The Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District with the clerk please call the roll.

Chair Aquino.

Here.

Director Desmond.

Here.

Director Dickinson.

Director Gietta.

Here.

Director Hume.

Here.

Director Kennedy.

Vice Chair Maple.

Here.

Director Middleton.

Here.

Director Pratton.

Here.

Director Robles.

Director Rodriguez.

Director Sandor.

Director Surnah.

Director Vang.

We have quorum.

Thank you.

If you'd all please rise and join me in the pledge of allegiance.

Pleasure allegiance to the five of the United States of America.

And to your remote home, for which it stands, one nation, under God, and the visible,

the liberty and justice for all.

All right.

Would you please read the board clerk announcements.

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 boardclurk at airequality.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 Equality Management District is live

and recorded with closed captioning.

It is cable cast on MetroCable Channel 14, the local government affairs channel on Comcast

and direct TVU versus cable systems.

Today's meetings will replay on Sunday, March 2, 2025 at 2 p.m. on MetroCable Channel 14.

Thank you.

Call the first item, please.

The first item on the agenda is a consent calendar.

Item 1 through 4.

Any questions from the board?

I don't have any requests to speak.

Any public comment?

Not at this time.

All right.

I will entertain a motion.

Move motion in a second.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed or abstaining?

All right.

Next item, please.

The next item on the agenda is item number 5, special presentation.

I have Mark Loughtson-Heyeser to begin this presentation.

Good morning, board.

Good morning, chair and members of the board.

My name is Mark Loughtson.

I'm the director of monitoring and planning and rules.

We're happy today to go ahead and invite some of our partner agencies and organizations that we're presenting on a project that the county helped sponsor on the

Secondary County's vehicle emission project results.

And they're going to be sharing some of those highlights with you.

Today in Chambers, I know they were expecting one more presenter, but I understand they are stuck in traffic.

So in case she does arrive, still we will have hopefully have Gail Brosnan joining us from Secondary County Department of Public Health.

Taking over her spot, the moment will be Richard Falcone with United Latinos.

As I was glancing to see if they'd by chance had arrived in Chambers.

Following that will be Elizabeth Saban from Sacbreethe.

And then the final part of the presentation we write Professor Wayne Linklotter later with Sac State.

And with that I'd like to go ahead and invite our presenters to the podium to go ahead and share their information.

Welcome.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Chair, board. I'd like to introduce myself.

I'm filling in for our wonderful partner and colleague representing the Department of Public Health Gail Brosnan, who is stuck on the causeway, but hopefully going to get here very, very soon.

But my name is Richard Falcone, and I'm here along with other colleagues and partners from Brede and Sacramento State to bring to you some information about a project that was funded by the County of Sacramento that we call the Sacramento Vehicle Emissions Project.

Next slide, please.

So as your slide there shows essentially this is a project that went on for about two years, actually about two and a half years total in there with the goals of really providing community based air monitoring, education, health surveys, and just really focusing in the areas as you see there in item three in the North Vineyard, Western Art and Arcade, North Sacramento, South Sacramento and Garden Land Northgate.

These were designated EJ areas when we first started the project. So again, the focus for what we were going to do, including the outreach for the communities to find out what we were doing and for them to become involved.

We're in those five areas and we moved a little bit outside those areas too, where we found that appropriate.

On the outcomes here, I want to let you know that we did some wonderful surveys for that. In fact, those surveys were translated into, if I remember correctly, almost eight different languages, making sure that we are of service to all of the communities that were in that area there.

And Elizabeth will be going through some of those survey results and you have some of that information in front of you right now from those surveys that we conducted.

Also, with Dr. Link Ladder here, you will see some of the results of the mobile air monitoring that we were able to conduct over the period of time and some of the outcomes from there.

And we have created a journal article with an executive summary, which we posted on our respective websites for you to review as well.

It was a very, very exciting piece for we at United Latinos and so many others of our CBOs that also joined us and you'll see and hear more about them in future slides.

So with that, I'm going to turn it over to my partner, Elizabeth Salvin from brief. Thank you.

Hello, everyone. So in addition to the Sacramento County Department of Public Health and us, the Sacramento State Department of Environmental Science and Breed and United Latinos, there is also the Health Education Council, Valley Vision and as well as LPC Consulting Associates, who served as the external evaluator overseeing the community.

Community-based organizations or CBOs such as Climate Plan, Gardenland Northgate Neighborhood Association, Mutual Assistance Network and The Autonogall.

Played a vital role in engaging residents conducting educational meetings and collecting survey data.

These organizations were essential in fostering meaningful community engagement, providing education, and ensuring that project partners address community identified air quality problems, concerns and vehicle emissions issues.

CBOs also supported participant recruitment and encourage resident involvement in data collection and The Autonogall further enhanced outreach efforts by developing theatrical performances in both English and Spanish using entertainment as a tool to educate communities about air quality and big goal emissions.

Next slide, please.

So on this next slide, you'll see the six key milestones of this project, which I'll go over briefly since we've covered the first two already.

I'll start with a third milestone, which is the outcome of the community survey. We surveyed over 1200 residents with over 500 surveys collected from the focused environmental justice community of this project.

At these events, we ruffled off air quality friendly incentives, including air purifiers, transit connect cards and gift cards for e-bikes to participants.

Finally, the stage in the six final stage, we evaluated community health and air quality data and with the goal of publishing a report for community and government use, including a peer review publication.

So in the next slide, you'll find the total number, oh, sorry, next slide, please.

You will find the total number of surveys collected along with the breakdown of responses from the Four Neighborhoods targeted in this project.

Additionally, the slide includes a sample of survey question results.

The data presented is at the countywide level, the overall countywide findings closely, though not exactly mirror those from each of the focused neighborhoods.

And you can review a conclusive results from the surveys in the handout that was given out to you.

Some key takeaways from the self-reported surveys results include first Sacramento residents generally feel they only have a fair knowledge of air pollution.

Building on that approximately 50% of respondents express interest in learning more about air pollution or taking action in the community to reduce it.

In addition, about 20% of Sacramento residents reported that someone in their household visited the emergency room in the past year for allergy or asthma symptoms.

Finally, approximately 30% reported going to clinic or doctor's office for similar symptoms.

The results highlight the real and ongoing health impacts of air pollution on Sacramento counties.

They also show a strong interest from residents in becoming more engaged in addressing this issue.

However, I would like to share two testimonials we received from participants in the community survey that provide a different perspective with these survey findings.

One, we know the air is bad, but what do you want us to do about it? We have to work.

Two, we know the air is bad, but until you show us how it impacts us financially, we don't feel the need to take action.

So this collaboration showcases the power of partnerships and tackling environmental and public health challenges.

And by working together, we have built a strong foundation for community driven solutions.

And to support this claim, I'd like to share another anecdote from a participant who attended one of the community events and won an air purifier in the raffle.

I have asthma, really bad asthma. I needed this so much, but the air purifiers are so expensive.

I couldn't justify the expense. I'm so happy that I won one.

This is going to be wonderful for me, and I will breathe better in my home.

And I'll hand it over to Dr. Rainlick.

Literature, who will discuss the process and results of the air quality monitoring efforts.

Thank you, Elizabeth. Good morning.

We formed and trained teams of undergraduate students to use the distributed technology sensor.

And the toxic metal aerosol real-time analyzer to take 20 and 30 minute samples of air pollutants at hundreds of sites across Sacramento.

Particularly around the five environmental justice zones.

You can see the distribution of sample sites and dots across the map on the right.

It's important to note that we did not measure to air quality standards.

Instead, our objective was to measure variation in air pollutants in order to identify areas that should receive greater attention in the future towards improved air quality for communities.

Next slide, please.

The graphics frequency distribution showing the number of samples on the y-axis, the vertical axis, for four pollutants, black carbon on the top left,

particularly at 2.5 microns and under on the top right, nitrous oxides on the bottom and carbon monoxide.

The bars represent their commoners according to concentration in the air.

So as you move to the right in the graphic, the concentration of that pollutant becomes higher.

The dotted lines indicate levels described by state and national standards or historic concentrations.

For example, for black carbon, there are no national or state standards.

But we do know that from 1960 to 2010, levels exceeding one microgram per cubic meter of air were typical.

And such levels are typical of heavily polluted cities.

These days, fortunately, in Sacramento, levels of black carbon are generally reasonably low.

The state and national standards are represented by those vertical dash lines for nitrous oxide, PM 2.5 and carbon monoxide.

Some things to note about this graphic.

Concentrations of black carbon exceeded one microgram per cubic meter of air in a small minority of samples, and exceeded four micrograms, a level typical of highly polluted cities at only three sites.

Secondly, carbon monoxide concentrations were also low.

Third, ten of the sampling of nitrous oxides and PM 2.5, however, and especially nitrous oxides routinely exceeded values defined by annual or one-hour standards.

Our measure of variation among these pollutants leads us to reassure about levels of black carbon and carbon monoxide.

But recommend continued focus on lowering nitrous oxides and PM 2.5.

Next slide, please.

These are heat maps of pollutant concentrations, the hotter the color, the higher the concentration.

One hour or 24-hour standard thresholds are indicated by the arrows.

We found high levels of nitrous oxides and PM 2.5 mostly in North Finia.

In other EJ zones, their levels were comparatively and uniformly low.

Next slide, please.

As for concentrations of black carbon, there are currently no state or national standards for heavy metals in the air.

Although it is already established that heavy metals are hazardous to soft tissue and therefore residents' respiratory and neural health.

We discovered comparatively high levels of heavy metals in North Highlands and West Arden, Arcade.

This was exemplified by the metal chromium shown on the left and manganese, but also included magnesium, zinc and copper,

all metals associated with both industrial sites and vehicle emissions.

Next slide, please.

Some summary.

First, the pollutants we measured were generally low but concentrated in some areas, perhaps requiring finer scale attention in the future.

Second, a future focus on PM 2.5 and nitrous oxide appears to be warranted.

Third, airborne metals are an emerging concern requiring greater investigation.

Thank you.

With that, we want to thank you for allowing us the time to do this presentation.

I do want to say that the air quality management district has been great partners for us as well, helping to guide us and educate us as we continue through this project.

And really, I want to thank the Department of Public Health, who really championed all these community organizations to come together, do this project and provide this report for you.

And we are open for any questions you might have. Thank you for your time.

Thank you for the presentation. We do have some questions. Director Sarna.

Thank you, Chair.

I don't have any questions for the speakers. I have a question for Dr. Ayala.

The first bullet concerning their conclusions that pollutants are generally low.

How do we reconcile that with the unwelcome mantra that we have to grapple with and we have grappled with historically that this is one of the most compromised air basins in the country?

Well, you have to be mindful what the numbers mean.

That's what I'm asking.

It's not unusual to see concentrations of any pollutants.

It's not unusual to see excursions of pollutants that go above these standards.

At the same time, for the period that they sample, it's also not unusual to see concentrations that, as they pointed out, are low.

What we see in the reports that come from the American Long Association is an examination of yearly data, long-term trends.

So it's not episodic, it's not a mobile monitor looking at localized impacts.

What they're looking at is the actual regulatory networks.

It's a little bit of an apples and oranges. I don't think it's internally inconsistent to say that we are still dealing with a lot of regional pollution in the area.

And depending on the latest rating, we can be in the top 10.

While at the same time, because of the local conditions when the sampling was done, you can have favorable conditions that lead to these lower emissions.

You kind of have to be, it's difficult to draw conclusions when you don't get into the weeds of some of this.

I really appreciate the explanation. I kind of set you up because I think that I suspected that was going to be pretty much the answer.

And while I certainly do appreciate the work and intent that went into it, I think studies like this,

that are done that are completed that are within a much smaller amount of time on us and use a smaller geographic footprint for their study area,

and come to that conclusion as kind of blatant as it was, can kind of confuse the message.

So we have to be very careful about a very, very, very limited study or research if you want to call it that.

Like this, when we've been a non-attainment area for as long as we have.

And I know, like you said, apples and oranges, I don't know the ozone was part of this research effort.

But I just want to make it clear that just because it says pollutants were generally low, it's not running contrary to the fact that we still have such a massive challenge in our hands.

If I may add, Turkino, I'd like you to think about the value of projects like this being more in terms of socializing, the ability to collect your own information,

because information on data is power. And I think to your point, in the old days, it would take a regulatory agency, a regulatory network to get this information with the advent of technology for monitoring that is readily available.

All of a sudden you democratize the ability to actually monitor your own air pollution. So I think that's one of the values here.

You raise the level of awareness that the community can have in terms of controlling their own information and obviously protecting their own health to your point.

As you know, from your background at ARB, the definition and determination of a table is a complex process.

I mean, there's a lot of details going to that and it's got a very specific definition.

So I appreciate your comment because it is important to keep it in mind.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Director Gatta.

Thank you. I do want to underscore again the importance of making sure that.

And in the process of how we move forward in this, though, we don't confuse the message. I think that's number one.

But on, I think to your point, why I punched up, Dr. Yala was the fact that this effort, and I do again, I want to give credit to both the city of Ranch Cordova and the city of Sacramento for early taking on that community monitoring efforts.

And to encouraging people to figure out how best to do that.

And now United Latinos as a, and the county have gone above and beyond and making sure we're engaging with that.

To the point where when I've spoken to individual community members in the Northgate, you know, Gardenland area, they're aware of community monitoring.

And I would tell, I would say that five years ago, you wouldn't even have had a conversation about the importance of air quality.

The only other thing to add, which again, it's we hear this very often, but the, the, the, the knocks numbers there, show continued again that it's mobile sources.

That are, that are the biggest impact to us. And for those in that have asthma and is particularly as the, as the summers have been getting hotter, we're getting longer weeks of hotter spells.

Because the point that was made was people are concerned about their health, but they're concerned about their livelihood and vitality as well.

Our family's financial vitality in their income. And so I think it's important for us here to be continuing to work with the public and the stakeholders to look at that transition that is going to grow our economy, but more importantly, ensure that those that don't have a choice.

And none of us have a choice on what to breathe can have that clean air. So thank you.

And I think that those anecdotes, you know, people do are concerned about their health. And it's what we do here that's important.

All right. Oh, Dr. Dickinson.

I'm just curious in looking at what you have described as as garden land, which really extends into North Sacramento, because it looks from your map, you went as far east as as Norwood up between Arden and 80.

And you worked with GNNA, which is great, but was there any contact with neighborhood associations in North Sacramento, such as the Strawberry Manor neighborhood association, the Neralto neighborhood associate any of those in North Sacramento as part of the work you did.

Anything on the monitoring side?

Sites were randomly chosen across the environmental justice zones as to find on the map. There was some sampling outside of those areas, because sometimes the random sampling doesn't adhere to a boundary.

So the data has some predictability in and around those areas, but not beyond.

Well, let me back up then for a step. I'm looking at the page that describes the results coming out of what's called garden land and the map that's attached to that actually goes into well into North Sacramento outside of what I would consider.

I think most people would consider garden land. That's not the problem with that. I'm just curious whether there was any contact with or working with other neighborhood associations besides GNNA and in the work that was done.

I think that might have been beneficial for the work you were doing, but maybe man did.

I can find out that you tell for you and get back to you on that question.

Okay, thanks.

All right, Director Sandor.

Thank you. I fortunately missed the beginning of this presentation, but I did want to acknowledge the success we've had in Ranch Cordova's reference by my colleague towards deploying purple air sensors around the community.

Engaging the community in a manner in which they would host the sensor, maintain the sensor, make sure the sensor was working, but the city purchased it for them was really cost effective way of engaging our community in some data collection, some acknowledgement of what their local air quality was when there were no sensors near us in Ranch Cordova in the system in the region.

We invite them to a meeting, we feed them a hot dog or a carrot, and you know, say, oh great, we engage the public. Not really, but if they're hosting something that they have to maintain for us, that's engagement, right.

Now they can look on the website, they look on their phone, they can see what's happening. So I'd say the more the more the better of that sort of engagement because that's what citizenship really is, it's participation, it's not consumption.

I'll say thank you. Thank you all for your work on this and thank you for the presentation.

All right, next item, please.

The next item on the agenda item number six, air district and education and training in the region, and I have Megan Shepherd and chamber to give presentation.

Good morning, Director Aquino or Cher Aquino on directors. I'm Megan Shepherd. Oh, I'm without my voice today.

I'm Megan Shepherd, Director of administrative services, and I'm going to give a presentation on the district's intern and fellowship program from learning to leading educating the next generation of air quality professionals.

Next slide, please.

The air district is a science based, science based public health organization dedicated to service and fostering a healthier community.

The commitment also extends beyond environmental stewardship. We actively contribute to the STEM educational system within our region.

We collaborate with five student interns and two fellows annually. We invest $150,000 each year into this program.

We're dedicated to both public health and the advancement of STEM education, ensuring a brighter future for the next generation. Next slide, please.

Our interns and fellows play a crucial role in driving our innovation and climate action initiatives while contributing significantly to workforce growth.

This partnership offers a mutually beneficial experience, empowering students with practical knowledge and real world skills while enriching the district with the district with fresh perspective and enthusiastic talent.

Next slide, please.

This is a mutually beneficial exchange. It's a win-win for both intern fellow and the district.

Our interns and fellows provide increased capacity for high impact projects, fresh perspectives, and new approaches, and opportunities for district staff to mentor, coach, and lead.

The district provides hands-on real world professional experience, opportunities to connect with leaders, policymakers, and professionals, and access to professional development and portfolio projects.

Next slide, please.

How learning turns to leading early exposure to environmental careers for high school students, one-on-one mentorship for college and university students, and responsibility for a deliverable.

We want to make sure that each fellow and intern have a deliverable at the end of their time with us so that they can take that on with them for grad school or future employers.

Next slide, please.

Interns and fellows have been integral to our Urban Heat Island project, developing a Mardi Program, community-centered planning, city of Sacramento, portable sensor project, community engagement, supporting mobility hubs, EV charging, e-bikes, and micro transit.

Next slide, please.

Our interns and fellows come from exceptional partner organizations, including Civic Spark, Sacramento State, Sacramento, Advocate, Academic, and Vocational Academy, SAFA, UC Davis, and Crystal Ray High School.

We are fortunate to collaborate with these institutions in cultivating the next generation of air quality professionals.

Next slide, please.

Nearly 10% of our current full-time employees began their career with the district as interns or fellows.

Each of these dedicated individuals have brought their unique expertise and passion to the agency, shaping it into the thriving agency it is today.

Just leaving that up there so everybody can see our wonderful amazing staff.

Next slide, please.

Our commitment to the future.

We continue to partner with various organizations like SMUD, ValleyVision, SAICOG, SAVA, GreenTech, and others to highlight innovative technology, climate trends, and gaps in workforce.

We have the help to modify training programs and curriculums to fill those gaps, and prepare emergency and merging technicians, engineers, and climate professionals.

Next slide, please.

And thank you so much for giving me an opportunity to share about our wonderful program for interns and fellows.

We do have a couple requests to speak.

Is this open to any student or you have to go to one of those affiliated like Sac State or UC Davis?

No, those are just the partners we currently work with at this time.

Got it.

Vice Chair Maple.

Thank you, Chair.

I really appreciate it.

This is always really exciting to me because obviously everything that we do, whether it be in the air quality district or in the other various JPAs that we sit on,

we need to make sure that we have a plan to train the next generation, right?

We know these issues are important. They're going to continue on long, long after our times, and that we have people who really care about these issues, and they want to be involved, they want to get trained up.

So I'm really glad to see that we're invested in doing that and we're part of that work.

We may not know the answer to this offhand, but approximately how many students have gone through these programs to date?

That is, I don't have that offhand because it was amazing to see that we had 10% still with us.

But that doesn't account for the many that have gone to the several other sister organizations.

When talking to my fellow directors about this, many go on to other environmental based careers, just finding out their love for air quality work and environmental based work.

So they may not stay in air quality per se, but they go on to like careers.

So I can get you that information.

Perfect.

Thank you so much.

Yeah, I just, it'd be really interesting to notice to kind of keep in our back pocket, and then also as we're out in our various communities, as we're talking to young people, get them opportunities so they can get involved.

I know I certainly come across a lot of young people who care about the climate, care about air quality, and maybe don't necessarily know how they can be a part of it.

I know that we're currently doing these programs, and those are a part of our priorities, but I just wanted to provide some direction from us here that if there's other ways that we as a district can get involved in prepping the next generation, the future of leaders for air district and air quality.

So we're related to the future technology that we're going to see.

We have the technology that we have now, but we don't know what's coming before us, and that's going to continually change.

And so I'd be really interested to make sure that we're always kind of ahead of the game on that.

Definitely.

Thank you.

Director Gatta.

Thank you, Chair.

Correct me for a moment, Dr. Yala, but some of this fellowship program got started with the air quality money that the city put together to do that education fellowship.

Is that correct?

That is indeed one of our success stories because of the project from the city of Sacramento.

We actually identify a graduate student from UC Davis who is now our employee, and soon you'll hear from her in a future presentation.

So again, that's just one example of connecting the dots.

And I think that's a goes when we go for a grant application, is when we're looking at funding some of these projects, that a component of that we look at the component of the project, including that applied internship programs.

It's almost our our like our air quality apprenticeship program.

So I would say and so the more we can continue to do that, I think we're going to help us with our workforce challenges, because we know there is also a shortage in scientists and engineers.

So if I may, Chair, I want to put a finer point for all of you on this.

We wanted to give you a sense of just the breadth and the depth of this very limited program we have.

It's a very modest program because our resources are limited obviously.

So we're trying to do everything we can in the traditional sense of making our science and our STEM work available for students.

The real opportunity for us as we consider the clean energy transition is going beyond that and actually identifying as director Gera said, what are the training that actual training opportunities that we can generate so that young people today are prepared for the jobs of tomorrow that are going to be very different than the jobs that we trained for.

I'm talking about EV maintenance and clean technology and all the things that we bring you here because of the air quality and low carbon benefit embedded in that there's an opportunity to train people for careers in the future.

And across the spectrum of everything that we work on for our quality and low carbon projects, everyone is tackling that question is how do we structure programs that will give us the objective of reducing air pollution and carbon pollution but also begin to have the co benefit of training people not just so that they can do well in school, but they can actually make a living in a future job in technology areas that are just emerging now.

That's a challenge for us because again, as an air quality agency, we have in traditionally play that role, but I know across the state and the country, everyone is tackling that challenge and clearly we believe that there are opportunities.

All right, last year, Maple.

Thank you just a quick follow up question. Thank you for that information. Are there specific programs or training programs that you can identify that you think it would be good for us to maybe get engaged with on that front?

So I'll give you an example of one of our proudest projects. You've heard us talk about the electric mobility hub in Del Paso area and director Dickinson's area.

We partner with GreenTech and GreenTech as a partner. Their main job essentially is as a training program for young adults. So the thinking behind that project that again is promoting electrical abilities,

air emission vehicles, community development, all of that, had a very strong and direct element that had to do with training these kids that GreenTech works for.

And now they just continue to expand out. So that's just one example. And there's other projects and we always go into these projects with that in mind now is like, what is the opportunity here to actually turn it into again, not just education kids can do well in school, but really is this something that they can make a living from in a future career?

That's really helpful. Yeah, because I know that's something that we talk about a lot is, you know, I know my generation at least we were, you know, it was crammed into our head since we were young, go to college, go to college, but the reality is that we don't have enough people who are trained for these for skilled jobs.

And maybe too many people who have degrees. And so I think that there's a now a shift to go back to that kind of workforce training and getting people into highly skilled jobs.

So I certainly would be interested in more opportunities like that. So if they do become available, I think this board would like to hear that. Thank you.

Thank you, director Robelus.

Sorry about that. Thank you for the presentation and thank you for letting us know. I would definitely like to be a, you know, if you can explore on on something like this on how we can partner even with other education systems and try to figure out.

And if we can see some grant money on this, I wholeheartedly agree that this is something that we should probably look forward into the future. You know, you don't always have to necessarily do with the traditional path, but if we can get you locked in and kind of go in that way.

Is there any other air quality areas within California that's also doing something like this and that has invested in the younger generation?

There are and I'm going to be very general in this because so I'm just going to point to an effort that was pretty relevant in the region, the California jobs first.

It used to be called something else and basically in our region actually, Val Division was a secretary for that. That was essentially all based on workforce development and training.

So there are these programs that are focusing specifically on that is how do we, how do we continue this transition to clean technology and cleaner air, but at the same time, not forget that people need to train up for the future jobs.

I would say if you're interested, we should do a deeper dive on this California jobs first because our Val Division friends invited us to the table because of the connection to again air quality and climate action.

And now that the project, the process that is stay white is completed. I think there's probably some relevant information that we could bring to this board.

Megan, I assume there's some sort of annual call for applications for this program. Is that something that you could share with us so we can share with our constituents?

Well, for my division, when we need and we're looking for an intern, we fired an HR intern and we work with Christo Ray for information technology intern.

We work with those institutions. We reached out to UC Davis and Zach State and looked for those particular interns for human resources.

I would turn to Jaime Lemous and my fellow intern directors here for what they do when they're seeking interns and fellows.

Hi, May.

Great. Thanks. Good morning.

Chair members of the board, Jaime Lemous director of transportation and climate change.

This is a great discussion and yes, there are many times throughout the year that we do have a call out for interns, depending on

academic school calendars and just different programming like Christo Ray and maybe Sava when you know the beginning of their semesters and the beginning of their year.

But one of the things I also wanted to mention is as our executive director mentioned, you know, the California jobs first effort and we also mentioned the gaps in in workforce development.

And so we are not alone in this, you know, we work with with all of our partner agencies, a smud, sack, RT, valley vision, say, cog to identify the emerging technologies, but also the emerging trends and the gaps in workforce development.

As an example, when we were deploying electric vehicle charging stations, one of the gaps that we discovered really quick was the lack of electricians.

And so we are currently not working with smud to try to develop a stronger more robust electricians apprenticeship program.

And then in terms mud is working with I B W and many of the other electrical trade union so.

So the program goes even beyond just the interns and the fellows, but you know, really trying to enhance our workforce development and really trying to educate young graduates, young high school students about all of the emerging opportunities within the climate sector and the innovative technology sector.

Okay, thank you very much. Good info. Chair? Yeah.

We're happy to share once we have those opportunities available with you and fellow directors so that you guys have that opportunity to share with your district constituents so that everyone has that opportunity.

Great. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Next item, please.

The next item on the agenda item number seven, emerging opportunities for agricultural biomass utilization in Northern California. And I have Amy Roberts in chambers to give a presentation.

Good morning. Good morning, Cherokee. No good morning. Board of directors. Happy to be here and share some additional information with you on the emerging opportunities that we have for utilizing agricultural biomass.

Last month, we did come with you to you and shared information on our agricultural burn and smoke management programs. We shared at that time a little bit of information about our biomass utilization efforts, but we have more to share and more to expand upon today.

So next slide, please, Selena.

All right. So just a review. You're all very aware. Agriculture is a big part of the California economy. It makes up almost $60 million of commodities here in the Northern Sacramento Valley region. There's about 10% of that region that contribute to that overall economic growth.

So it is a very important part of what California does. What comes with that obviously are the waste products. Those that are not sold. The traditional way is to burn them.

What we're looking to do is to transition away from that kind of traditional use where we have air pollutants. We've got black carbon particulate matter and other criteria pollutants that come with burning of ag waste.

The Samakim Valley through legislation that was passed a couple of decades ago went through this transition of trying to find alternatives to agricultural burning. They had a huge infusion of state funding to try and find alternatives.

It came down to pretty much chipping, mulching, composting. And it came with a cost that was it was not cost effective generally for farmers without incentives from the state. So there's still work to be done.

But we want to be part of that. There's not an official ag burn here in Sacramento Valley. We don't have that as an imminent. But we see it as a likely scenario for us as well.

But regardless of an official ban or not, it's just a good idea for us to think of other opportunities and alternatives to burning. Next slide, please.

So I want to highlight really quickly an underscore I used ag waste, right? That's the traditional way that you think about what is not sold to market. It's a waste product. You burn it, you clean it up, you're ready to go.

But I want to transition and really try and change that mindset. What we're trying to do is change everybody to think of those waste products, not as waste, but as a resource.

Think of you pile up a cat, a pile of cash and you light it on fire. That's not really what is makes good sense. That's what all of the orchard pull outs, all of that agricultural waste that's sitting out there. It's ready to burn. But we look at that as a resource. That's something that can be converted into something that is of value.

It's a fuel. It can be energy. It can be biochar. It can be incorporated into something else fuels blended into other products. This is something that we see great value in. If you look at the map that's on this slide, it's small.

But if you just narrow in on that brown orange area, that's the Northern Sacramento Valley Air Basin. That's us that those are our partners at the Basin White Control Council.

Those regions have thousands, millions of tons annually. This is a renewable resource. It's ready to be used, not burned. So what we think is of high value for this board and for all of the boards up and down the state is to consider these formerly waste products as resources.

Next slide, please.

I'll go in a little bit more in depth on the benefits. There's so many co-benefits. This is really a waste not want not principle in action if you think about it. This is not conventional biomass energy. This is as Dr. Ayala has coined biomass energy 2.0. This is the new way to look at this.

This is improving air quality. It's reducing climate pollutants, super pollutants like black carbon. These are the things that we want to reduce. With biomass energy, you can get a decrease in criteria pollutants like particulate matter, 99% reduction from pile burning to using that in an alternative way.

Nox pollution, which we were just talking about. Nox pollution can be reduced 40% to 70% when you change that from pile burn to something else. So there are tremendous air quality and climate benefits from looking at biomass as a resource.

It also can contribute to reducing wildfire risk. This is a huge topic for the state. This has been an ongoing issue for years now and we're all trying to find solutions.

Heat emergency events, wouldn't it be great to diversify our energy portfolio and have this annual renewable resource of biomass used for energy production in a cleaner technology way, something that's non combustion, right? Old combustion is old biomass.

Biomest 2.0 is smaller scale. It is something that we can have closer to the biomass resource than feed stocks itself. So it's a new way of thinking about it and looking at it. And again, it's really a win-win-win-win, multiple win strategy for us. Next slide, please.

So obviously all of that those co-benefits mean that we need to do a lot of advocacy, a lot of education, and that's what has been going on. I want to highlight first off, Director Guerra hosted and put on a great workshop yesterday on the hydrogen economy, specifically talking about how we transition to hydrogen for heavy duty vehicles.

Biomest utilization was also part of the conversation that workshop had a lot of different stakeholders and it was a really well attended and really great and informative event.

The Basin-Wide Control Council, which is also chaired by Director Guerra this year, is pushing forward educational and advocacy work. And there is a plan two day event in April, April 2nd and 3rd that is going to bring together by the Basin-Wide Control Council elected officials, those members, along with our technical advisory committee members to come to the Capitol, talk with our legislators, talk to committees, talk to others that need to hear this.

We need a multi-strategy solution for so many reasons and it's to educate people about the use of biomass and all of those co-benefits.

There also is our legislation SB 88 and I will leave that to Dr. Ayala. He will be speaking about that more in his Air Pollution Control Officers Report later on.

Next slide, please.

So I want to also highlight one of the early projects. This is an indicator of success. This is an indicator that this technology, this alternative technology is ready for deployment.

There are a handful of projects throughout the state that are going to bring biomass to hydrogen production. We are highlighting here the ECO mode of project because this is going to be the first biomass to hydrogen project that we have in Sacramento County.

It's located in the southern part of Sacramento County or plan to be located on Twin Cities Road and Highway 5. This is taking ag and forest biomass and turning it into a sin gas using non-combustion gasification process, storing it and then using that to fuel medium, heavy duty and light duty vehicles.

This is one of the projects that we believe is going to just keep that energy going towards hydrogen production. Next slide, please.

So this would be located in an ideal location. If you look on the map there, you'll see that that station where it will be located. There isn't anything else nearby.

So there is a gap, a critical gap that needs to be filled in this station and location will provide that fueling infrastructure along a key major corridor since it's right off Highway 5. Next slide, please.

I'm going to pause right here and what I'd like to do is go ahead and ask my colleague director Jaime Lemos who is the director of transportation and climate change. He and his team have been at the forefront of bringing this project to the county.

So I'd like to turn it over to Jaime to add any other additional details that I might not have covered and also for him to go over the complexities of biomass feasibility and bringing these companies here. Jaime.

Great. Thank you. Good morning again. So this project is super exciting for the region for for many reasons as as Aiden mentioned already.

One of the one of the specific regions is that as many of you know here in the Sacramento region.

Many of the facilities that produce hydrogen do not produce hydrogen for fuel for our region or for Sacramento.

And so much of the hydrogen that's being produced here in Sacramento is really being exported out.

And so this project here today will actually produce hydrogen and dispense it for light duty medium duty and heavy duty projects.

And this is particularly important because as many of the California truck fleets are transitioning to zero mission or transitioning to meet their fleet mandates from this California resources board projects like this are important to support the feeling infrastructure.

And so you know it's a little bit challenging because if it was easy to create these projects, they would be all over California's.

I five and night and I cord or already, but obviously there's a lot of challenges and there's a little bit of.

You know some of the challenges here in California and even in our agency. So I'll talk a little bit about these.

There needs a lot of upfront capital in order to put these projects in place and as many of you know, the technology is also emerging and innovative and there's a lot of different types of technology that can support.

So this type of conversion and so as we've got the technology as the technology emerges and is maturing.

We have to be very careful and mindful on how we support these types of projects.

The logistics of the challenge specifically for the biomass feedstock, where do we locate and cite these type of facilities do we cite them up in the mountains where the body biomass is and then transport the field down into the valley.

Do we do we locate and cite these facilities in the valley and then you know get the Woody biomass and then transport it to the facility seasonal feedstock supply chain can also be an issue.

So some of these are just some of the challenges as well.

In addition to all of that.

The challenging of getting all of the permits required through the local jurisdictions and so there are many land east jurisdictions.

There's our quality jurisdictions and even sometimes Cal Waste or and and also California or sorry the Sacramento County EMD as well.

Lots of challenging come permitting requirements as well.

Next slide please.

Oops, I'm sorry would you go back one more.

So with all of these challenges, it takes a lot of commitment to to put these projects in place.

Deploying biomass projects are more difficult because of the waste stream.

However, today in the room and as as Amy highlighted already, we are showcasing the ECO mode of project, which is addressing a lot of these issues.

And so.

The project already mentioned is off of I five off of 20s road and it is in a key location to serve many of the trucks that will be passing up and down to the California corridor.

At this time, I'd like to introduce Jeff Dershi CEO of Icomotive and Steve Ramba CEO, Winbridge Energy and the co founder and head of development for the Icomotive biomass to hydrogen conversion and filling facility at 20s road and wallet growth.

Thank you.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair, vice chair and board.

We were at the workshop yesterday and so I want to put a special thank you to pro Tim Guerra for setting that up.

Hopefully we provided some value, but we took a great deal of value from it to see large and small companies contributing to what we're trying to accomplish.

So we're very excited to bring our vision to you and to share our plan of execution.

As it's been said, it's renewable hydrogen from from woody biomass and it will be woody biomass delivered derived from wildfire mitigation projects as well as agricultural waste.

I chuckled at one of the slides in Amy's vision because if you drive from I five to Ileton, you'll see those piles. They're out there right now. Those orchard removal piles.

We talk a lot about CO2 and how we minimize CO2. We take basically taking organic carbon in the environment and converting it into a pure renewable fuel.

And we sequester carbon in a couple of ways. Biochar is number one. We're supporters of SB 88.

We also use biochar in the process because it's it's catalytic and when we when we convert biomass into a sin gas, that biochar purifies and breaks down those hydrocarbon chains.

So we talk more about CO2 emissions than particulate or black carbon or or those types of emissions because we capture those. We capture those in the in the biochar, which is a field application or other other utilization.

And and at the end of the day, our clean hydrogen production is carbon negative. About 15 to 20% of the biomass waste in is captured in that bio carbon.

And as you know, we're converting that carbon into renewable fuels as opposed to the fossil fuels which are coming out of years of hydrocarbon sequestration.

So this is a hydrogen production and fielding station that will be off of Twin Cities roads about four miles off of I five.

We hope it's the first of many. I five is strategically located between the urban fleets such as Sacramento regional transport and the others we met yesterday and and the agricultural source of the biomass leading into the San Joaquin County.

This first system will sequester more than 10,000 tons of CO2 per year in the form of biochar. And in a phase two, we're going to start small 500 kilograms per day of hydrogen production.

Full feeling so you can drive up your total Toyota Mariah or your class eight vehicle and fill it up. We also have hydrogen taking tape tanker filling capability that will pair part of it.

In that second phase where we go from 500 to 5,000 tons will do CO2 sequestration out of the hydrogen purification which will massively reduce the CO2 production to be about 25.

So we make power to run our process in our microgrid. So there are emissions from that is about 25% of what would other be come from open pile burning.

So I think it's important to note that you know we're trying to solve problems and take the problem be located close to where the problem is and create the fuel where the close to where the fuel is needed.

So we minimize truck trips. We minimize the the horror from wildfire fuel breaks, shade breaks, those types of things don't have commercial wood.

So we can put them in this process and make a commercial thing while increasing safety. And I'll just finish by saying that this would be on the order of 20 to 25 tons of that biomass waste in on an annual basis.

Now I would say that we're here about a potential grant that I think is ahead of you. And I don't I'm not really sophisticated in all this in terms of additionality and ESG goals and those types of things.

The funding that we're here to talk about today is critically important. This will be the first of many. We don't we're not making massive plants. We're making small plants that that can be distributed where they're needed.

But this would be the first of many and the funding would be would be very helpful to keep that ball rolling. I'm supposed to say that we create high paying jobs. This will be dozens of jobs in this region of well not grow. And you know between galt and矈lton as your territory is. And so we use those trades people and engineering technicians. So they're high quality and high paying jobs.

And like that. Go ahead. So this site why we pick this site is it's actually co located with an ag trucking company. And so there's a diesel filling station there. It's on 52 acres. We've gone out to community and talked to all the neighbors are all for it.

There's mostly large ag properties around this site. And so we actually went to the fire marshal met with the commission they have given us a letter of tentative approval on what we presented. And so we've gone and done the outreach. And we're excited about getting this done.

And so we have we have the same people the same engineers that did the Oakland hydrogen project doing our safety plan. We reviewed it with the fire department. The whole design is going to be reviewed by the Pacific Northwest National Lab.

That is experts in hydrogen and the whole production. So we have a we have a pretty good plan moving forward and.

Thanks. Thanks for your time. We're here. We have we're here for any questions. This is ours. Thank you for being here.

Thank you. That concludes our presentation. And thank you very much for your comments. Thank you.

Director Dickinson has some questions.

I do. Thanks for the thanks for the presentation. Historically, of course, Ag Burning has has been a major challenge from an air quality standpoint across the region.

And when I first looked at the slides and thought about this, I made the assumption that some of the material would be coming from rice stock that has to be addressed over the non growing season.

And a lot of that's out of out of Yolo County. It's out of the northern part of Sacramento County, but listening to you, it sounds like you're focused on on the biomass or waste that's coming out of out of South Sacramento County.

So can you just speak to that a little bit?

So our primary contract is with a timber harvester that works, you know, they work from paradise all through the Sierra and Mendocino National Forest.

So forest fuels reduction activities in those regions as well as egg orchard removal and egg products coming up from from North San Joaquin County.

So to speak to to rice holes, we've tested rice holes typically that those are concentrated as opposed to the stocks that are in the field.

They typically are left there and either burned or soaked until they degrade for the next season.

We've left that group called West Biofields. They have a working product project.

I'm blanking on where it is specifically, but they're converting rice holes.

Will you?

Will it be in rice holes into to sin? Yes. Their product is electricity, not hydrogen, but it's it's the same process. So okay.

So it's available. It's doable. And like I said, this is one project and and 20,000 tons of biomass is a drop in the bucket to what really needs to be addressed.

So it's a viable source.

The biochar from that is not that great.

And so we look at the full cycle of product. And so the biochar that comes from what we're doing is extremely helpful for filtering water air that type of thing.

So there's other benefits other than and then burning we don't burn the actual material like some do.

So we actually heated up and create the what they call sin gas from a heating process and not a burning.

So there's no oxygen being used so we don't get any knocks out of the system.

So if you saw the slide earlier about knocks, we don't generate that with our system.

So I appreciate the the elaboration and and that just the leaves a question for me to the extent to which this project which seems like a great effort really addresses ag burning in Sacramento County.

What what it does because it allows us to demonstrate a potential technology pathway to utilization the biomass.

Okay, so you're not looking at it in the first instance as so much addressing ag burning but as as illustrative of what could be done in the future with additional locations processing and the like.

It addresses the burning to the extent that the material that they are utilizing would otherwise have to be burned to be managed.

But it sounded like it's coming not to a certain extent coming from San Joaquin County coming from maybe foothill areas not so much not so much Sacramento County.

Specifically the orchard removals that you saw in the pictures there is a source of biomass.

So that's the alternative for that is to chip it and send it to the landfill or send it to the co gen or to burn it in place.

So we're definitely that definitely Sacramento County when I said San Joaquin County I'm just saying that's that's the extent of where we were.

Well that's what I was trying to get a feel for how much of the material is actually from Sacramento County for your for your project.

That's that's really what I was trying to get a sense of.

And I would say you know 50% to a majority of it but it is a logistics problem that is the harder than making hydrogen if you can believe it is keeping a full annual recurring supply of biomass.

So we'll you know if we're so grateful for the support we've had from the air quality district will really focus on you know starting with Sacramento.

Sacramento County resources and and like I said you know we're we're looking at another location in Yolo County there's there's others that you know potentially co locating on McClellan with Sacramento regional transit so just the first of many opportunities.

Thank you director Hume.

I actually see to director Sanders he wants to go first.

Yeah I'm kind of the new guys that sometimes I asked dumb questions but Roger sort of covered the first part I was curious about rice.

I'm not quite sure how that would produce biochar so thank you for that answer I'm assuming it's pairs and almonds is that is that where our wood sources are from.

And walnuts as well.

Yeah I'm not sure the cycling but percent those play in terms of the input but that would that would be interesting to know at some point what fuels were talking about but my real question is economics.

You know from a farmer's perspective or from a grocery buyers perspective a match is a really cheap thing right like that pile that is that is cheap.

I heard staff refer to it as an asset in the field the pile it certainly is.

But the question I've got for you is how close to being economic like producing a product that you can sell at a price high enough that it pays for the logistics and the processing how how close to that are we.

So we're a for profit enterprise and so our.

We're we're we're very concerned with that and very focused on it and I began this company and partnered with Steve on this initially to create a value for the forestry work that needs to be done in in the Mendocino National Forest and you know to protect places like paradise and things like that.

So we're focused on that values how do we create an economic incentive for that if those those orchard folks typically they're paying for the removal price and they're trying to push the biomass problem onto their vendor that vendor would have to pay $50 to $100 if they took it to one of the county landfills to remove it.

So we'll we'll take that and we'll pay the trucker to bring it to us at no cost to them. So it's an economic incentive out of the gate for for the egg producer are they already not allowed to burn.

I can't speak to that and in some counties they're not allowed to burn I can't specifically say Sacramento per se now that's just the orchard removal we're talking about there's also when you when you manufacture walnuts you take the shell off and that's a biomass source.

The almond holes are not there an ag feed but the almond shells are and we mentioned rice holes already so yeah there's an economic upside for the for the waste producer if you will.

And just to be clear doctor sender ag burning is allowed in our in our county and to the north the only area in the state that is under our current ban is the soundwaking valley and they started this year.

So farmer has the option of the match versus paint some of the hallway they have the option of the match and we're very proud of the smoke management program that we run along with our nine air district partners and living counties to the north.

But again this is about us getting in front of a potential ban in the future and finding alternatives like what eco motive is showing it can be done and obviously there are costs to burning right we're releasing carbon that will ultimately have a cost to society well I was going to say you as a toxicologist right that the match leads to.

Yes I think it was senator Agriarchurri who told the store was it her and her brother's farm her brother so they were they were burning some of these piles and they could only there's limitations you can only burn certain times of the day or the year so they could only burn one pile and they started the burn pile and it was going and all of a sudden they saw another pile down the way had lit on fire and it was it was sadly these squirrels were in the wood pile.

So caught on fire and went and lit the other one on fire. Oh my goodness. I swear to God so how you don't want that.

Notice the squirrel no no don't do it. Director Hill the economics here is that if you look at what's happened with the hydrogen production with the liquorizers and the inconsistency of their performance is really led shall.

To exit the hydrogen production for stations in northern California and all of California and so we had a relationship that we were trying to build.

State hydrogen stations in northern California shall backed out and so the actual economics are that we can generate hydrogen cheaper than what's being charged at the pump right now.

So a kilogram of hydrogen at the station is between 30 and 36 dollars a kilogram. If we get this in the full production will probably be at 12.

Okay so that's but we have a large investment to make to do that so the economics is here for the groceries if somebody's going to fill up their car there's one location in Sacramento really to fill up the hydrogen car.

My nephew has one. He's got one spot in San Diego as a Toyota. Our group met with Toyota's environmental sustainability person in Nashville last weekend and they're they would like to support us on projects so we actually are working with honeywell not only on this project but we're working with them in North Africa.

We're working with them in projects in in carbon capture and so we have a delegation from Morocco coming to Houston in May to hopefully help sequester 12 gigawatts at coal power plants in Africa North Africa.

So I think that's a great question.

Thank you chair. First of all I appreciate the questions from director sander regarding just the overall program if it doesn't make economic sense to the farmers then you go down the path where you have to start using the stick instead of the carrot and I don't want to see us do that because that raises the food cost price for everyone right.

It may not be as efficient as a match but it's cost neutral to them should they choose this path and the match is not readily available it has to be has to have a burn permit has to happen on a burn day there's logistics involved in it so if it's easier to just call up somebody to haul it away and be done that might be an economic incentive and I assume that the same holds true if you're sourcing from timber as far as biomass within within our forests that obviously has to make economic sense to you and it has to be a

lot of work to make economic sense for what would otherwise just be left laying around. This first came on my radar when we were looking into how to process our green waste stream and there were companies vying essentially to process via either a robot or anaerobic processing to turn what was a waste product into several different by product streams, sin gas and hydrogen and biochar.

And so what is the technology that you would be using to convert this biomass into to hydrogen.

Thanks thanks for that question the the technology is a hybrid of paralysis and gasification so we like dry brittle stuff we don't we don't want you know waste food meets those types of things that that goes into typically a digested type of process so but but from shells to wood chips and then that sort of vein.

And our system is a non combustion system so it's it's an enclosed basically feed biomass into a enclosed container that's air locked so we inhibit oxygen which inhibits nitrogen which is Steve's comment about knocks and then we heat that material at a high temperature from 600 degrees Celsius would be the minimum up to 950 degrees Celsius and in that process you break down that wood material into biochar.

And we actually use the biochar to filter and further improve the the hydrogen value of that gas so that gas is basically a hydrocarbon it's not methane but that's a corollary so it's basically a hydrocarbon that you can manipulate many ways so if someone said we can make methanol or we can make diesel or we can make jet fuel all those things are true because it's just breaking down.

And then we're breaking that chain down into whatever substrate you want that product to be but it's either a vaporous gas or a liquid gas in in our model we've chosen hydrogen because once once you've created that sin gas the technologies and Steve mentioned honeywell and others the the sophistication on breaking that sin gas down into a higher high

hydrogen and then a pure hydrogen is well established and well known it's not it's not science there's no testing there's no there's no there's lots of testing but there's no invention involved in that and that's because the the major manufacturers have made tons and tons and tons of hydrogen out of fossil fuel and so the process is very similar it's called steam methane reforming we call it water gas shift but you're basically converting the CO into more hydrogen and then you're purifying it.

And purifying it means pulling the CO2 out and that's where we can capture that CO2 and liquefy it for you know putting it into sequestration or using it in a commercial product and then what's so fantastic about it is we I showed sort of draw this in circles is when you purify that it's not 100% efficient so you're left with a fuel that we can run through generators to create the power

to self sustain this process so biomass to sin gas to hydrogen the waste gas from the hydrogen creates electricity to sustain the whole operation so but other products you know for us it's biochar sin gas you know in some scenarios we use a little water and others we can be a water producer but water would be the only other element and then we just manipulate that.

We do have a sin gas into whatever we do have I mentioned this yesterday and since it's been asked we do have a partner and we have we're looking at some projects where instead of hydrogen we would put that sin gas through a different conversion process and create a renewable diesel could also be jet fuel but a renewable diesel that's a direct drop in so no change to the diesel manufacturer to us that's you know it's a lot easier to do that.

The more you're saying is Shell going to bring its stations back or not we know the diesel is needed so it's kind of a hedge in a sense but it's a temporary hedge and that it's not a zero-mission fuel so.

Thank you for that because the companies that I had met with to solve our purposes obviously were wet digesters and you're talking about more of a vacuum system growing up in Elk Grove I remember there used to be a Kingsford charcoal plant that would have mounds of walnut shells I believe it were that would spontaneously

combust to where they had to run sprinklers to keep the piles wet so obviously there's a lot of heat generated naturally if you starve out that oxygen then you can rather than combusting it you're using it for beneficial uses where are you in your entitlement process.

So like I said I met with the fire department and they have given they gave us a letter of support we have been meeting with the air board about these things so the entitlement process is I would put it as we're prepping for the actual application to be put in.

We're hoping that we sense it's a hydrogen project that we could potentially get a category of exemption to the sequa and that is because we're co-locating with the actual existing diesel fueling system or plant and the category of coal exemptions have been broadly used for hydrogen production gas stations.

So you know that's our hope but we would go through sequa if it was necessary.

So it sounds like you're at the front end of navigating the labyrinth if you can track them down it might be who you to reach out to the supervisor that represents the area.

So we wanted to make sure we had the neighbors on board and the fire department and that type of thing so we've got that done we've been talking to you know the different water board and that type of thing too to get we're going to prep them on what we're up plan is there and so we'd love to talk to you about it.

And so you know what has happened in San Joaquin where the no burn situation has come in and really disrupted their ability and it and it has not been successful the the alternatives have not been successful and so this is one where the nine northern air districts and eleven counties and air pollution control officers with the their respective elected officials who are farmers have said how do we control our own destiny and begin to plan for the future.

What does this mean for Sacramento we still have a significant amount of agriculture but most importantly for for this board is that if you if you could go back to the slide that shows the our air base in there we are the recipients of every county smoke coming down to Sacramento and it night and it settles nicely right here in our area so from Shasta Colusa.

And even Yolos Alano moves in this way from from a public health standpoint for us it's not only in our best interest to be able to get ahead of this on the technology site because we do have an enormous amount of manufacturing an enormous amount of technology we produce large amounts of hydrogen already in the Sacramento region and to be able to be the leader in northern California on hydrogen.

And not stocked in or the port of stocked in but to do it for the sake of we know that every year once the trees are done and producing fruit and we've got a prunum all that smoke from Shasta County if you look at the map comes and settles right down here in Sacramento and it accumulates here so for the for the public health reason and also the economic reasons it's there we have twenty nine R T buses that will need also hydrogen and I think we should probably produce it little bit more.

So I think we should be able to get that out of the way and hopefully in my opinion here we did have an amazing presentation yesterday we will collect all that information and send it out to this board about how the different sectors this is just one particular sector on hydrogen for the future so with that I'm encouraged by this and I also want to thank Amy Roberts here because she has been engaged with all of our partners in the northern air districts in educating legislators about the public health need and all of the

how we can control our own destiny because it's not when it's not if they will ag burning will some band will come it's about when it will come and we want to make sure that we're ahead of that and have viable financial opportunities that are beneficial to the our

ag industry that produces food at a lower cost but at the same time make sure that we're public health is at the forefront.

Thank you thank you for being here.

Celine did you see we have other public comment on this or that that was it okay.

Thank you thank you Amy.

Thank you.

All right that takes us to the air pollution control officer's report.

I appreciate the engagement and if you are okay I'd be happy to defer my points to the next meeting given the timing but your call.

That's fine I think that's fine okay board ideas comments and 1234 reports anyone.

All right seen oh do we have any public comment for okay then we will adjourn at 1030 thank you everyone.

Good job.

Recording stopped.