2012 State Area Designations

This page last reviewed July 20, 2012

The Executive Officer of the California Air Resources Board is proposing amendments to the regulations designating areas of California as attainment, nonattainment, nonattainment-transitional, or unclassified for pollutants with State ambient air quality standards.  Written comments on the proposed regulatory amendments must be received by September 4, 2012 in order to be considered by the Executive Officer.  No oral public hearing is currently scheduled, but may be requested.  Information regarding requesting a public hearing can be found in the Notice of Public Comment Period on ARB's rulemaking website for the 2012 State Area Designations at: http://www.arb.ca.gov/regact/2012/area12/area12.htm.

Initial Statement of Reasons (ISOR)

• Staff Report Initial Statement of Reasons ( ISOR ) and Attachments

Resources Used in Preparing this Staff Report

The following is a list of some of the documents, websites, and other resources used in developing the changes to the area designations for State standards documented in this staff report.  Dates are current as of April 4, 2012.

• California Air Resources Board
  • Air Quality Data
    • Air Quality and Meteorological Information Systems (AQMIS2) - Current and historical air quality and meteorology data
      Data last accessed December 20, 2011
    • iADAM Air Quality Data Statistics - Historical air quality data, trends, and statistics
      Data last accessed December 20, 2011
    • Air Quality Data Available on DVD-ROM
      Data last accessed November 10, 2011
  • Area Designations
    
    • Staff Reports 1989 through 2011
      Page last reviewed September 14, 2011
  • Emissions Inventory Data
    • Source Categories, Regions, Facilities - search engines
      Data last accessed November 2, 2011
  • Exceptional Events
    • 2008 Northern California Wildfires
      Page last reviewed January 17, 2012
  • Expected Peak Day Concentrations (EPDC)
    • Guidance for Using Air Quality-Related Indicators in Reporting Progress in Attaining the State Ambient Air Quality Standards
      Report dated July 8, 1993
  • Monitoring Site Information
    • Quality Assurance - Air Monitoring Site Information
      Page last reviewed November 21, 2011
    • State and Local Air Monitoring Network Plans
      Data last accessed November 10, 2011

• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
  • Exceptional Events
    • Exceptional Events Rule - March 22, 2007
      Page last reviewed December 21, 2009
    • Treatment of Data Influenced by Exceptional Events
      Page last reviewed October 29, 2009
  • Nonattainment Areas
    • The Green Book Nonattainment Areas for Criteria Pollutants
      Data last accessed November 10, 2011

• South Coast Air Quality Management District
  • Air Quality Data
    • Lead Data
      Data last accessed October 18, 2011

Past Events

ARB staff held a public workshop for the State Area Designations on February 21, 2012. The notice  for this workshop are available below, along with the workshop presentation outlining the proposed amendments to the State Area Designations.

• Workshop Notice (pdf)

• Workshop  Presentation (Powerpoint format, pdf format)

Contact Information

Comments and questions regarding this subject may be sent to:

Ms. Theresa Najita at (916) 322-7297
Air Pollution Specialist
Planning and Technical Support Division
California Air Resources Board
P.O. Box 2815
Sacramento CA 95812