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State Standard Area Designations
This page last reviewed October 12, 2012
Background
The Health and Safety
Code (H&SC) section 39607(e) requires the Air Resources Board
(Board) to establish and periodically review area designation criteria.
These designation criteria provide the basis for the Board to designate
areas of California as attainment,
nonattainment, or unclassified for the State standards.The
Board
made the first area designations for State ambient air quality
standards (State standards) in 1989. Since then, the ARB has reviewed
the designations each year, making changes as needed. This web site
area provides information about the ARB's activities related to the
designation of areas in California with respect
to the State
standards.
In addition, H&SC section 39608 requires the Board to use the
designation criteria to designate areas of California and to
annually review those area designations. The Board makes area
designations for ten pollutants: ozone, suspended particulate
matter (PM10 and PM2.5), carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur
dioxide, sulfates, lead, hydrogen sulfide, and visibility reducing
particles. Each year, the Board reviews the area designations
and
updates them as appropriate, based on the three most
recent complete and validated calendar years of air quality
data.
We have established an e-mail mailing list for Area Designation
activities. As announcements, reports and other information
are posted to this website, we will send e-mail notifications
to
everyone on the list. If you wish to receive these notices,
you
can subscribe to the mailing list by visiting the Area
Designations List Serve Web Page and following the
instructions
there.
Current Activities
On July 20, 2012, the Air Resources Board released a Notice of Public Comment Period on Proposed Amendments to the Area Designations for State Ambient Air Quality Standards along with a staff report of the Proposed 2012 Amendments. The public comment period will close on September 4, 2012. No oral public hearing is currently scheduled, but may be requested. Further information can be found on the 2012 State Area Designations webpage. As announcements, reports and other information are posted to this website, we will send e-mail notifications to everyone on the Area Designations e-mail mailing list. If you wish to receive these notices, you can subscribe to the mailing list by visiting the Area Designations List Serve Web Page and following the instructions there.
Prior Activities
A teleconference/computer-based webinar workshop was held on February 21, 2012, to present the proposed 2012 State Area Designations and provide for public input. Information regarding this workshop can be found on the 2012 State Area Designations webpage.On June 23, 2011, the Board approved proposed changes to the State area designations. These changes were approved by the Office of Administrative Law on September 8, 2011 and become effective on October 11, 2011. The changes were based on data collected during 2007 through 2009. Information regarding the 2011 State Area Designations, including a list of resources used in the designation process, can be found at the link below:
Summaries of changes in the State designations since 1989 are available, as well as links to Staff Reports documenting changes for previous years.
Maps and Tables
Maps of the current State area designations are available for downloading. These documents are in Adobe pdf format.
- Maps of current State Standard Designations - these maps are taken from the latest Area Designation Staff Report. Staff Reports from previous years can be found at the link in Prior Activities above.
Contact Information
Comments and questions about this subject may be sent to:
(916) 322-7297
