SUMMARY

This is an update to the Bay Area 1991 Clean Air Plan (CAP), a plan to reduce ground-level ozone (O3) air pollution in the San Francisco Bay Area. The '91 CAP included a comprehensive strategy to reduce air pollutant emissions. The '91 CAP focused on control measures to be implemented during the 1991 to 1994 period, and also included control measures to be implemented from 1995 through the year 2000 and beyond. This plan, called the Bay Area 1994 Clean Air Plan, is a continuation of the comprehensive strategy established by the '91 CAP. The '94 CAP includes changes in the organization and scheduling of some '91 CAP measures and also includes eight new proposed stationary and mobile source control measures. The '94 CAP covers the period extending from CAP adoption, expected in December of 1994, to the next California air quality planning update, expected in 1997. It also includes projections of pollutant trends and possible control activities beyond 1997.

The CAP was developed by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, in cooperation with the Association of Bay Area Governments and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, in response to the California Clean Air Act (CCAA) of 1988, as amended. The goals of the '94 CAP are to reduce the health impacts from ozone levels above the State ambient standard and to comply with the California Clean Air Act. The Act requires air districts that exceed the State ozone standard to reduce pollutant emissions by 5% per year, calculated from 1987, or take all feasible measures to achieve emission reductions. The Bay Area attained the State CO standard in 1993, so the CCAA planning requirements for CO nonattainment areas no longer apply to the Bay Area. The control measures proposed in the '94 CAP constitute all feasible measures for the reduction of ozone precursor emissions in the Bay Area.

Population exposure to ozone above the State standard has been cut in half since 1988. The Bay Area attained the national standard during the 1990-1994 timeframe. EPA redesignated the Bay Area to an attainment area for the national ozone standard in 1995. Ozone precursors (reactive organics and oxides of nitrogen) were reduced by about 3.2% per year and 1.7% per year, respectively, over the planning period 1987-1994.

• increasingly stringent State and federal programs affecting motor vehicles, fuel and other sources;
• more stringent controls on polluting industries and businesses;
• reformulation of paints and consumer products to reduce volatile pollutant content;
• programs to reduce automobile use and traffic congestion;
• efforts to improve public transit systems and to encourage development patterns that reduce automobile dependence.

This Plan reflects the BAAQMD staff's projection of future regulatory activity. However, as "planned activities," the control measures are initial proposals subject to the rule development and workshop process, District Board consideration, ARB approval, and possibly EPA approval, prior to implementation. Accordingly, the proposals contained within the Plan may be modified and should be reviewed with this in mind.

The rule development process includes many steps, including review of control measures and adopted rules in other regions, consultation with affected parties, development of draft rules, workshops with affected and interested parties, development of technical support documentation including CEQA and socioeconomic analyses, and adoption by the BAAQMD Board of Directors at a public hearing. During this process, new information may become available regarding the availability of technology, cost, emission reduction potential, and other factors. As a result of the rule development process, the coverage, exemptions, definitions, or standards may change. Therefore, the estimated emission reductions, cost effectiveness, or scheduling of an adopted rule may be different than indicated in the control measure description in the CAP.

Ozone is not the only air quality problem in the Bay Area, but it is the pollutant of concern in this Plan. Particulate matter, toxic air pollutants, stratospheric ozone depletion, and other air quality problems are addressed through BAAQMD programs outside of this Plan.

The major benefits of the CAP will be reduced health impacts from population exposure to ozone. Additional expected benefits are reductions in: airborne particulate matter, growth of traffic congestion, energy use, global warming, crop damage, and water pollution.

Copies of the Bay Area 1994 Clean Air Plan are available from the BAAQMD Outreach & Incentives Division at 415-749-4900.