Good morning. Welcome to this January 23rd, 2025 meeting of the Sacramento Metropolitan Air

Quality Management District Board of Directors. Would the clerk please call the roll?

Vice-Chircino.

Here. Director Desmond.

Here.

Director Dickinson.

Director Gietta.

Here.

Director Hume.

Chircennity.

Here.

Director Maple.

Here.

Director Middleton.

Director Robles.

Here.

Director Sander.

Here.

Director Serna.

Here.

Director Vang.

We have quorum.

Thank you.

Please join me in the pledge of allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the public for which

it stands, my mission, under God, and the visible, and liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk.

Members of the public are encouraged to observe the meeting in real time at Metro14live.saccounty.gov.

Participate in person via Zoom video or teleconference line and by submitting written comments to board

clerk at airquality.org.

Comments will be delivered to the Board of Directors.

Public comments regarding matters under the jurisdiction of the Board of Directors will

be acknowledged by the chairperson, distributed to the Board of Directors, and included in

the record.

This meeting of the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District is cablecast

live on MetroCable14, the local government affairs channel on Comcast and direct TVU

verse cable systems.

This meeting is being closed captioned and will be live streamed at Metro14live.saccounty.gov.

Today's meeting will be repeated on Saturday, January 25th, 2025, at 2pm on Channel 14.

Thank you very much.

With that, as far as Brown Act goes, that it be known for the record that Vice Chair

Aquino and Director Getta are joining us remotely.

And that takes us to our consent calendar.

Before we get there, let me just welcome back to the Dias Director Dickinson.

Thank you for being here.

Director Rodriguez, welcome.

Thank you.

And I believe Director Sanders, Senator, are you?

No.

No, all right.

You don't seem new to anything but welcome.

Welcome, all of you.

It's good to have you here.

Please next item.

So, we have the consent calendar.

Items 1 through 6.

All right.

Is there anything on the consent calendar that the board would like to address at this

time?

Second.

Is there any member of the public that would like to address the board on an item on consent?

Hearing and seeing none, please call the roll.

Vice Chair Aquino?

Aye.

Director Desmond?

Aye.

Director Dickinson?

Aye.

Director Getta?

Aye.

Director Hume?

Chair Kennedy?

Aye.

Director Maple?

Aye.

Director Robles?

Aye.

Director Rodriguez?

Aye.

Director Sandor?

Aye.

Director Surnah?

Aye.

Director Vang?

The consent calendar passes.

Thank you.

It takes up to item number 7.

Please read the item.

So, next item on the discussion calendar.

Item number 7.

Selection of Chair and Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the Sacramento Metropolitan

Air Quality Management District.

All right.

Here's our annual.

Director Getta, I believe your hand is raised.

Yes, Mr. Chair, I'd like to nominate our current Vice Chair, Chair, Aquino, as Chair

and Director Maple as Vice Chair.

Okay.

I said it.

All right.

Are there any other nominations at this time?

Do we have any public comment on this item?

Nope.

All right.

Please call the roll.

Vice Chair, Aquino?

Vice Chair, Aquino?

All right.

Thank you.

Director Desmond?

Aye.

Director Dickinson?

Aye.

Director Getta?

Aye.

Director Hume?

Chair Kennedy?

Aye.

Director Maple?

Aye.

Director Middleton?

Director Robles?

Aye.

Director Rodriguez?

Aye.

Director Sander?

Aye.

Director Surnah?

Aye.

Director Vang?

The consent calendar.

Item number 7 passes.

Thank you.

Congratulations.

And next item, please.

Next item on the discussion calendar.

Item number 8.

Appointment of board members to the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District

Budget and Personnel Committee.

I believe that's me.

Are there any members of the board?

Currently we have the chair, the Vice Chair, the past chair.

I believe we need one more member, remember Robles.

I believe you have served on this.

I know you've put a great deal of time and effort into it.

Would you be interested in continuing?

This Mr. Chair.

Thank you.

One more.

We need one more.

Is there a volunteer?

Okay.

So thank you, Mr. Dickinson.

Appreciate that.

Then we have a full.

We don't have to attend.

It's very minimal time related.

Okay.

We have a full compliment.

Thank you.

We need to pass the chair.

Okay.

That's my motion.

Second.

Roll call, please.

Vice-Chircino.

Aye.

Director Desmond.

Director Dickinson.

No, no, I'm thinking about it.

Director Nye.

Director Gietta.

Aye.

Director Hume.

Chair Kennedy.

Aye.

Director Maple.

Aye.

Director Middleton.

Director Robles.

Aye.

Director Rodriguez.

Aye.

Director Sandor.

Aye.

Director Surnah.

Aye.

Director Vane.

Item number eight passes as well.

Next item.

So the next item on the calendar item number nine.

Agricultural burn and smoke management program and biomass utilization update.

And I have Ashley Reynolds in chambers to give a presentation.

Give me one second.

I'll pull up the PowerPoint.

Um,

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there's a delay.

Thank you,

I have a good morning to your-

Kennedy and members of the board.

My name is Ashley Reynolds.

And I am a program supervisor and our complaint section.

Today we'll be presenting to you about our agricultural burn program.

program and its relation to the smoke management plan and biomass utilization.

Next slide please.

The district oversees several burn programs, open burning, recreational burning,

check before you burn, and agricultural burning.

Ag burning also includes prescribed burn and all our regional coordination on smoke management.

Next slide please.

Before I get into our agricultural burn program, I want to talk about how a burning

inner basin is coordinated.

Sacramento County is part of the Sacramento Valley Air Basin.

The Sacramento Valley Basin wide air pollution control council or BCC coordinates

agricultural burning activities in our air basin.

The BCC consists of nine air districts and 11 counties covers 216 square miles.

The BCC has a representative from each county board.

Our current BCC member is Director Gera.

So the BCC is supported by the Technical Advisory Committee or TAC.

The TAC consists of the district air pollution control officers.

The BCC and TAC together create and administer the Basin-wide smoke management plan.

Next slide please.

The smoke management program took effect in 2001 with the goals of coordinating

air quality and the SAC Valley basin minimizing smoke impacts and coordinating daily

ag burning operations between districts.

The smoke management plan tells us and other districts in the basin went to allow

burning limits rights draw burning and dictates burn acreage per district.

This is the complicated and coordinated effort that also includes

CARB staff, meteorologists and district staff.

Staff looking at a basin-wide conditions and local conditions daily.

The most intensive coordination occurs during fall burn, which is September

through November and is when most ag burning typically occurs.

This past fall burns season, we saw an increase in burning due to favorable

conditions.

The total amount burned acres put this past season in the top three years

of the most acres burned in the last 10 years.

While Sacramento County allows ag burning, we typically have less burning

compared to other counties in our basin.

For instance, this last season, 3% of the acres burned were in Sacramento County.

Next slide please.

Agricultural burning involves the controlled use of fire management,

our fire management, sorry, the controlled use of fire to manage vegetation

and dispose of agricultural waste.

It's governed by CARB and the smoke management plan.

Our program ensures these practices are conducted safely and responsibly.

Some key burn types include clearing fields after harvesting crops like rice

and corn, disposing of orchard and vineyard debris,

maintaining fields to eliminate weeds, pests and disease, and prescribed fires,

which is another vital component, and our carefully planned burns used to

manage wildland, grassland and forest areas.

Prescribed fires are recognized to play a crucial role in reducing wildfire

risks.

While Sacramento County is less prone to catastrophic wildfires that heavily

forested areas are grasslands and woodlands still require regular upkeep.

For the past four years, the district has operated this program,

which involves daily task managed by forest staff.

Responsibilities include issuing burn permits, determining daily burn day

and day status, approving burn request, conducting inspections and addressing complaints.

Duties are essential that resource intensive.

While advancements and technology are making alternatives to burning more

feasible, agricultural burning at present remains a crucial tool for sustainable

and management.

Next slide, please.

Our program typically issues around 100 permits annually.

We manage approximately about 1,000 acres of burned land,

as well per year.

However, this year activity has increased significantly with more acreage

already burned compared to last year.

Much of this uptick is burning and burning this year is due to vineyard

removals.

Despite its critical role, the program fees, this program fees is funding

challenges.

Rule 303, which governs agricultural burning fees, hasn't been updated since

1995 and lacks a CPI adjustment and make our other fee structures.

This remains a significant challenge for this program, which requires daily

oversight and significant staffing to manage duties effectively.

Next slide, please.

While ag burning is a traditional method used by growers to get rid of

ag waste, this may not always be an option that can be used in the future

if we look at neighboring counties to ourself.

In the San Joaquin Valley Air District, a regional ag burn ban just went

to effect at the beginning of this year.

Legislation passed in 2003 set in motion years of work with growers and the

state to try and find usable alternatives to ag burning.

The district received 180 million in state funding to explore incentives

for things like chipping and composting ag material and the use of

air curtain burners that burned the ag material more efficiently than

open burning.

The effort sent in San Joaquin Valley also demonstrated the difficulty of

coming up with cost effective strategies to transition away from a

traditional ag burning.

Next slide, please.

While nothing is currently being proposed, we look at the ag burn

ban in San Joaquin as an example of requirements that could happen

in other parts of the state, including in our air basin.

While this would be a difficult transition for growers, it is in line

with other air quality and climate goals.

Using biomass to make fuels, energies and other useful products instead

of allowing it to be burned will support several co-benefits.

One being, any reduction at smoke is an improvement for air quality

and the health of anyone exposed to the smoke.

Two, reducing agricultural burning will have a positive reduction on

climate pollution.

And lastly, using biomass will have a positive reduction on climate

pollution.

Sorry, I will have a positive.

Using biomass for a new industries and job markets have a definite

benefit for driving economic growth and creating jobs and traditionally

underserved communities in our valley.

Next slide, please.

With so many beneficial reasons to utilize biomass, the

air district along with our BCC collaborators are making substantial

efforts to raise awareness of the needs to increase funding opportunities

for biomass utilization.

In 2023, the BCC held a well-attended biomass conference to bring

together varied stakeholders.

In 2024, the BCC and the air district successfully advocated for

funding in the climate bond prop 4.

This bond allocated 50 million to Department of Conservation,

allowing a portion of the money to be used for the biomass-related

projects.

And in 2025, the advocacy work continues at an even greater pace,

especially with the support and drive of this year's BCC chair,

Director Gera.

In the first half of this year, the BCC will develop a networking

session in a day at the Capitol to raise awareness and continue the

funding advocacy work.

And during the APCO report, Dr. Yala will be sharing news of other

legislative efforts underway.

Next slide, please.

For our efforts in exploring and taking advantages of opportunities

and renewable hydrogen, we are beginning to see growing opportunities

for converting biomass into fuel within our region.

One such project is EcoMotive.

Plan to be located off of I-5 in Twin Cities Road, providing easy

access to major transportation corridors.

EcoMotive will utilize agricultural and forest-based biomass to

produce renewable energy and hydrogen fuel, supporting

plight-to-d, medium, and heavy-duty transportation.

As this region's first biomass to hydrogen generation facility,

EcoMotive represents a significant step forward.

By repurposing biomass, it eliminates the need for traditional

burning of agricultural and forest waste while creating a sustainable

source of clean energy and hydrogen fuel.

Next slide, please.

Another exciting initiative on the horizon is a

Lionsbury, Neuable Clean Hydrogen System, or Arches.

Arches is a groundbreaking public-private partnership aimed at

establishing a sustainable statewide clean hydrogen hub network

across California.

Notably, Arches has received 1.2 billion in funding through the

bipartisan infrastructure law, marking the largest federal

investment in clean energy and transportation to date.

This initiative prioritizes hydrogen hub projects that utilize

local renewable resources such as agricultural and forest

biomass to produce hydrogen fuel.

These efforts aim to decarbonize the energy and transportation

sectors while building resilience in these critical areas.

By converting biomass, feedstock into hydrogen, these advanced

through advanced processes like anaerobic digestion or

agasification, Arches reduces waste disposal and agricultural

forest burning, transforming waste into about valuable clean

energy source.

Next slide, please.

And that concludes my presentation or are there any questions?

Any questions from the board?

Director Dickinson.

Thank you.

Thanks for the presentation.

Can you go back to this slide about the advocacy for a second?

Is that possible?

Okay.

I will go ahead and take a look at the slide.

Thank you.

Oh, I would slide.

I believe.

There you go.

That was, yeah, slide eight.

I was just curious about the amount of funding that was

included in Prop 4 for biomass.

Firstly and secondly.

What's the source of the 50 million that you've got in your

mind for 2025 advocacy?

I definitely will direct that question over to Dr. Yala.

Thank you.

Happy to address it.

Thank you for the question.

Director Dickinson, welcome.

So your correct Prop 4, the climate bond has 50 million for

activities that we think are related to what we're trying to do here.

In addition, we are working at the Capitol at the moment and I'll

just touch on this in my report later today.

We are looking for a specific amount of 50 million to scale up

some of the projects like the locomotive that you heard about.

So that's really what what the intent is here.

Okay.

I'm sorry.

I miss that what's the sort of 50 million you're looking for this year?

Well, we're asking the legislature to allocate from the current state

budget an allocation to us to the BCC projects.

Yeah.

So we don't have the money on hand.

No, I understand that you're looking for a general fund general fund

allocation from the state this year, hopefully.

Well, there's different kinds of funds that can be used, right?

I mean the climate money that GGRF, the greenhouse gas reduction fund is

obviously a source that is tied to what we're trying to do here.

So at the moment, we're working at the with different legislators to see if

we can get support, brought support for the fund for the fund request.

I see.

Okay.

And then with respect to the conversion of agricultural waste to biomass,

does that require primarily or would it require primarily transporting the

waste to wherever the biomass, gasification facilities are located?

And so is that a cost that would be absorbed in whatever project you could

put together or is that a cost that would presumably fall to the landowner?

So that's the reason we need to funding precisely because we know that there

are some associated costs to do in this.

And if we were able to use funding and provide subsidies, we think that we can

do the technology development that we're after.

However, to your point, what we have seen is rather than going to get the

biomass, we have seen plants, small scale plants, and I'm talking a couple of

megawatts of energy producing capability, we have seen plants actually going

to where the biomass the biomass is.

So rather than having to transport long distances, we now have technology

where you can go to where the resources are.

And that is the idea here so that you limit not only the cost of transportation,

but also the associated emissions of that.

I see.

So then you're transporting the hydrogen once it's produced.

Once it's produced, then, you know, we have all options on the table, including

utilization for transportation.

Correct.

I see.

Okay. It's very, very interesting.

You know, they're just trying to get rid of egg burning has been a lifelong

effort.

And so this is interesting, but what we can learn from San Joaquin, I suppose,

is very useful with respect to applying it to our own circumstances.

And I hope this is successful because it still is problematic to have egg burning

going on.

Certainly.

So I hope you can get that allocation out of the state budget.

Wish you good luck.

Thank you.

Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Director.

Any others?

Do we have any public coming on this item?

Mr. Chair.

Oh, sorry.

Oh, I'm sorry.

You did.

It's a very small hand for me right now, but there you go.

There you go, Director.

No, no, I just wanted to thank the staff here for their great work on this to director

Dickinson's question.

Last year, our staff, along with some of the other air district staff engaged in a

prop for discussion, we were pushing for a $200 million allocation and prop for.

You know, unfortunately, the Senate only had a hundred million in their proposal and the

ше that we were going with direction tovt and might aş to income as early as

two years ago and any other stron香 possible settlements is going through is for

$1 million.

We talked about the PT5, so we talked about that earlier.

We talked about how companies may have higher and lower income, complex driving

as they say, legislative math, assembly had zero,

Senate had 100, we got 50 in it.

But I think one more up, I think it is where we've got

the map of the counties.

There we go.

So this was our team of effort to folks who were willing

to come together and start using their legislative contacts

for publicans and democratic supervisors and council members

to actually get something here.

And the bigger message is that the current opinion

on what to do as an alternative for ag burning

is only composting and chipping.

And what we've seen from the San Joaquin example was,

they received $180 million with very little success.

And just because of the cost of that,

and then from an air quality standpoint

and water standpoint, the issues of water

and then methane exposure that happens with composting as well.

So this is really kind of put Sacramento on the forefront

of biomass utilization.

And if you can go one more, one slide down,

I think with the, where has the counties, there we go.

And I think this is what you'll see in this next year,

is all of these counties working together

through the BCC to really engage

because what happens for Sacramento is the winds from Shasta,

all the way down and settle in Sacramento.

And then the winds from Solano,

Yolo come to Sacramento.

And unfortunately, we have the pressure

that kind of allows the smoke to sit there.

So for us, it's a health interest,

but for them, it's also an economic interest to do that.

So I want to do, I do want to put a date on your calendar

on February 26th, our air district team is working

with our local JPAs, SMUD, say COG,

sewer district, and Arches to do a convening

to look at all of these approaches on how we develop hydrogen

through biomass and other tools.

But also, what is the output for the usage?

Where do we use the hydrogen after that?

So a big kudos to the staff on that.

And then because we're locally,

we hope that our board members here will help

in the advocacy efforts this year

to secure those $50 million.

We think that we can do it through with a Prop 4 funding.

And not all of it had been appropriated

or at least presented in the governor's January budget.

And then through a combination of the GGRF

and also energy commission grants,

and as well as the general fund.

Those are our tactical approach this year.

So I'll leave it at that.

And I just want to thank the staff

again for their hard work.

Thank you, director.

Anybody else?

All right, again, we have no public comment.

Thank you very much.

Well done.

Next item, please.

The next item on the agenda, item number 10,

Climate Heat Impact Response Program update.

And I have Amy Roberts and Chambers

to give a presentation.

Well, good morning, Chair Kennedy

and Board of Directors.

My name is Amy Roberts.

And I'm the director for Engineering

and Compliance Division.

Today, I'm happy to present and give some updates

on the Climate Heat Response Impact Program.

And it's the CHURP Program.

I think we've mentioned it in the past,

but there's some good news updates

for me to provide later on.

So first, next slide, please, Selena.

We've always been all been experiencing heat events.

And unfortunately, they're becoming more common

and more extreme in these past decade.

For California, that's meant a couple of very extreme heat

events, in particular, in 2021 and 2022.

If you recall those events, what happened there

was they were so extreme that the governor's office

released executive orders in both instances.

And those executive orders, there was

a lot of behind-the-scenes work to put those together

and to figure out how to keep the lights on for the state.

Part of those executive orders basically

allowed dirtier power sources.

So backup generators, power plants, ships at birth

to operate outside of their permit limits.

And it meant more air pollution in our region

and other parts of the state.

So next slide, please.

This emergency strategy definitely

came with the major downside, as I mentioned,

more air pollution and often more pollution

in communities where those industries are located.

Those are under served and disadvantaged communities

as often the case.

So to mitigate what is necessary in those emergencies,

the 2021 governor's order also included a clause

that required those excess emissions to be mitigated,

and with three main goals, basically,

that future funding that would mitigate those excess emissions

would be put in projects that would be located

with impacted communities.

Second, those funds would fund projects

that would reduce future damage to air quality and communities

and that there'd also be some resiliency that was built

into so those projects we would see less reliance

on traditional or dirtier sources of power

during those emergency events.

Carb quickly began to work on a program, the CHERP program,

and that happened in 2021 in the fall of 2021.

A lot of stakeholders were brought to the table,

air districts were invited to work with CARB

as well as communities in order to start to think about

how we would take those projects

and how we would get them into those communities.

Next slide, please.

So let me go back to 2022 so that you understand

the impact that the 2022 heat event had on our region.

So that local experience in 2022

did have air pollution consequences.

You may recall that we peaked at 116 degrees,

which was a record heat day.

It was listed as one of the hottest heat events

in four decades.

So a lot of records being broken,

record amount of energy being used,

and Kaiso had multiple days over a week of days

where that emergency order was in place

and backup generators, et cetera,

could operate outside of those permit limits.

Next slide, please.

So in coordination with state agencies,

one of our local data centers,

NTT, which is located in the northwest part of the county,

operated 28 of their large backup diesel generators

over the course of four out of those eight A-tish days.

The operation totaled about 560 hours,

and the backup generators,

just to give you perspective,

each one of those generators is similar in size

to what you would have in a locomotive.

So 3,000 horsepower and above for each of those.

So think about 28 locomotives

operating in a fairly stationary,

or at a stationary source,

operating for four days pretty much straight.

When we analyzed what that runtime equated to

in terms of the air pollution from those 28 generators,

the numbers were very striking.

There was more NOX,

an air pollution created in those four days of operation

versus the whole prior year in 2021

of emergency for maintenance and emergency hours.

Next slide, please.

So seeing those significant emissions released

during those four days,

it was concerning not only from a general air quality perspective,

especially during the summer months,

when ozone is production is peaking,

but also it's from the potential health risk perspective

from the emissions of diesel particulate matter.

Those are diesel field backup generators,

which is a toxic air contaminant.

Much of the focus of state

and our local regulatory and incentive efforts

are focused clearly on reducing air pollution,

reducing emissions from diesel field equipment.

We're not encouraging it,

we're trying to reduce that.

And looking at if this is going to be a regular occurrence,

this could have significant consequences

for air pollution and air quality control.

So while NTT is not located directly

in an officially designated disadvantaged community

or underserved community,

you can see on the map that it is located

relatively close by.

It's in a adjacent to some of our most impacted communities

in the north,

regardless of where you live.

Diesel emissions are a pose of health risk for anybody.

So we saw this operation as a prime case

where mitigation from a state-chirp program

was needed to address the excess emissions

created directly from the emergency proclamation

and encouraged use of our dirty sources of power.

Next slide, please.

Since their creation of the chirp program in 21,

our air district along with other districts

throughout the state

and the California Air Pollution Control District

or Control Officers Association known as Capcoa

continually advocated for the state to take action

and to fulfill those program promises.

Those efforts included many meetings, presentations,

discussions with CARB with the California Energy Commission

and the Governor's Office

to explain the impact and need not only for funding

to mitigate, but for long-term solutions.

Again, recognizing the impact in 21 and 22

and expecting that those would continue into the future.

Because of the significant state budget deficit

and in part because much of the usage data

that they collected or attempted to collect from sources

was partial, not complete,

they did put a hold on that program.

So for several years, we advocated and continually pushed

for the importance of those mitigating funds to be released.

And that finally was, has paid off,

this past fall, CARB did inform air districts

that funding was finally secured

and will be released this year.

SacMature Air District will receive a good portion

of that funding to the tune of almost $2 million.

And I do want to take a moment just to think

our permitting program manager, Brian Krebs,

who was instrumental in making sure

that that data was accurate.

We were one of the air districts

that was able to provide accurate data to the state,

which helped support the funding that we did receive.

Next slide, please.

Lastly, now that we've received that good news,

our district's grants and incentives team

is taking the lead on working with CARB

and other CAPCO at districts.

They're beginning to develop the funding guidance

that will establish the requirements

for how the funding can be spent.

And again, we'll look for prioritizing those funds

so that they can be used in communities and need

and looking for zero mission technology solutions

and any kind of energy storage solution,

like battery backup power instead of diesel fired backup power.

With that, that'll conclude my presentation.

I'll take any questions that you have.

Thank you.

Thank you, Director Dickinson.

Oh, boy, this is just fun.

Punching these buttons.

Did you look at the, just out of curiosity,

the AQI on the days that these generators were online?

I don't have those numbers in my mind.

I could just make some assumptions

that it was quite high given that there's the direct connection.

I'm just curious whether there was an identifiable impact

on the AQI as a result of the generation or not.

And maybe that AQI is too general to connect it

to source generation.

But...

Thank you for your question, Director Dickinson.

It is tricky in order to make that correlation.

As I said, we're relying on those general assumptions

that increase knocks and definitely the heat

and the sun of the summer is going to create more ozone

where that lands and all of the,

that's a trickier thing to assess.

But let me ask my colleague Mark Loutsen,

heizer, Justin Casey, has any other input

that the director for our...

Thank you for your question.

Mark Loutsen is our director of monitoring and planning and rules.

It actually is almost a perfect segue

into our next board item here in just a moment

where we're talking about regional monitoring things

that nature.

The short version is we did actually take a quick look

at some of the air quality index.

And as you noted, Director Dickinson,

because of the nature of ozone being a regional air pollutant,

it is a little bit of a tricky one,

we do look at what we were already forecasting

and we were already asking for people on those days

to call for spare of the air days

because it just being very hot summer days,

we typically have higher ozone already.

So the exact impact of these emissions was tough to judge,

but just based upon our past experience,

we do anticipate that it did have an impact.

And then what's the status of these plants now?

Are they still available in the case of a grid emergency

or conditions that call for additional generation?

Have they, if so, have they had other control technology applied

to reduce the emissions?

These are permitted facilities.

These are major sources that we have in our area.

So those generators, the 28 out of 56,

I believe, generators, they are permitted

and able to operate under normal permit conditions.

So not under an emergency proclamation unless that's released

again in the future.

No additional controls were put on after that.

The funding that we are receiving,

those are some of the things that potentially,

we could be looking into.

So as I mentioned, the state's goal is to have the cleanest

technology that those funds would go to,

but it doesn't mean that those types of added controls

to clean up diesel equipment that's already permitted

could not be on the table.

So additional controls or some on the sources

are something that are within the menu of things

that you would look at for projects for the use

of the money that's been the 23 million across,

the 23 million was across the region, is that right?

So 23 million is throughout the state.

So different areas are so received.

Yes, it is a statewide program.

So whatever is received in the region is the same question

as the control technology on the sources,

on the menu of what the money might be used for.

The guidelines at this point in time are not finalized.

So they're still working on them.

And from what I understand from our grants and incentives team,

they're looking for the cleanest technology possible.

So zero mission would be great.

So if we're putting in something like battery backup

versus a diesel fuel piece of equipment,

that would actually be more ideal.

But if we could get a source down closer to zero,

I believe that that would probably be an eligible funding.

I see. Okay.

Well, I mean, the things that you've got on the slide are fine.

But ultimately, the best solution is to stop it at the source.

So that's why I wondered whether that's within the ambit

of what could be done.

I appreciate the presentation.

Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks.

Thank you, any others?

I have a couple questions.

Yes, sir.

The comparison you made, I assume that when you get

to the 1.95 million of the region,

that would be based on biggest bang for the buck, right?

What's the greatest reduction in risk or emissions

that we could get in the region?

Or is it specifically tied to this site that you referenced?

It is not specifically tied to this site.

That is correct.

So the site comparison, I think the statistic was

in the four days of constant operations, 28 of the 53 generators

there put out more pollution than that facility had

in the previous year.

Is that?

So it's not like more pollution than the entire region

from diesel engines.

It was just that facility.

That facility.

So the real question is, what percent of the overall,

you know, diesel generation horsepower

however you want to measure that,

did that facility represent during that time?

Because we could be talking about, you know,

a millionth of a percent change

or it could be 5 percent, you know, in the region.

That would be a very interesting data point.

Thank you for your question.

And I will turn this back over to Mark Lpton, either.

I thank you very much, Dr. Sandar,

for your question on this one.

The short answer is approximately,

it would be about representing 15% of the emissions

on a given summer day.

Right now our stationary source as a whole

emits approximately between six to seven tons of NOx per day.

Since that was 3.8 tons over four days, it's 0.9 tons.

So just a quick run, rough numbers of the math

through looking at about one six to one seventh contribution

to the NOx.

Of the day spread over four.

That would be on a one day to one day comparison.

A one day to one day.

Correct.

Yeah, because otherwise it's 3.8 tons over four days.

So 0.9 and change 0.95 and go from there.

Okay, good.

That's a clearer comparison,

only from my perspective.

Yeah, I guess I'd be interested in not necessarily

that particular site.

Maybe that is our dirtiest site.

But in general, is there another alternative

that would have just as much sort of bang for the buck?

And by the way, just one thing I want to clarify a little bit

what I said, that's compared to our stationary sources.

So we obviously do have a very significant contribution

of NOx from mobile.

So I'm sorry.

Should have added that.

I should add that clarification there.

I'll look at the question there,

but that seems much more reasonable to me.

Now that you said that, yeah, thank you.

Thank you, anyone else?

Who have any public comment on this item?

Not at this time.

Thank you very much.

Next item, please.

The next item, item number 11,

regional collaboration for ambient air monitoring.

And I have Mark Loutzmann-Heist, we give a presentation.

Thank you.

Mark Loutzmann has your director of monitoring planning

and rules, and as I indicated a moment ago,

the question from Director Dickinson was actually

a great segue in terms of the regional nature

of air pollution.

So what we have here is an opportunity

to share with you a little bit about some of the collaborative

effort that does go on right now here in our region

with our partner air districts.

Next slide, please.

So for those that have been with the board for a number of years,

and those returning as well, a lot of these names

are going to sound very familiar.

A lot of the partner air districts that we work with regularly

here in our region are the Olusalano air district,

Feather River to our north,

Placer and El Dorado in addition to ourselves.

Next slide, please.

And the reason why we are showing you these five air districts,

including ourselves that work so closely together

and collaboratively, is when the federal US EPA

sets the national ambient air quality standards,

and there are air quality standards for a number of pollutants.

There are six criteria pollutants listed here

in the slides that they do set national health base standards

for.

Every time they do update a standard,

one of the parts of the process is the designation.

And what that means is they go through,

they look at air quality data that's coming from all

the monitoring in the different jurisdictions.

They establish both whether or not a region is in attainment

with those standards or non-attainment,

and they also designate boundaries.

And this becomes very important when we look at regional

pollutants like ozone, but they also do establish different

boundaries based on the pollutants.

And on the next slide, we'll go ahead and jump to it real quick.

This is a great example where we, once it pops up,

where you can see on the far left,

that is the ozone boundaries,

which actually is all of our own county and Sacramento.

It's all of the Oslano air district.

It's a very southern part of Feather River,

and the majority of both the placer and El Dorado

all the way up to the ridge line.

Yet when you jump over to the PM 2.5, daily standard,

the boundaries are very different.

It's Yoloslano ourselves and just the very valley portion

of placer and El Dorado, Feather River is not included.

And when you get to the PM 10 standard,

it's actually a county standard.

So this is just to give you a quick idea though,

when we are looking at different pollutants,

some of them are more regional in nature,

looking at things like the ozone that was,

we were just being describing as part of the problem

with the backup generators that we can use for power generation.

And also just then how we have to look at different strategies

to pin upon what these boundaries are.

Next slide please.

So the reason why these boundaries do matter,

as I was alluding to just a moment ago,

is we do have regional attainment status,

whether that's across a bigger region

or down to the local level at just the county.

And because our pollution does not know

the bounds of a county line or even in our district line,

we do have a shared responsibility on what's happening

in the region.

And it really is a matter of the all for one and one for all

to go back to the great musketeer line

because we really are working as a team here,

the reductions that we get in our region

or the impacts we have from the description

that just happened in a mirrovers presentation moment ago.

They do affect not just ourselves,

but our neighboring air districts as well

and our regional attainment.

Next slide please.

And really fundamental behind all this

is the quality of our data.

We really do live and die by the sword,

no pun intended to the picture from the last slide

because our data integrity is critical.

It both lets us know where we are today,

where we were yesterday,

and as we're making those projections going forward,

where we hope to be tomorrow.

And if we don't have solid data,

then we can't, for example, say we've made attainment.

We can't make that demonstration.

So it really is so critical to make sure for not just ourselves,

but our regional partners that this data is of good quality,

and it is really very much that all hands on deck.

Next slide please.

Real quickly, this is actually just the Ozone Network

going across our region.

There are additional stations in some cases here in Sacramento

that we have that are dedicated to just fine particles,

but this is the Ozone Network being shown here.

And the reason for this slide is just to give you a visual

of the broad range and good geographic representation

of the Ozone monitoring across the region,

but it's also an opportunity to just share that,

for the most part, there are a couple of exceptions.

These stations are locally owned and operated.

There are a couple of exceptions here,

the Yellow One Label T Street near the border here in Sacramento.

County is actually at the California Air Resources Board Lab,

so they do run that station at their lab.

And elder otter just because of the nature of the size of the agency

and their staffing, those are actually operated by CARB as well.

But otherwise, ones in Placer, Sacramento, and Yoluf Salano,

in particular, are all locally owned and operated.

Next slide please.

Which really brings us to what we're here just to share with you a little bit,

in addition to that opportunity to give you a little bit more broad spectrum

on what we're doing with the monitoring, is we talk about the,

you know, I mentioned earlier about the mission critical nature

of having good quality data.

So we've recently had one of our neighboring districts,

Yoluf Salano, reach out to us for some assistance.

For the next four months, their key staff member

that maintains their air monitoring stations is being called up to active duty

and will be deployed, so we thank him for his service,

as he is for his actions there.

But they did reach out to us because they looked at what they had available in house

and were concerned about the ability to go ahead and maintain quality data

that we need for the region.

So they did reach out to us.

We have coordinated with our staff and a big shout out to our team who have looked at it,

feel that they could go ahead and take time on, say, their normal days off,

things that that nature, where they're going to go ahead and step forward

and help maintain their part of the network over this next four months

in a manner though that will not impact our own work here

in maintaining good quality data in Sacramento.

So this is really about making sure that all five districts are maintaining good data.

And so we, even though we talk about here, putting all five districts at risk

if we weren't helping them, but we're going to step forward to make sure

that that doesn't occur and that we maintain that good data.

Next slide, please.

And so just to take a quote here, you know, about, again, why this data is so important for us,

though, is you can't manage what you don't measure.

And that really is the nature of air pollution, our air monitoring network

and the regional collaboration in maintaining this good quality data.

And I'm available for any questions you may have.

Director Serna.

Great. Thank you.

I just wanted, thank you for the presentation.

I just wanted to add to what you've offered here in the slide deck that we have,

of course, a member of this board that is also representative for the same regional geography

the five air districts at the California Resources Board.

Mr. Gera serves well on that board.

And at least when I had served previously on the board,

we had structured regular meetings at the time I was Zoom because we're in the throes of COVID.

But regular convenings with the air pollution control officers of all five districts

so that we couldn't stay in touch.

Not just on those own matters, but not necessarily just on what was on the car agenda.

But that representation model, if you will, also lends itself to, I think, the kind of the point of the whole presentation,

which is how we collaborate with our sister districts in the basin.

So I just wanted to make sure that that was clearly understood.

And I don't know if Councilmember Gera is still with us here,

but he may want to offer other similar comments.

Actually, Director Gera's hand is up.

Yes, thank you.

And I'm actually getting ready to scoot on across the street here to the car hearing.

And where we are talking about this particular issue as well.

But I just, again, wanted to thank again one product of that meeting of our,

not only our five air basins, but also the five air districts,

but those in the north is what led us to be able to even have any resources on the aggregate side.

I also do want to take this opportunity to just, again, thank how much our staff has been involved in creating

probably the most robust air quality air, air monitoring system.

I would say, frankly, in the country, the kudos actually I'll give to Rancho Cordova,

who started the first with the purple monitoring program.

And then led to the city of Sacramento putting in about half a million dollars in a testing program here.

But all of those have helped us create not only local, but a regional monitoring program

to help us better understand how these particulates are affecting public health.

And it's led to positive things like the ability to get HVIP vouchers for our buses,

not only here, but in the yellow, so on, our air district.

So I think big kudos on the collaborative work and with that, Mr. Chair,

I need to log off and thank everyone again for some good work here that we're doing together.

Thank you, Director, and thank you for representing us well on CARB.

Any other questions, comments?

Do we have any members of the public?

Not at this time.

All right.

Thank you very much, everybody.

Good work.

Great collaboration and recognition that air pollution sees no political boundaries.

Appreciate it.

Next item, please.

The next item on the agenda is the air pollution control officer presentation.

And I have El Baroayala on Zoom to give a presentation.

Dr. Ayala.

Thank you, Chair.

Hello, everybody.

I know that we're going to lose a POV for other commitments, which is fine.

I'll try to run through the five points that I want to share with you quickly and entertain

questions, either as we go or at the end for those of you that are going to be able to stay

with us.

But before I launch into the presentation, I want to say again, welcome to our new board

members.

But as speaking of recognition, we want to thank our outgoing board chair, Director Kennedy.

Thank you for your guidance over the last couple of years.

You've led us through some pretty important initiatives here at the agency.

The last thing, in fact, is going to be very positive because a lot of those initiatives

will continue to grow as we change leadership.

And we have a very small token of appreciation from the staff, a plaque that the clerk is going

to hand to you at the end of the meeting.

But again, we just wanted to say thank you for being our leader at the last couple of

years.

Thank you, Dr.

pleasure.

So the first point that I want to share with you, and in particular, the new board members

is the fact that one of the principal jobs that we carry as an district is administering

estate funds for the transition to clean energy.

And the way we do that is we provide incentives or subsidies, whatever you prefer, to various

partners in our jurisdiction.

And the waiting incentives work is basically you help offset the cost of cleaner technology

and the cleanest is obviously electric zero emissions.

So without going into detail here, what I wanted to share with you is these are examples

of some recent contracts that I have signed.

And what I wanted to, what I wanted you to see is the diversity in terms of the regional

approach.

We work with the school districts obviously.

A lot of what we do for the districts is help them procure electric school buses, obviously,

the infrastructure that they need for those school buses.

But not only school districts, we also work with individual jurisdictions like cities,

for example, next slide, please.

And we can also work with private businesses in our programs.

It's just a matter of who's willing to participate and apply for our programs.

So that's really the point of my two slides here is I just wanted you to get a sense of just

the regional approach that we have to these programs and the diversity of the people that

we work with.

And these are very important funding opportunities.

And a lot of what we do is make sure that we're at the table speaking on behalf of a region,

procuring the state funding that goes for these clean energy programs.

So you'll be hearing throughout the year more information about some of these programs.

Next slide, please.

So on biomass, I did want to put this before the board because technically we don't have

a legislative committee of the board.

And this is not a board action, but I do want you to be aware of this.

And this was alluded to recently.

Thanks to director Geras leadership.

We have actually been in discussion with a number of legislators.

And one of them, Senator Cavallero, is has is willing to carry some legislation for us related

to some of the topics that you heard us talk about with respect to biomass utilization.

And in this particular case is a bill that is going to develop.

It's a little wonky, but it's going to develop the methodology that we need to be able to quantify

the benefit of utilizing the biomass for clean energy rather than leaving it out in the forest

or in the field and present a risk for a wildfire.

That's really what we're trying to do here is get the state to finalize those methodologies

so that we can quantify what the benefit is.

And once we do that, then we can monetize that.

We can go to a business and say, you got to procure the biomass, we got to utilize it,

and you can put a dollar amount to it.

We are listed as a co-sponsor.

The other sponsor is our friends in Plaza County, the air pollution control district there.

And we're working very closely with the Bioenergy Association of California.

The bill language is included in your package in case you are curious about it.

And obviously, this is just a brief notation in terms of what we're doing here throughout

the year.

And obviously, as this moves through the process, we will come back with more information

for you.

Next slide.

The next thing is, again, I hope that all of you have signed up for our newsletter.

It's a great piece of information, our communications office, does a great job putting together

timely and relevant pieces of information related to the agency.

And one of the things that I want to highlight for all of you in the latest newsletter is

our 2024 year in review.

And all of you should have a hard copy of it.

Again, it's another great document that collects all of the key initiatives, all of the key

accomplishments that we were able to achieve in this past year, 2024.

So I do want you to be aware that you got that.

And I hope that you make the time to look it over.

It was a very successful year by any measure.

And obviously, welcome back to you soon and talk about what we expect in 2025.

But I wanted to make reference to the year in review.

Next slide.

Thank you, Director Maple, for sending us in this direction.

She had a direct request to us to expand our social media presence.

And thankfully, we've got, again, new resources in our communications office and we've been

able to do that.

So now here are the platforms that we have a presence in.

And hopefully you all can do your thing on your end on social media.

I'm going to put an X on there.

Okay.

Next slide.

Okay.

And then this is my last point.

And again, I want to thank our new Chair, Akino, for prompting us to do this.

We've developed some new resources for onboarding our new five new board members.

But obviously, we welcome any returning board member who wants a refresher on the air district.

And we'll be setting up individual meetings with all of you new board members to go over

this.

And again, this is a new resource for all of you.

So thank you, Chair.

This concludes my APCO report.

I hope you don't answer any questions.

Thank you, Dr. Hiale.

Chair sir.

Great.

Thank you.

Thank you for the report, Alberto.

I just wanted to make a suggestion before we recess there that I had an opportunity last

night to be at a grand opening for Reyes distribution slash Golden Brand, which is a beverage

distribution center located in Metro Airport in the northern part of the district I represent

in the Thomas.

And I think as many in the room know, Metro Airport is building out very quickly.

I would just learn, yes, they were nearing 50% build out, which is much faster than anyone

expected.

And I think generally, good news for the number of jobs that are being generated out there

and just the general activity.

One of the interesting characteristics of Metro Airport, and I think some of its organic,

but some of it has also been deliberative, is that there are a number of tenants and

users out there that in one way, shape or form, have much to do with the evolving, heavy

freight electric propulsion space, whether it's sparks with their non-cobalt technology,

battery technology research and development and production.

In fact, yesterday at the grand opening, I learned that Reyes distribution is actually

got assigned fleet of electric tractors right now for their distribution service in and

around the Sacramento region, and they plan to expand that.

They have their own charging infrastructure on site.

We have Watt EV going in just on the other side of I-5, which is arguably one of the most

innovative initiatives in California to electrify heavy freight movement up and down the

spine, the I-5 spine of California from Long Beach to the Oregon border.

So that is all to say that I think we're at a point where I'd like to suggest through

the new chair that we have a dedicated presentation, doesn't have to be the next board meeting,

but I would say maybe by summer that involves our economic development staff here at the

county, maybe even some of the users out of Metro Airport that may be able to join us

in chambers and explain in greater detail what those initiatives entail and what the future

is for, you know, their various business objectives that involve electrification of heavy

freight movement.

But I do think we're at a place where it needs to be somewhat celebrated, and I think

it would be of great interest to this board and the public and to our staff about what

is happening in that part of Sacramento County.

Thank you, Vice-Sirric Hino.

Thank you, thank you, Director Sourna.

I think that's an excellent suggestion, and it's in a good segue to my comments.

I just want to thank Chair Kennedy for his leadership the past two years, and two of the highlights

that stand out in my mind were the multi-agency meeting that was held at Sac State and the hydrogen

workshop that we had there in the chambers.

And I hope to continue that spirit of collaboration and education and look forward to working

with all of you and happy to have Vice-Tair Maiple along to help with that effort.

So again, thank you, Chair Kennedy, for your efforts the last two years.

Thank you.

Director Maiple.

Thank you, Chair.

I just really want to uplift Dr. Sourna's comments as well, and it really got me thinking

that while we are doing a lot in Sacramento and in our region and our county and our city,

we know that it's going to be a lot more challenging for some of these organizations to continue

the work that they're doing in the current administration, federal administration.

And so, I love to, as a part of that conversation, I think it's a great idea, maybe have that

discussion as well about how we can collectively support those efforts that are going on and

not necessarily.

Let's not go back.

That's my question.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Vice-Tair Maiple.

It's a great defense, right?

It's a great defense, that's true.

So I just want to say that I also want to sincerely thank Dr. Chair Kennedy for your work.

It's been a pleasure serving with you, and I'm sure I'll continue to do so.

Really, and thank you everyone for your faith in me as Vice-Tair.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Director.

Director Robles.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Dr. Yalla, thank you for the presentation.

Really do appreciate that, and I'm looking forward to redoing to so I can refresh a little

bit of what we do so I can stay on top of my game.

Chair, Kennedy, I just want to say thank you for your service, and thank you for your work

on here.

I'm definitely going to be missed.

I'm going to miss you volunteering me for our stuff.

So thank you for being accepting and kind of guiding me along the ways, and looking forward

to seeing Chair Quinoe and Vice-Tair Maiple as we move forward.

So thank you, Director.

Anyone else?

All right.

Do we have any public comment on this?

Not at this time, Chair.

Well, you're not.

Thank you, Dr. Yalla, for the, as always, through and judiciously timed item.

Thank you very much.

Next item, Board Ideas comments and AB 1234 reports, anything?

And then do we have public comment for anything on, not on the agenda?

Not at this time, Chair.

We do not.

Okay, we're adjourned.

Thank you, everybody.