I 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 283 

To amend the Clean Air Act to give States the option of monitoring covered 

criteria air pollutants in designated areas by greatly increasing the number of air quality sensors in exchange for greater regulatory flexibility 

in the methods of monitoring, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 12, 2021 

Mr. SCHWEIKERT (for himself and Mr. CA ́RDENAS) introduced the following 

bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 

To amend the Clean Air Act to give States the option of 

monitoring covered criteria air pollutants in designated 

areas by greatly increasing the number of air quality 

sensors in exchange for greater regulatory flexibility in 

the methods of monitoring, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Crowd Sourcing of En5 vironmental Data Act of 2021’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. OPTION FOR EXPANDED MONITORING. 

2 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 110(a) of the Clean Air 

3 Act (42 U.S.C. 7410(a)) is amended by inserting after 

4 paragraph (3) the following: 

5 ‘‘(4) OPTION FOR EXPANDED MONITORING.— 

6 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Any State may include in 

7 a State implementation plan a program for moni8 toring one or more covered criteria air pollutants in 

9 one or more designated areas by— 

10 ‘‘(i) continuing to use the monitoring sys11 tem (including for purposes of baseline meas12 urements) that was in operation as of the sub13 mission of the revision to the plan; and 

14 ‘‘(ii) greatly increasing the number of air 

15 quality sensors, which may include mobile sen16 sors, for such monitoring system. 

17 ‘‘(B) STATE DISCRETION.—Subject to subpara18 graphs (C) and (D), the Administrator shall allow a 

19 State to make a revision to a State implementation 

20 plan in accordance with subparagraph (A) at the 

21 State’s discretion. 

22 ‘‘(C) ENSURING QUALITY.—On an annual basis, 

23 each State that conducts monitoring pursuant to 

24 this paragraph, as a condition on the continuation of 

25 such monitoring, shall demonstrate to the Adminis26 trator that the quality of the data produced through 


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1 such monitoring meets all applicable data quality 

2 standards under this Act. 

3 ‘‘(D) REVIEW BY ADMINISTRATOR.—A State’s 

4 annual demonstration under subparagraph (C) is 

5 deemed to have met the standard described in such 

6 subparagraph unless the Administrator issues a 

7 written response— 

8 ‘‘(i) finding that such standard is not met; 

9 and 

10 ‘‘(ii) explaining the basis for such finding. 

11 ‘‘(E) GREATER REGULATORY FLEXIBILITY.— 

12 With respect to each designated area in which a 

13 State conducts monitoring pursuant to this para14 graph, the Administrator— 

15 ‘‘(i) shall not require any particular meth16 od of monitoring to be used or not used, so long 

17 as the data derived from such monitoring meets 

18 all applicable data quality standards under this 

19 Act, as described in subparagraph (C); and 

20 ‘‘(ii) shall allow the State involved to con21 sider data derived from monitoring pursuant to 

22 this paragraph in making any determination on 

23 whether an exceedance of the national ambient 

24 air quality standard for the criteria air pollut25 ant involved has occurred. 


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1 ‘‘(F) DEFINITIONS.—In this paragraph: 

2 ‘‘(i) The term ‘covered criteria air pollut3 ant’ means an air pollutant for which air qual4 ity criteria have been issued under section 

5 108(a), except that such term does not include 

6 carbon monoxide or nitrogen dioxide. 

7 ‘‘(ii) The term ‘designated area’ means an 

8 area that is designated under section 107(d) as 

9 being in nonattainment, in attainment, or 

10 unclassifiable.’’. 

11 (b) REGULATIONS.—Not later than 12 months after 

12 the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator of 

13 the Environmental Protection Agency shall promulgate 

14 final regulations to implement section 110(a)(4) of the 

15 Clean Air Act, as added by subsection (a). Such regula16 tions shall specify how a State must demonstrate to the 

17 Administrator, as required by subparagraph (C) of such 

18 section 110(a)(4), that the quality of the data produced 

19 through monitoring pursuant to such section 110(a)(4) is 

20 at least as good as the quality of the data that would be 

21 produced for the respective air pollutants in the respective 

22 areas if the State did not exercise the option to conduct 

23 monitoring pursuant to such section 110(a)(4). 

Æ 


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