S. EPA.

12 The plan must contain a control strategy to

13 reduce haze pollutants in the first ten-year planning

14 period ending in 2018. States must evaluate large, older

15 stationary sources with high emissions and affirm that

16 they are being controlled with best available retrofit

17 technology. The plan explains how California's reasonable

18 progress goals for 2018 for each of the Class 1 areas are

19 appropriate.

20 Finally, the plan must be developed in

21 consultation with the appropriate federal agencies and

22 other states in the region.

23 --o0o--

24 MS. SUAREZ-MURIAS: Although California's Class 1

25 areas are diverse in landscape and subject to different

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1 meteorology and pollutant influences, we do see similar

2 patterns emerge. These are related to the proximity of

3 natural and man-made emission sources impacting each of

4 the areas.

5 Class 1 areas in the northern Sierra Nevada and

6 far northern California currently have the best visibility

7 in the state. In contrast, the poorest visibility occurs

8 in the southern Sierra Nevada Class 1 areas and at those

9 in the southern California which are downwind of the San

10 Joaquin Valley and the South Coast.

11 However, these two areas are the key focus of

12 ongoing control efforts to attain federal PM and ozone

13 standards and therefore will see significant future

14 emission reductions.

15 The good news is that visibility is already

16 improving at many Class 1 areas in California due to

17 ongoing reductions in man-made emissions. However,

18 current visibility at California's Class 1 areas is still

19 1.5 to three times above natural conditions on worst days,

20 hence the need to set further visibility improvement

21 goals.

22 --o0o--

23 MS. SUAREZ-MURIAS: Currently, visibility at

24 California's Class 1 areas is impacted by both emissions

25 transported from upwind urban areas as well as wildfire

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1 smoke and biogenic emissions from natural vegetation.

2 On the worst days, transport of nitrate and

3 sulfate in southern California is the key driver of haze

4 in this sub-region of the state.

5 In the Sierra Nevada mountains, both wildfire

6 smoke and transported nitrates are the major causes of

7 haze on worst days.

8 In far northern California, wildfire smoke

9 emissions are the predominant cause of haze on the worst

10 visibility days.

11 Finally, along the coast, natural sea salt along

12 with off-shore shipping emissions are some of the key

13 contributors.

14 --o0o--

15 MS. SUAREZ-MURIAS: California is required to set

16 reasonable progress goals for the first milestone year

17 2018. The plan shows that the extensive controls that

18 California has already adopted will improve visibility at

19 all of the California's Class 1 areas.

20 These controls will also have a beneficial affect

21 on Class 1 areas in other states. These goals reflect the

22 combination of California's Emission Control Program,

23 emissions from natural sources, and contributions from

24 sources outside of California.

25 --o0o--

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1 MS. SUAREZ-MURIAS: As noted on the previous

2 slide, California's already adopted measures that are the

3 basis of the 2018 reasonable progress goals. And thus,

4 there are no new control requirements for regional haze

5 purposes.

6 California has a long history of air pollution

7 control to address federal and State air quality

8 standards, which will also provide visibility benefits.

9 This slide simply highlights many of California's key

10 programs, such as the Mobile Source Control Program, Goods

11 Movement, incentive funding, and local air district

12 measures. As a result of these efforts, NOx emissions, a

13 key PM and haze precursor, will decline by 40 percent by

14 2018.

15 --o0o--

16 MS. SUAREZ-MURIAS: One special requirement of

17 the Regional Haze Rule is the application of best

18 available retrofit technology, or BART, to older

19 stationary sources. ARB staff worked closely with the air

20 districts to evaluate current controls on these sources.

21 After review and assessment of modeled visibility

22 impacts, only one facility required a determination of

23 whether additional controls were necessary for the purpose

24 of the Regional Haze Rule. This facility is the Valero

25 Refinery in Benicia, which has visibility impacts at Point

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1 Reyes National Seashore.

2 The Bay Area District conducted the BART

3 determination and concluded that the appropriate BART

4 limits should be based on a combination of the district's

5 existing federally enforceable rules and permit

6 conditions, as well as a U.S. EPA consent decree.

7 Since the release of the draft plan, the district

8 has clarified several aspects of the BART determination.

9 These include how the district rules and the consent

10 decree are referenced, as well as a correction for the NOx

11 limits.

12 While further control of NOx from boilers at the

13 facility may occur in the future under California's more

14 stringent state requirements, the Bay Area clarified that

15 the existing level of NOx control meets the national BART

16 requirements. ARB staff proposes that the Board also

17 approve these clarifications.

18 --o0o--

19 MS. SUAREZ-MURIAS: The Regional Haze Rule

20 requires a long-range planning process with plan revisions

21 and interim mid-course reviews. The plan before you today

22 anticipates a mid-course review by 2013 to evaluate our

23 progress towards the 2018 goals, including reviewing the

24 control strategy and the goals. We expect that we will

25 coordinate this mid-course review with the new SIPS that

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1 will be due in this same time frame.

2 In 2018, a plan revision will be due with goals

3 for the next ten-year planning period. This cycle of plan

4 revision and mid-course review will continue until we

5 reach natural conditions visibility.

6 The Federal Regional Haze Rule also requires we

7 continue the consultation with the other western states

8 and the federal land managers.

9 --o0o--

10 MS. SUAREZ-MURIAS: Preparing this initial

11 Regional Haze Plan has been a long but productive exercise

12 in interstate and inter-agency cooperation for all of the

13 states. California's control program will continue to

14 provide new emission reductions each year between now and

15 2018. As a result, the plan demonstrates progress at all

16 Class 1 areas throughout the state.

17 Ongoing technical work to improve our

18 understanding of western visibility issues as well as the

19 additional benefits of future control programs will all be

20 incorporated into future plan updates.

21 In summary, staff therefore requests that the

22 Board approve the plan for transmittal to the U.S. EPA for

23 approval, with the clarification provided by the Bay Air

24 District.

25 This concludes my presentation.

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1 CHAIRPERSON NICHOLS: Thank you. If there are no

2 immediate questions, I think we can proceed to public

3 testimony. We have two people who signed up to speak,

4 Chris Nota from Regional Foresters' Office and Kendra

5 Daijogo from the California Council for Environmental and

6 Economic Balance.

7 MS. NOTA: Thank you. Thank you, Chairman

8 Nichols. And thank you, Board members for the opportunity

9 to comment on this plan.

10 I'm Chris Nota, and I'm with the Forest Service.

11 I'm the Regional Forester's representative in Sacramento.

12 And this plan is very important to us. Twenty of the 29

13 Class 1 wilderness areas of part of the national forest

14 system. Our precious treasurers.

15 And on behalf of regional forester Randy Moore,

16 I'd like to thank you for the opportunity we've had to

17 work closely with your staff on this plan starting with

18 the initial evaluation, the development, and now the

19 subsequent review of the plan.

20 Cooperative efforts such as these ensure that

21 together we will continue to make progress on the Clean

22 Air Act's goal of natural visibility conditions in our

23 Class 1 wilderness areas.

24 We particularly want to compliment your talented

25 and dedicated staff. They have been great to work with.

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1 And I think they've done a wonderful job of technical

2 analysis and collaboration with other agencies.

3 We feel confident that the final plan presents

4 strategies that will protect these very special Class 1

5 wilderness areas. And we've also submitted a few minor

6 written comments.

7 So thank you again for the ability to collaborate

8 with you on this. And we think you've developed a very

9 effective plan. Thank you.

10 CHAIRPERSON NICHOLS: Thank you. Nice to see

11 you.

12 MR. WRIGHT: I know I'm not Kendra. And I won't

13 even try to pass it off.

14 Chairman Nichols, I'm Mark Wright with CCEEB as

15 Kendra is with CCEEB. She got called out on a conference

16 call.

17 We're very appreciative. Lots of our CCEEB

18 members were able to work with your staff on the

19 development of this proposal, and we're in wholehearted

20 support.

21 CHAIRPERSON NICHOLS: Thank you. Nice to see

22 both of you again. You're old colleagues from my

23 Resources Agency days. Good to have a chance to work with

24 you.

25 Any comments, questions from the Board about this

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1 item?

2 BOARD MEMBER BERG: I would just like to thank

3 staff after reading the comments from the United States

4 Department of Interior, congratulations. It really

5 looks -- and the presentation was great. I know this has

6 been a lot of work. And I just don't want to not

7 acknowledge that at the end of this day. And so really

8 appreciate your work.

9 CHAIRPERSON NICHOLS: If you could have generated

10 some more contention, you might have made it more

11 exciting.

12 But I agree with that comment that the fact that

13 we're not jumping up and down should not be taken as a

14 sign this is not an important milestone. It is an

15 important milestone. Something that it always tends to

16 get pushed to the back because it's not public health.

17 And most of the things that you do to achieve this

18 standard are things you would be doing for reaching public

19 health standards anyway.

20 But it has a whole separate life and constituency

21 of its own, as well as the legal requirement. In fact, I

22 think probably many of you know that our founder, our

23 original Chairman, Dr. Haggen-Schmidt, was a great

24 advocate of visibility. Because he said that that was the

25 thing that people actually thought about when they thought

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1 about smog. And it was actually a lot more important to

2 most people than the health effects which they didn't

3 really understand. But when they saw it, they knew there

4 was something bad going on. So that's been an interesting

5 relationship from the very beginning of our program.

6 But this is a real milestone. And I, too, want

7 to congratulate everybody who worked on it.

8 I think we just need a motion.

9 BOARD MEMBER KENNARD: I will move it.

10 BOARD MEMBER BALMES: Second.

11 CHAIRPERSON NICHOLS: All in favor, signify by

12 saying aye.

13 (Ayes)

14 CHAIRPERSON NICHOLS: Any opposed? Great. Thank

15 you.

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1 CERTIFICATE OF REPORTER

2 I, TIFFANY C. KRAFT, a Certified Shorthand

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6 foregoing hearing was reported in shorthand by me,

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13 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand

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22 TIFFANY C. KRAFT, CSR, RPR

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