I 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3959 
To amend the Clean Air Act to give States the option of monitoring covered 
criteria air pollutants in designated areas by greatly increasing the num-
ber of air quality sensors in exchange for greater regulatory flexibility 
in the methods of monitoring, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
OCTOBER 4, 2017 
Mr. SCHWEIKERT (for himself, Mr. CA´RDENAS, and Mr. AGUILAR) 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. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Crowd Sourcing of En-
vironmental Data Act of 2017’’. 
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SEC. 2. OPTION FOR EXPANDED MONITORING. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 110(a) of the Clean Air 
Act (42 U.S.C. 7410(a)) is amended by inserting after 
paragraph (3) the following: 
‘‘(4) OPTION FOR EXPANDED MONITORING.— 
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Any State may include in 
a State implementation plan a program for moni-
toring one or more covered criteria air pollutants in 
one or more designated areas by— 
‘‘(i) continuing to use the monitoring sys-
tem (including for purposes of baseline meas-
urements) that was in operation as of the sub-
mission of the revision to the plan; and 
‘‘(ii) greatly increasing the number of air 
quality sensors, which may include mobile sen-
sors, for such monitoring system. 
‘‘(B) STATE DISCRETION.—Subject to subpara-
graphs (C) and (D), the Administrator shall allow a 
State to make a revision to a State implementation 
plan in accordance with subparagraph (A) at the 
State’s discretion. 
‘‘(C) ENSURING QUALITY.—On an annual basis, 
each State that conducts monitoring pursuant to 
this paragraph, as a condition on the continuation of 
such monitoring, shall demonstrate to the Adminis-
trator that the quality of the data produced through 
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such monitoring meets all applicable data quality 
standards under this Act. 
‘‘(D) REVIEW BY ADMINISTRATOR.—A State’s 
annual demonstration under subparagraph (C) is 
deemed to have met the standard described in such 
subparagraph unless the Administrator issues a 
written response— 
‘‘(i) finding that such standard is not met; 
and 
‘‘(ii) explaining the basis for such finding. 
‘‘(E) GREATER
REGULATORY
FLEXIBILITY.— 
With respect to each designated area in which a 
State conducts monitoring pursuant to this para-
graph, the Administrator— 
‘‘(i) shall not require any particular meth-
od of monitoring to be used or not used, so long 
as the data derived from such monitoring meets 
all applicable data quality standards under this 
Act, as described in subparagraph (C); and 
‘‘(ii) shall allow the State involved to con-
sider data derived from monitoring pursuant to 
this paragraph in making any determination on 
whether an exceedance of the national ambient 
air quality standard for the criteria air pollut-
ant involved has occurred. 
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‘‘(F) DEFINITIONS.—In this paragraph: 
‘‘(i) The term ‘covered criteria air pollut-
ant’ means an air pollutant for which air qual-
ity criteria have been issued under section 
108(a), except that such term does not include 
carbon monoxide or nitrogen dioxide. 
‘‘(ii) The term ‘designated area’ means an 
area that is designated under section 107(d) as 
being in nonattainment, in attainment, or 
unclassifiable.’’. 
(b) REGULATIONS.—Not later than 12 months after 
the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator of 
the Environmental Protection Agency shall promulgate 
final regulations to implement section 110(a)(4) of the 
Clean Air Act, as added by subsection (a). Such regula-
tions shall specify how a State must demonstrate to the 
Administrator, as required by subparagraph (C) of such 
section 110(a)(4), that the quality of the data produced 
through monitoring pursuant to such section 110(a)(4) is 
at least as good as the quality of the data that would be 
produced for the respective air pollutants in the respective 
areas if the State did not exercise the option to conduct 
monitoring pursuant to such section 110(a)(4). 
Æ 
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