Will the clerk please call the roll?

Cherokino?

Here.

Director Desmond.

Director Dickinson?

Director Hume?

Director Kennedy?

Here.

Director Lopez Taft?

Here.

Director Maple?

Here?

Director Pluckybaum?

Dr.

Pratton?

Here.

Director Roblis?

Director Rodriguez?

Here.

Director Cerna.

Dr.

Ving?

We have quorum.

This is a beautiful thing.

It's 9 a.m.

and we are starting on time and we have quorums.

If you'd all please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegium.

And true for which it stands one nation.

Alright, if you please please read the board clerk announcements.

Members of the public are encouraged to observe the meeting in real time at Metro14Live.sackCounty.gov, participate in person via zoom video or teleconference line, and by submitting rant and 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 live and recorded with closed captioning.

It is cable cast on Metro Cable Channel 14, the local government affairs channel on Comcast and direct TVU versus cable systems.

Today's meeting replays on Saturday, October 25th, 2025, at 1 30 on Metro Cable Channel 14.

Very good.

That takes us to our consent calendar.

Are there any questions from any of my colleagues?

Any requests from the public to speak on this item?

Not at this time, Chair.

I'll go ahead and move consent.

Oh second.

Thank you.

We have a motion and second.

We do need to take a um uh individual roll call.

Selena?

Chair Kino?

Aye.

Director Desmond?

Director Dickinson?

Director Hume?

Director Kennedy?

Aye.

Director Lopez Taft?

Aye.

Doctor Maple?

Aye.

Director Pluckybum?

Director Pratton?

Aye.

Director Roblis?

Aye.

Director Rodriguez?

Aye.

Director Sander.

Director Cerna.

Director Vang?

This item passes.

Thank you.

That takes us to item 6.1, Air Toxics Hot Spots Program Annual Report.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Okay.

Uh good morning, Chair Aquino and members of the board.

I'm Matt Baldwin with the Engineering and Compliance Division, and I'm here to present the 2025 Air Toxic Hot Spots Report.

Next slide.

The Air Toxic Hot Spots Act is a state-mandated local program, and a report on the district's program is required by Health and Safety Code.

The findings of the report must be presented in a public hearing after the report is published and presented.

The air district is required to disseminate the report to local governing boards and public health officials in CARP.

But before I go into the content of the report, I'd like to give a little background.

So why are uh next slide?

Sorry.

So why are we concerned about toxic air pollution?

Toxic air pollutants are linked to several health effects, including short-term conditions like dizziness and fatigue, or skin, eye, and lung irritation.

Long term, these pollutants may also lead to other conditions such as cancer, birth defects, or liver and kidney disease.

We encounter these pollutants in our everyday life.

Chemicals like benzene and xylene are found in gasoline and diesel particulate is found near highways and freeways from truck traffic.

Next slide.

So what do we do when we look at uh what do we look at when determining whether a facility poses a health risk?

First, we look to see what is being emitted.

A toxic air contaminant or TAC is any substance emitted into the air that has been identified as having an adverse impact on human health.

After identification, we then estimate to what degree that chemical poses a health risk by determining the cancer risk and the health hazard index.

Cancer risk is the probability of a person developing cancer as a result of a lifetime exposure to a carcinogen.

Estimated in chances per million.

The hazard index is a measure of chronic or acute health effects other than cancer that can result from exposure to chemicals.

Next slide.

With this information, how do we regulate and control emissions of toxic air contaminants?

The US EPA, CARB, and the Air District all play a role in identifying and reducing emissions of toxic air contaminants.

EPA and CARB identify the pollutants of concern.

They then set standards for major sources and large categories of sources of either national or statewide concern.

They also implement and enforce measures for on-road and mobile sources, provide oversight, and create inventories and model toxics.

The Air District then incorporates these requirements into its local programs by reviewing applicability of these regulations into permit actions, identifying emitted tax, and running health risk assessments for new or modified permits, notifying nearby school sites of new or modified sources of tax, and for existing facilities reviewing applicability in the hotspots program.

Next slide.

With all these regulatory requirements, what does the overall risk look like in Sacramento?

The California air toxics assessment study estimated that the total cancer risk for Sacramento County is about 395 per million, which has dropped from an estimated 706 in a million in 2012.

Statewide, the average cancer risk is about 598 in a million.

Next slide.

Now that we have some background, what is the Hotspots Information and Assessment Act?

The Act was passed by the legislature in 1987 in response to growing public awareness of toxic chemicals being released to the atmosphere.

The primary goals of the Act are to identify potential high risk facilities, assess health impacts from those facilities, reduce the risk from high risk facilities, and inform the public of those risks.

Next slide.

When the air district identifies a source that is subject to the act, the first step is to collect an inventory detailing the facilities' emissions.

Using that information, we prioritize the facilities into high, intermediate, and low categories.

A facility categorized as high priority then needs to conduct a health risk assessment.

After review, we then categorize the facility as high risk, low risk, or intermediate risk.

Any facility that is categorized as high risk is then subject to public notification and risk reduction measures.

Next slide.

So who is in the program?

The two T types of facilities in the program are core facilities and industry-wide facilities.

Core facilities are generally larger facilities that have higher emissions and usually multiple sources of emissions.

The facility is responsible for submitting data and if necessary, conducting a health risk assessment.

Industry-wide facilities are generally small business facilities that have a single source of emissions that can be easily categorized and assessed.

The facility is responsible for submitting throughput information, and the air district conducts their health risk assessment.

The two most common industry-wide categories are gas stations and diesel engines.

As you can see, most of the facilities in the program are industry-wide sources.

Next slide.

One of the first goals is to identify core facilities and prioritize them.

Prioritization is a screening assessment that ranks facilities by their potential for risk.

Overall, the district has identified three high priority facilities with a score of greater than 10, 11 intermediate facilities with a score between one and 10, and three low priority facilities with a score of less than one.

Seven are still pending prioritization.

Low priority facilities are out of the program.

Intermediate facilities have to provide periodic updates, and high priority facilities move on to the risk assessment phase.

Next slide.

For facilities in the program that were previously listed as high priority, we've reviewed their health risk assessments.

The results of those assessments are listed here.

Five facilities had an intermediate risk, which means their cancer risk was between one and ten in a million, or their hazard index score was between 0.1 and 1.

And five facilities had a low risk with a cancer risk of less than one in a million and a hazard index of less than 0.1.

The low-risk facilities are out of the program, and the intermediate ones have to provide periodic updates.

Next slide.

Of these, about 40% had an intermediate risk, and 60% had a low risk.

No gas stations were identified as having a high risk.

Next slide.

The district also analyzed and assessed 810 diesel engine-only facilities.

About 57% of those had an intermediate risk, and 43% had a low risk.

Two facilities or 0.2% were identified as high risk.

The AR district will be requesting additional information from those sources and will be asking them to perform a refined health risk assessment.

The results of that assessment may lead to those facilities having to do a risk reduction and audit plan.

Next slide.

And the third uses trivalent chrome, which, unlike hexavalent chrome, does not have a cancer risk value.

And although there are several dry cleaners in the district, no facility is subject to the program anymore now that perchloroethylene has been phased out of use in California.

Most dry cleaners now use a solvent of petroleum solvent that isn't as toxic as PERC.

Next slide.

Also, we are working to incorporate the hotspots reporting and review requirements into the district's online services program.

And we will be returning next year to present the annual report and update the board on the next on the program.

Next slide.

With that, the 2025 report was published on October 7th and noticed on the district's website.

The notice was also sent out via the permitting list serve and the community air protection list serve.

Next slide.

Thank you.

Thank you, Matt.

Any questions or comments from my colleagues?

Director Kennedy.

Thank you, Chair.

A couple things.

One is just out of curiosity.

The gas stations you had listed as intermediate or low with no high risk.

What differentiates a gas station between intermediate and low?

Is it the age of the facility and technology and all that, or what?

Generally, it's proximity to another um uh a receptor.

So the um and then also the dispersion characteristics of the gas station.

So if the vent line is uh close to a building, you can get downwash, and that will cause higher risk closer to the facility.

And then also if there's enough buffer between, say the gas station and residents.

So a facility that has a very high throughput needs just a larger buffer.

Got it.

Uh, and then secondly, um we what we spoke of recently at a meeting and we've been working with, but didn't see any mention of uh executive airport as far as low, medium, high or anything.

I didn't even see it's not even on the radar, is there a reason for that?

So executive airport, um we're actually working on uh uh permits for that facility.

There is enough of a buffer between the um so the the gas tanks kind of at the south end of the facility.

Um there's enough of a buffer for that, um to keep it as a low risk, as far as the permitting and potential, and then the uh upper tank, the smaller one, there's enough of a buffer that keeps that one low, and then um as far as the uh the leaded gasoline, the um the lead the the tetraethyl lead doesn't readily evaporate, it kind of stays within the tank.

Interesting.

Fascinating.

All right, thank you.

Great report.

So if I may add just to come back to that point, uh Director Kennedy, um the discussion we brought you last month on the airport is work in progress.

So we're gonna come back and answer some of the questions that were raised by the board, uh, and we will tie it to um the information that Matt just provided to you.

But again, um give us a little time.

Uh, we'll come back next year and and have a full discussion.

Okay, I'm going to open the public hearing.

Selena, do we have any requests to speak?

Okay, then we will close the public hearing.

Um, and I don't see any other questions or comments uh in the queue from my colleagues, and this is just a receive and file.

So thank you very much, Matt.

Thank you.

All right, that takes us to our discussion calendar, item 7.1 permitting and enforcement activities annual report for 2024.

Good morning, Jericho.

Members of the board.

We're gonna keep you in the engineering and compliance division today.

Uh, happy to be here with you again.

Uh, director of the engineering compliance division for the district.

Next slide, please.

All right, so air quality control is rooted in federal law.

That's the Federal Clean Air Act.

Um, so this stems all the way back to 1970.

Uh the law laid the clear foundation for how to reduce air pollution from state and local air quality programs.

Core programs include monitoring, um, our rules and regulations that we create, and two programs obviously near and dear to my heart, and that is our permitting and compliance work.

These two program areas are fundamental to reducing air pollution in Sacramento County.

The team has prepared the annual report for the activities that we performed in the calendar year 2024.

That's what I'll be uh presenting to you today.

I'll provide an overview of that work and um give you some graphs and other data that shows all of that compliance and um permitting activity.

We want to keep you apprised of these efforts, especially because these programs we know intersect very closely with your constituents and the businesses that are in your jurisdiction.

So we think it's important for you to know about them.

All right, we have oversight of stationary sources.

These are businesses, both private and public agencies that operate equipment.

They do release some kind of air pollution uh and have the potential to do so.

As I just mentioned, we're required by federal law to assess and permit those sources of their pollution when they exceed certain thresholds, and we need to also ensure on an ongoing basis that there's compliance with those uh rules over time.

In Sacramento County, we have almost 2,400 businesses that we issue permits to.

Uh some businesses do have multiple permits with us.

So you'll see uh on the, I'm sorry, actually, next slide, please, Selena.

So you'll see here that 2,400 businesses, but those uh can have multiple permits for each facility.

Um so in total, and and kind of on a rough average, we've got about 4,400 to 4,500 permits that we issue and are active in our system.

I wanted to also point out the map that you see on this slide.

This is a new addition when we updated our district-wide permit system.

We also have this online, it's on our website.

Anybody can go, so the public has access to see the permitted facilities that we have in Sacramento County.

You can do the same just to see what's near you or what's in your jurisdiction.

So in our program on an annual basis, you see here in 2024, we issued 267 permits.

Those permits, those can be for not only new facilities that are just up and running, but it's also an existing business that might be modifying a particular process, bringing in new equipment.

So those would all fall into that number that you see, the 267.

Next slide, please.

So what are the typical types of businesses that we permit?

You can see on this graph here that the biggest uh type of permits that we issue are engines.

This is for electrical generation, and the majority of those are for backup generation.

These are mostly diesel-fired backup engines, and while they're the ubiquitous number that you see on this, they actually operate very little.

We're lucky to have great line power and stability.

So on average, those operate about 15 to 20 hours per year, typically for just maintenance activities.

The other big categories that we permit are for our boilers and heaters, so I think buildings that need heating and cooling, hot water, so we've got a lot of commercial sources that need boilers for those purposes.

We also have gas stations, and we also have a lot of coding facilities.

We have auto bodies, we've got metal coaters, wood coders that fall into that category.

We also have, you'll see on the graph, there's other this other category, and what falls into that are you know a lot of manufacturing facilities, but they're you know, onesies, twosies, so they they get lumped into this bigger category, but we've we've got also aggregate and concrete batching plants, and then we do have some of the facilities that do have toxics.

Well, they're they're not a lot.

We we do point them out because they can't be important.

So our crematories and our chrome platers.

All right, next slide, please.

So the air quality permitting process, it is quite involved.

It's um it can be a long process, a multi-month process.

Once we receive an application from a business, our team of air quality engineers like Matt that you just saw a minute ago, they go through a very rigorous evaluation.

That includes an assessment of the equipment, any kind of air quality control equipment that might be included in that permit, and they need to determine what are the limits that are going to go into that permit, what conditions are going to be placed on that facility, trying to keep that air pollution below, again, certain thresholds that meet our rules and regulations and protect our our public health.

Part of the evaluation also involves important aspects of an air quality permitting program.

That's the middle line there, and it's back determinations.

This is best available control technology determinations.

It's a really important part of what we do, comes from the federal government, and it is the way that our permitting program actually makes incremental progress to air quality over time.

What it does is it requires that when we get an application that we review what the status of technology, the latest and greatest is out there, and we make sure that if it is cost effective, it's something that has been done in other places in either the nation or the state, that we're requiring that on our businesses as well.

So you can see over time we're actually making uh improvements to requiring the cleanest technology, and then the last one there is uh health risk assessments, and I don't need to go into too much detail since we just had a very robust discussion just a minute ago.

All right, next slide please.

Other important program areas that our permitting team oversee are related to our major sources of air pollution.

The EPA established what's called the Title V program in 1990, and it provides for a national permitting program.

And we here in Sacramento are delegated by the federal government to enact a major source program.

These major sources, you can think of our power plants, the landfill, uh data centers that emit a large majority of the air pollution in Sacramento County, while we only have 14 major sources, and what's known as not a very intuitive name, but it's synthetic minor sources.

Those are sources, and there's 16 of them in Sacramento County.

Those are sources that could emit a lot, but they're choosing on their permit to limit themselves.

They keep limits on their production, on their operating hours to make sure that they're staying below certain thresholds that otherwise they would be required to go into a major source permitting process.

It's more rigorous.

Alright, next slide, please.

Okay, now I will go ahead and switch over to discuss the other case section in the come in the engineering compliance.

That's our enforcement team and all of the programs that they oversee.

You'll see on this slide, this is just a you know a handful of the biggest things, the biggest program areas that they are dealing with, and those are the inspections that they do at all of those permitted facilities that I just talked about.

It's dealing with um helping our public when they have concerns and they bring those to our attention.

It's looking at our agricultural burning program.

Uh we also have oversight over some state regulations that are related to uh climate change and methane reduction.

Uh and then also it's the resolution of violations that might be issued to businesses, and a couple of others, like our asbestos program, and I'll touch on each one of those as we go through the slides.

Next one, please, Selena.

So, bottom line: without an air quality compliance team, those boots on the ground, that permit often is considered just a piece of paper.

You need to have inspect an inspection team that goes to those businesses, looks at what's going on there.

Often they show up uninvited, they they are, you know, showing up, but they do they have a very tough job that they do when they go out there, but it's a really important one, and I have a lot of uh pride of the attention that they give their jobs, and um so I want to highlight some of the key things that they do.

Um, again, it's just ensuring that those permit conditions are actually realized, that it's it's not typed on a um, you know, typed on a paper, stuck in a drawer, but businesses are actually doing what they're supposed to be doing to reduce air pollution, and it's also the interaction with the public.

Uh you you all know, and we'll get into it a minute, but you have constituents that contact you and let you know of air quality issues in your area.

So it's a really another very key facet of what we do in the compliance program.

Amy, quick question.

Is a permit just one and done?

You get it and you're set, or do they have to be renewed every so often?

They do have to be renewed on an annual basis.

Okay, yes.

Next slide, please.

All right, in 2024, our inspection team performed over 2400 inspections at the facilities that do have permits with us.

Most of these inspections were to check for compliance with their permit, and other inspections that are performed are to observe emission source tests.

These happen at gas stations and our major sources and other sources as well.

Um it's also to check sometimes for business failures.

Sometimes we might have a business that says, you know what, something happened at my facility, they are upfront about it, and our inspection team goes out to investigate.

Next slide, please.

So, what happens when we do find a compliance issue?

Well, our team does have the ability and authority to issue violations for those air quality violations.

Sometimes those are bigger emission issues, sometimes they're administrative in nature.

Uh, we also have different types of violations where for those lower grade violations, we can issue notices to comply, which gives them a little bit of time to fix the issue and and we'll investigate and make sure it was done, but those don't come with a penalty.

But our violations that we do issue, those do come with a penalty.

You can see on this slide that most of the violations are issued to businesses that we have permits.

Obviously, those are the ones that we're we're going to, and you know, focusing our enforcement of those facilities that we know.

The second most common violation issued is for illegal burning.

This can be open burning, and this can also a lot of them, some of them can be for our check before you burn program, which is our November through February, no burn regulation.

Almost all violations will be assessed a monetary penalty, and the maximum daily penalty can be quite steep, but the minimum is a $5,000.

We adjust that based on what we call mutual settlement program.

And that was a policy that was adopted by you several years ago.

So it did have oversight of the board, and really the bottom line is to make sure that our penalty assessment is fair.

We want to make sure it's objective.

We want to make sure that we have a standard way that we're looking at how we assess those penalties because they can be significant for our business.

In 2024, we had 144 violations that were settled through the mutual settlement program.

And realistically, this is the best way in the the way that most businesses do want to settle.

Nobody wants to have to get a lawyer and to go through the court system.

It's just more timely and expensive for everybody.

Next slide, please.

Also, an important part of our programs, I I mentioned earlier, it's our public complaint response program.

We have inspectors assigned every day.

We get complaints every day, and we do respond with those either immediately when we get them or within most of them are responded to within that very day.

It keeps us responsive.

It also lets the public know.

We're often told that thank you so much.

This is, you know, for an agency to respond this quickly is very much appreciated.

The biggest complaint type that you see here are the various of smoke various types of smoke from illegal burning.

And a few are received, those are received during the check before you burn season.

There's quite a few that we are responding to winter time.

We always are gearing up and getting ready because we know that we're gonna get a good number of complaints.

I also wanted to you know mention that you know when you do hear something, uh please some of you have reached out and we really do appreciate it.

We we like to know what's going on in your respective jurisdictions so that we can assist and we we can be a tool for you.

Next slide, please.

We also work to reduce exposure to toxic air contaminants and that have no safe level of exposure, and that is asbestos.

This can be found in building materials and in soils.

We enforce regulations, both federal, state, and a local regulation, because asbestos when it's disturbed in demolition or renovation work and commercial buildings, um, but also in soils.

So in construction projects, it's it's not everywhere in our county, but there are certain areas, especially in the eastern part of the county, as you know, Chair, that do have asbestos in soil, and so we do regulate those sources.

One way we get visibility on projects that might have asbestos in them is by working with your respective building departments.

We've established very good relationships and continue to work and educate everybody because it's a very efficient way for us to know projects that are coming through your build building departments that get passed on to us is one of the best ways that then we can have over site, check for our requirements in our asbestos program, and also approve those projects to go forward.

We want to make sure that asbestos surveys are done.

We want to make sure make sure that if sampling was required that that's been done and that proper renovation is in place.

One thing that I noted on this slide is that our current rule for asbestos for those renovations and demolitions is a commercial only regulation.

We have had times in our past where we did regulate residential sources.

There are some air districts in the state of California that do have residential programs.

This would just be one other way if we did make changes to that rule or had additional resources to put to it that we would be able to increase our public health protections.

Next slide, please.

All right.

Our burn programs, they're really essential to the air district maintaining air quality.

I think you've heard quite a bit about our agricultural burning this past year as we've been really focused on biomass and our recent co-sponsoring of legislation related to that and our ways to reduce agricultural burning in Sacramento County and the rest of the region.

But it is a substantial amount of daily work that we do put to making sure that agricultural burns are done when they are able to.

We also have our, I've already mentioned our check before you burn program in winter time.

And we do get a fair number of complaints and violations during that time.

And we also have oversight over just other types of burning.

We have regulations on open burning, making sure that neighbors aren't piling piling up trash and tires in their backyard or in open lots.

And we work fairly closely with fire departments as well to identify those burns and illegal burns.

It's you know definitely something that aggravates people with health issues, heart issues, asthma.

That's something that I see in the complaints that come across.

It's very clear that you know smoke is a big issue for our residents.

Next slide, please.

As part of a way that we support climate and air quality goals, not only through our local vision and mission, but it's also associated and aligned with the state climate goals is uh our regulation of the oil and gas and landfill regulations.

Those are both state regulations, and I I mentioned earlier that they're important for reducing some of the biggest sources of climate pollutants.

Um oil and gas and landfills and dairies are the biggest sources.

And we also have a regulation that we have oversight over, and that's a portable equipment registration program.

That's also a state program that we enforce.

Next slide, please.

I wanted to also highlight the work accomplished in 2024, and that was um what we call very simply our annual reporting program.

Um, but what underlies that very simple term is uh a lot of work.

And in 2024, uh we launched what we call area, and that was our district-wide system, and it enabled us to run an annual reporting program, and this is asking our businesses to all report their throughputs, their activities that allow us to determine the emissions at their facilities.

This is required by state law.

It um, when it um came into being, we knew that this was going to be a huge lift for our district.

We had an we have an admission inventory program, but it didn't require it, it required it about 150 sources.

So getting that kind of data from all of our facilities, you remember it's over 2,000 facilities and over 4,400 permits, is a lot of work.

And one of the ways that we have streamlined and made it more efficient is by having this online system where our businesses can now use the online portal, go in there, report their information, we automatically get that information, and then we can start to process it and do all of the other really intense work that's required to vet and QAQC that data.

But there was a wonderful team that worked on making sure and having the foresight to make sure that this was this was going to be capable this past year to have our pilot year, our launch year of collecting that data in this new online um system.

So I just wanted to give a you know a big hats off and kudos to that team that worked on it because it has been very successful.

You see here highlighted in that green flag there that we have almost 100% of our businesses that have reported to us.

For the first year.

I think it's outstanding.

So it's again a lot of work behind the scenes to everybody.

So congratulations to them.

Excellent job.

Alright, next slide, please.

Um I'll go ahead and I'll conclude this presentation on the work of our division in 2024, and uh just to give you a preview of what we'll continue to focus on, all of the core programs I went over today, those will be a continued focus for us in the work that we do and our permitting and our compliance work.

Also our community work.

We're invested in working with our community team in doing the SERP work, our community emissions reduction program and plan.

So we'll be working there.

We'll also continue to make improvements on that online system.

It obviously has a lot of gains for us and efficiency.

So we'll continue to look for ways to add and refine that program.

And we're also tracking new technologies through that back determination system, but also just what's up and coming.

Maybe it's not even permittable yet, but at some point it will be and make great gains and reductions in air pollution.

So this report is something now that we'll be doing on an annual basis as well.

So again, you'll have oversight in the report.

There's uh tables that you can go to just to see the inspections that might have happened.

Uh the violations uh that that happened, and also the settlements that were reached with businesses.

And that concludes my report.

Happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Amy, to you and your team.

Very informative.

Um Director Dickinson.

Um thanks for the report uh and um the presentation uh as well as the good work by uh the district staff.

Um there are a couple things that one of which I always think about when I see these presentations, not as something that's more recent, but the the long-standing one is whether there are any opportunities to work with other agencies to combine inspections uh to reduce costs.

For example, if you take a gas station with a mini MART, someone goes out from the air district, someone goes out from county health, someone goes out from weights and measures, uh and and the lucky gas station owner in my hypothetical, gets a pay for all those inspections.

Uh and so I always wonder whether there are cross-training or or cross-inspection opportunities that could reduce costs for for the permittees.

Uh, and I so I'm just curious whether you might see any opportunities in that regard uh or maybe you're exploring um in talking to some of the the um particularly some county agent agencies with city departments as well about about those kinds of opportunities.

Thank you for the question, Director.

It it's a really appropriate question to ask.

It is true that there's a lot of agencies and there's a lot of oversight agencies for businesses to do their business, and so I it is very relevant to consider how we can be more efficient amongst our agencies.

While we do not have anything as you're speaking of as a combined inspection time where multiple you know agencies are coming out at the same time for a business, there are other ways that we do collaborate with our other agencies, and uh one of them is is through regular meeting with uh other agency leadership so that we do understand what other programs and things are being developed to see if there's any crossover of the business environmental resource center for the county, does convene multiple agencies together, including the air districts, so that we can again stay apprised, stay coordinated if there is any way that we can be coordinated.

Uh we also work with I mentioned earlier the building departments from your respective jurisdictions in our asbestos program, and um that's so that it's a one-stop shop that you know we're using systems that are already in place in the county and the cities so that we can go there to try to make it as seamless as possible.

Um but as I mentioned, we we don't particularly have something that would make it efficient for inspections.

I that would take a quite a bit of coordination, and and each one of us has the authority and jurisdiction over very specialized areas, but nonetheless, I think that it is appropriate for you to always remind us to look for those opportunities where we can try to streamline because yes, it is a burden for businesses.

I completely agree.

And I and I understand that each inspection uh entails uh some specialized elements to it, uh depending on the particular purpose.

But it just it seems to me that that this is always worth the worth exploring.

And so I won I I would appreciate it if perhaps you could elaborate and it doesn't have to be in a meeting, maybe offline, just with a memo or something to us about the ways in which the district staff is coordinating or attempting to.

Obviously, you have to have willing partners.

So but I'd be interested to know the ways in which you either are or are exploring ways of uh looking at working with other uh entities to uh to be more efficient overall with uh the inspection and permitting process for uh permittees.

Uh uh I I'd appreciate that.

The second the second thing I wanted to ask about is I think we're all we're all thinking about uh ways in which we can employ uh emerging technology in a way that's that helps us reduce costs, and so uh uh AI, drones, I mean, all the all those kinds of tools, and and so I just wonder if you are thinking, I mean, you made a reference to uh new technologies, but more on the side of emerging technologies for for emission control.

Um but what about on the other side of reducing costs and burdens through the use of technology uh uh generally?

I'd be happy to address that, um, Director Dickinson.

Uh I I mentioned our uh district-wide system that we call area.

Uh that was a tremendous upgrade from what we used to do, which was um spreadsheets and you know, multiple database systems where we had our data being tracked in you know disparate ways across the district, and right now uh we have completed the first major phase of that, and that included the online capability for our permit holders to submit their applications online to make it um uh a more uh seamless um way of doing business with us, paying their bills online.

Um so we did incorporate that uh in September of 2024.

That was one way that we have incorporated technology and upgraded um our systems uh to do a better job.

Um we also um do think about AI and and how to use those internally for our tasks and and regular tasks.

Um so I my compliance program manager, for example, um uses and and is tasked with with testing out new ways of doing business using AI.

So that is on our radar um something that we do think about of how to do that.

Um I'll also mention our um our app code does uh remind us that there maybe there are things like drones that we could use for enforcement purposes for you know looking and uh doing surveillance of you know illegal you know activities, illegal burns and those types of things.

So those we haven't incorporated yet uh into our um work.

Um but I will mention a kind of a I'll have to give a little bit of background, but our inspectors um and our engineers they have to get certified um to uh read smoke.

They they have to be able to look at a smoke plume and say, is that 20%, 40%, 80%.

Um there is new technology out there, and and we track this um usually um through our state um uh what's what's called the California Air Pollution Control Officers Association.

It brings together uh the 35 air districts and our state agency and and federal agencies as well just to talk about new and emerging technologies that we can use.

Um some of those things have been FLIR cameras.

This is for um infrared, so we can you know look at a source of um you know plumes that are coming off that we wouldn't be able to otherwise see, so we can identify more efficiently what's coming from those sources.

But um, going back to reading smoke, uh this is a can be an all-day event for somebody to go and get certified.

It it is where you you go to a physical location, there's a machine that kicks out smoke and at a certain percentage, and then we've got inspectors standing there for either all morning, you know, for hours of their day, uh, twice a year uh to make sure that they can read that appropriately.

So when they're on site at a facility that they can look and write a violation if there is a plume that's over 20%.

There is technology that we are going to acquire that is going to actually be a virtual system.

So it's a virtual headset.

We'll be able to be certified in about 15 30 minutes, and that could be in an office.

So that's another way that we can try to build in and reduce the time that's spent on our certain activities that we have to do.

So there's just a couple of examples of technology that we're trying to use and incorporate.

Well, thank you for that.

So I wonder, for example, if you need to inspect to see if a source is using best available control technology, could you could you allow the source uh someone at the source to take pictures of that and transmit them to you as opposed to say sending someone out to to do it?

You know, we're looking on the building inspection side, doing much more in the the way of virtual inspections.

Um I I just I don't know if there are opportunities to do that where someone doesn't actually from the district need to be on site to see it, uh, or it could it could be done remotely.

Maybe maybe the kinds of inspections you're doing don't lend themselves to that, but I those are the kinds of things I think we're all exploring to try to increase efficiency, reduce reduce cost.

D during the pandemic, that's precisely what we were doing because we were not allowed to go and visit anybody, right?

So it was all virtual, and there was a lot of work that air agencies uh collaborated on to develop those protocols.

But I'll just say to to summarize this and move on.

Um I like your thinking and I like what you're saying.

Some of these areas uh that you mention we have thought about, but they're sensitive, right?

Because if we're gonna have drones running around and looking at people's chimneys and things of that nature, there's a degree of sensitivity that we need to be mindful of, but with your support, we would like to integrate uh more and more technology to make it more efficient, easier on us, but also on on the sources, right?

I mean, it is a burden, as you were saying, that they have to be there and and welcome or accept uh an inspector, whatever the case may be.

So um I like what you're thinking, Director Dickinson, and uh we'll come back and give you some ideas uh both in the memo and maybe in an open discussion with the board.

Okay, I I mean I don't know um whether there's a big difference between inspector who drives by your house and sees smoke coming out your chimney or a drone flying over it, but uh obviously there are sensitivities to airborne objects to uh photographing and surveilling.

So I I appreciate that, but but thanks thanks for the uh for the response and and for the interest in exploring it.

Thanks, Chair.

Thank you.

Uh Director Lopez Taff is uh joining us remotely and she does have a question also.

Yes, in the same vein, thank you very much for not acknowledging my question.

Um, in the same vein as Director Dickinson, um, about efficiencies, just within our own organization, is there a way to coordinate inspections?

Because it it does sound like they're similar um yet inherently different inspections that are happening, but um all related to this depart this organization.

So is there a way internally that there can be more coordination?

And um if so, have we fully explored that?

Because I think um, you know, while it is very difficult, I acknowledge to coordinate with an outside agency within our own agency.

I'm hoping that um there's coordination taking place, especially um within as it pertains to inspections, because those are very impactful to a business, and we definitely don't want to impact their business any more than we need to.

Director, yes, absolutely, thank you for your comments.

I um it is a very important part of our job to make sure that we have assignments, we don't have duplicate inspectors going out to the same facility.

We do have a purpose for going out, whether it's to uh annually check their permit conditions and operations, and it can be, as I mentioned, you know, a breakdown of that facility, a source test that might be going on.

So we we do um coordinate quite tightly the activities of our staff to make sure that we're doing it efficiently.

We make sure that we have zones where inspectors are dedicated to a particular region again to reduce the time that we spend driving, but also again, we don't want to bother a business more than we need to.

Thank you.

Thank you for the question, Director Taft.

Let me just um say this.

Um we're hearing you loud and clear.

Um we'll come back to you next year and give you more uh complete, more comprehensive response in terms of uh we'll talk to the jurisdictions to the planning departments and and see if there's uh some opportunities where we can work together in this area.

We're hearing you loud and clear.

Okay, that's a receive and file.

So thank you, Amy.

Um that takes us to item 7.2 community air protection cert plan progress and AB 617 legislative updates.

We're getting as we're getting prepared, uh Chair.

Um, given the time, um, I'll give you the latitude to see if you want to push out close session.

Uh we can.

This is a carry-over presentation from last meeting, which ran long, so um, just just to keep that in mind because I know we're pushing up against the hour.

Okay.

Good morning, Chair and members of the board.

My name is Janice Slam Snyder, and I serve as a director of community air protection at the air district.

Um, today in my presentation, I will share the progress of our community emission reduction plan and some AB 617 legislative updates.

Next slide, please.

So, just as a quick reminder, South Sacramento community is part of the state's AB 617 community air protection program.

Last month you heard a little bit about our air monitoring program, and in my presentation today, I'll be sharing about the community emission reduction plan, which I'll be reserved, which I will be referring to as the SERP.

And this plan is required to be submitted to the state by July of next year.

At the beginning of this process, we worked with the community to develop a roadmap on how we're going to develop the plan together.

We broke it up into milestones, and the first milestone was providing the community with the necessary information to make decisions.

Then they decided to break up into four different groups to dig into each of the different topics to explore the different strategies that are available, or any new ideas that they want to see to be included into the plan for determination of feasibility.

So this last quarter, the teams just finished sharing the strategies with each other and asked the district to conduct an analysis on the strategies that they came up with.

Is it feasible?

Is it not?

And in this quarter, actually on this upcoming Monday, we're going to be working with the community members to prioritize what strategies they would like to see in the community.

And on the slide here on to the right, you see the South Sacramento floor and community boundaries.

Next slide.

So what are the possible SERP strategies that you're likely going to see in the plan in the plan?

They have a range of strategies, working with like small businesses on educations, potentially installing air filtration systems in community spaces, increasing zero emission infrastructure, and working with local jurisdictions to improve safety, improve safety in community spaces to encourage things like walking or biking.

Next slide, please.

So what did our plan development look like with the community?

So first it started in February with brainstorming workshops.

So that's where we brought all the ideas from other communities into this community on this is what's been done.

And then they moved into through March and August, specific ideas and developing goals on what is going to go into the plan.

Moving forward into this last quarter is going to be continued outreach into the community on what these strategies are.

Next slide.

So what does that outreach look like?

Um last week we had a community event that was held at La Familia Maple Center, and it was an event that talked about what the strategies were that the steering committee came up with, and also the air monitoring data that was collected within the community.

And we had over 85 residences and community members that showed up.

And one of the things that was very inspiring was that the steering committee members that we've had that have been working with us, they were the ones who were sharing those strategies with the community.

And that was really amazing to see.

We had interpretation available, as you can see, we had food tracks and prizes that were giveaways for folks who were there for attendance.

Next slide, please.

So the second arm of our outreach is to also our local jurisdictions and agencies.

And we're reaching out to these agencies and partners because a lot of the strategies that we that the community and ourselves has developed together requires help from our local jurisdictions to implement.

The city of Sacramento, the City of Elk Grove, the County, have all been part of that process that you saw starting in February.

So we've had lots of conversations with the different folks that you see on the slide today.

Next slide.

So what do our what have we heard?

What have our stakeholders been sharing with us?

A lot of it is that they want practical solutions in the community.

And when we share this information with our local jurisdictions, and you'll see some of the strategies to the right, a lot of it was about hey, are there going to be any potential mitigation requirements for new developments that are coming into our community?

Are there opportunities to electrify appliances?

What can we do in schools?

Um, you know, there's idling that we see in schools.

Um, are there air quality education that we can provide to the students to build up that capacity?

And then there's also additional education that they explored, such as safer practices for nail and hair salons and potentially ways of educating the public on what proper mask and air purifier use might be.

In general, I think we all acknowledge that partnership and coordination are important for this program, but there are limited resources and time that can be limiting factors to ensuring all these strategies are successful.

Local jurisdictions have shared with us that they have similar goals, and but they want to be efficient in the process.

So we've been working together on how to tighten up that efficiency.

Next slide.

So what are our next steps?

In January of next year, we are expected to have a draft of the plan released to the public for public comments, and then in February through April of next year, we are hoping to bring back to this board uh different pieces of the strategies that have been that has come up with this, that's gonna be in the plan.

And then in May, we're gonna bring back the plan for board adoption, and then shortly after that will be a submittal to the California Air Resources Board for approval.

Next slide.

So that's all the updates I have for the CERT process.

So I'm gonna pivot real quick to my last slide here that focuses on the updates to the statewide community air protection program.

And what we wanted to share with you some funding updates as we currently understand them.

So the first bill I'll discuss is SB 105, and this bill appropriates the funding for fiscal year 2526.

And 80% for the financial incentive funding.

Representing a 20% reduction from historical allocations.

So the good news is that there is continuous appropriation for this program.

The legislature had historically looked at this on an annual basis, and now they're looking for a continuous appropriation.

Um this bucket includes incentives and implementation funding.

Um however, there's going to be five-year reviews of this appropriation.

Last but not least, is SB 352, which put new program requirements into uh this program, which includes a five-year minimum of air monitoring with an option to extend and additional reporting requirements.

One of which is for the executive officers of the air districts to report to the legislature annually on the progress.

With that, I conclude my presentation and be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Janice.

Any questions or comments from my colleagues?

Thank you.

Hello, thank you.

I just wanted to take this time just really to thank you for your incredible work.

Um, it's really great to see how far we've come along.

I know just two years ago we were fighting for our AB 617 community to transition from a camp to a SERF, and that was a fight in itself, and so just kudos to all the advocates on the ground that fought really hard to make sure that that happened, and I know that uh our staff was really critical in that, and um just really great to hear uh the progress and that community continues to be centered um in this work.

That's incredibly important as the boundaries um have expanded.

I think the continue engagement is really key.

Um, city staff did share with me, and I just want to uplift city staff because partnership is of utmost importance.

Um, I know they did share with me that uh they're also involved with the strategy component because it's really important that you know, community can have these big dreams, they can have these strategies, but we have to make sure that they're implementable and that they're actually aligned with any um uh city plans or if city needs to make any adjustment to accommodate those community strategies.

And so I just wanted to say thank you for your incredible work, and I know we have really active community members in South Sacramento that is starting to believe and trust in government again because you are allowing them to lead.

So I just wanted to thank you for your great work.

Thank you, Vice Chair Maple.

Thank you, Chair, and I just wanted to echo my my colleague, Director Vang, um, on everything that you said, but also just really especially want to thank you for um the event at the Mapleville Neighborhood Center.

I wasn't able to attend, unfortunately, because of my schedule, but um I did have staff there, and with everybody was really impressed with the turnout.

I think having in-person opportunities like that for people to engage in the work that we're doing is so important because um it's one thing to have your social media to have your newsletter, but being able to come in and actually be in person and talk with the team and see those strategies is great, and so just really wanted to uplift the staff.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Janice.

Thank you.

All right, that takes us to item 8.1, the APCO report.

Thank you.

Um, no slides this time, just want to highlight a couple of things uh for you.

Um, as a way of um, I guess uh celebrating the end of the year.

So you've been with us for the for the um board meetings this year.

Um, for those of you that may not know, we customarily do not meet in in November and December because it the meeting would land right on top of holidays.

So I want to thank you for being with us this year.

Is it's been uh uh a tough year and and a successful year at the same time.

I want to spoil the the uh the surprise, but we are gonna have an um end of year review that our communications office uh normally puts together.

So we'll have that for you when we meet in January.

Um I just want to give you a report um i'm gonna start with the with the bad news and then i'll conclude with some better news um is b 88 our biomass utilization uh bill that we that we were very hopeful and co-sponsored um uh died on the governor's desk uh he vetoed the the bill and and obviously we're disappointed but we're gonna continue to work uh we see a lot of opportunities on on biomass and in particular utilization of our agricultural biomass so uh we'll come back to you guys next year and give you a fuller discussion you've heard bits and pieces throughout the year in terms of some of the activities that we are involved in but we're gonna be bring you something more uh complete so you have a better understanding of what we're up to uh but we're gonna continue and and we're not alone there's there's many of our partners that want to continue down that path um switching gears again next year uh is gonna be um uh another difficult year because obviously we continue with some of the budget challenges at the at the federal and at the state level uh but there's also bright spots i mean in consent you guys just approved uh more than 12 million dollars in investments for cleaner projects in our community uh next year uh in january we'll bring you a full discussion in terms of there's additional monies that we're gonna be putting in place for some really great projects and we want you to be aware of them and obviously to help us because next year we're gonna go back and continue the the fight to try to get more resources to bring to to our community um the community emission reduction plan that Jan has just discussed is going to be one of our top priorities because A B 617 is is already eight years old and with the action that the legislature took on cap and trade the understanding is that this is going to continue to at least 2045.

Finishing the plan is a huge mile of stone but to implement the strategies we're gonna need resources and that's where you come in right because a lot of the strategies are not going to be an air agency strategy.

They're gonna be the cities the county some of the other jurisdictions so um again um I just wanted to end with just a quick uh acknowledgement that um you know we appreciate your help um I'll I'll echo our tear it is been tough to get quorum so we're gonna continue to bug you uh thank you for the alternates um that was a key piece of trying to get us to um um a quorum when we need you to take action um but again we'll we'll see you next year and again thank you thank you Dr.

Allah um okay I don't see any requests oh director Rodriguez well Dr.

Dr.

Yellow I want to thank you for your leadership I have learned a lot this past year about the importance of air quality and its impact to our region and so um I want to appreciate the topics that you have brought before us and um just I I appreciate this board.

Thank you.

All right thank you that takes us to item nine board ideas comments and AB 1234 reports.

Seeing no request to speak we'll move on to item number 10 public comments Alina any requests okay um is the closed session item is that just informational it doesn't is there any action that's needed there is an action that's needed if we could do it today that would be great.

Okay yep since we're not meeting in November and December I say we take 10 minutes and do it.

Well we can take 10 minutes and do it.

Alright since we're not meeting in November December okay so we will adjourn to closed session.

So we're all gonna meet in the side chambers