Opinion ID: 1408898
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: local and regional authorities

Text: The majority, in apparent recognition that the economic consequences of application of the board's standards are potentially great and should not be ignored entirely, take the position that the power to grant variances given to the local and regional agencies permits them to grant variances from the state standards. In my view the local and regional agencies may grant variances from their rules and regulations but may not grant variances from the standards established by the board. To permit local districts to depart from the standards adopted by the board is contrary to the statutory pattern and specific provisions of the statutes, creates an administrative quagmire, and jeopardizes the entire clean air program. As pointed out in Stauffer Chemical Co. v. Air Resources Board, supra, 128 Cal. App.3d 789, 792-793, [u]nder the air pollution control provisions of the Air Resources Act, as amended (Health & Saf. Code, § 39000 et seq.), the Board is under a duty to `[a]dopt standards of ambient air quality for each air basin [in the state]' (§ 39606, subd. (b)). Once adopted, it becomes the duty of local and regional air quality districts, including respondent district, to promulgate and implement rules and regulations reasonably assuring achievement and maintenance of the state standards. (See §§ 40000-40002.) The statutory scheme empowers the Board to oversee the effectiveness of local programs and regulations (see § 41500, subd. (b)) with ultimate authority to establish a program or `rules and regulations ... necessary to enable the district to achieve and maintain such ambient air quality standards.' (§ 41504, subd. (a).) [3a]  (Fn. 2 omitted.) In Stauffer Chemical Co., the board adopted regulations superseding regulations adopted by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District governing sulfur dioxide emissions from industrial facilities in the Bay Area. The board's regulation reduced the amount of allowable sulfur dioxide emissions from specific sources. The court upheld the board's regulations. Section 41504, subdivision (a) and the case show that the board is to ultimately determine the air quality standard and that to assure conformance to its standard it may supersede local regulations. To permit local authorities to grant variances from the board's standard of 0.05 parts per million sulfur dioxide and establish a standard of 0.06 parts per million appears inconsistent with the board's power to insist that local rules and regulations achieve its standards. Other statutes similarly make clear that it is for the board rather than local authorities to determine whether local conditions warrant a special standard of ambient air quality. The basic statute with which we are concerned, section 39606, provides that the board shall divide the state into air basins and adopt standards of ambient air quality for each air basin in consideration of the public health, safety, and welfare. ... (Italics added.) Thus, the basic statute authorizing the board to adopt standards contemplates that those standards may vary on the basis of local concerns. The local district's power to adopt rules and regulations is expressly made subject to the powers and duties of the state board (§ 40001), and thereby emphasizing that local authorities must conform to the board powers, and there is nothing to indicate that they may claim some exemption based on economic hardship or otherwise. Most importantly, the provision granting districts power to grant variances provides only for variances from the provisions of section 41701 (a provision prohibiting emissions greater than a defined opacity) and from district rules and regulations. The section reads: Any person may apply to the hearing board for a variance from Section 41701 or from the rules and regulations of the district.... (§ 42350.) The absence of any reference to state board standards should be conclusive in the circumstances before us. Practical considerations also point to the conclusion that the districts should be bound by the standards adopted by the state agency and are not free to depart from them by granting variances. If the district on the basis of local economic hardship is to be permitted to grant variances from the sulfur dioxide standard of 0.05, the local district should before doing so weigh health and other hazards against the economic hardship. But to do this the districts would have to consider all the health and other evidence considered by the board. Such a great undertaking does not seem contemplated by the variance procedure. Rather, the districts adopt rules and regulations attempting to meet the board's standards, and the variance procedure contemplates that variances to the districts' rules and regulations when coupled with the rules and regulations will not violate the board's standards. If local authorities are of the view that the board's standards are unduly restrictive and will result in great and unjustified economic hardship, their remedy is to request the board to reconsider the standards for the basin. The variance procedure does not contemplate that variances will be a means to avoid compliance with the board's standards and should not serve to jeopardize the clean air program. As we have seen, the 1967 statute was adopted when the former law which made the state standards mere goals or guidelines proved ineffective, and the 1967 law required the districts to comply with the state standards. (Stats. 1967, ch. 1545; former §§ 39051, 39313.) The variance power should not be applied to reduce the state standards to goals or guidelines. I am satisfied that the board must consider the economic impact of contemplated standards. This does not mean that the board must enter into a formal cost-benefit analysis attempting to put monetary valuations on the benefits of reduced air pollution. [4] Rather, the board must consider the impact on the economy of its standards along with the other factors enumerated in section 39606. [5] The board's refusal to consider evidence as to the economic effect of standards to be adopted requires affirmance of the judgment. Had the board considered economic effects, it might have adopted a combined standard for sulfates or used a different safety factor in establishing the standard for sulfur dioxide. (Cf. Southern Cal. Gas Co. v. Public Utilities Com. (1979) 23 Cal.3d 470, 477 [153 Cal. Rptr. 10, 591 P.2d 34]; City and County of San Francisco v. Public Utilities Com. (1971) 6 Cal.3d 119, 129 [98 Cal. Rptr. 286, 490 P.2d 798].) I would affirm the judgment.