Setting the bar.

Implementing standards, guidelines, and rules for clean air.

Air quality planning is an evolving process—the Air District continually updates and refines its rules to meet the highest clean air standards.

Air Quality Standards

The Air District’s regulations and programs are formally guided by a set of federal and state air quality standards that establish health-based concentration limits for specific pollutants, including ozone and particulate matter.

When an air district meets these standards, its region is considered to be in attainment for a given pollutant category. If it does not meet these standards, the air district is required to outline measures designed to reduce emissions and bring its region into attainment.

Planning Activities

The Air District continues to focus its planning efforts on the reduction of emissions from industrial and commercial activity. However, as mobile sources are significant emitters of air pollutants and greenhouse gases, our planning activities also included collaboration with local and regional agencies to address sources over which we do not have regulatory authority, such as local land use and transportation planning. The Air District also implemented a number of projects that targeted fine particulate matter, or PM, which research shows is the air pollutant with the most significant health impact in the Bay Area.

Our emphasis on fine PM promises to result in reduced human exposure—leading to significant health benefits. Air District activities aimed at reducing PM exposure include preparation of PM reduction plans; modeling and technical analyses to better understand PM sources, formation, transport, and health effects; ongoing improvement of the PM emission inventory; development of regulations to reduce PM emissions; and collaboration with local jurisdictions to develop and implement local programs to reduce PM emissions and exposure.

Partnerships with local governments and other agencies present opportunities for additional and innovative air quality initiatives, such as integrating air quality considerations into local plans and programs. We’ve worked with local agencies to incorporate air quality provisions in transportation and land use strategies that reduce motor vehicle use and emissions, local general plans and specific plans, environmental review processes, local air quality studies, and community risk reduction plans that reduce local exposure to air toxics and fine particulate matter.

The Air District has also developed and implemented a variety of greenhouse gas, or GHG, reduction policies and programs. These include collaborating with the Association of Bay Area Governments and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to create a Sustainable Communities Strategy pursuant to SB 375 to reduce GHG emissions via transportation and land use plans, assisting local jurisdictions in developing local climate action plans, identifying and emphasizing the air quality co-benefits of GHG reduction strategies, and maintaining a Bay Area region-wide GHG emission inventory.

Rule Development

Rule development is the Air District’s process of putting into place regulations that limit emissions of air pollutants from stationary sources of pollution, like gas stations and refineries. These rules help the Bay Area meet federal and state air quality standards, reduce risk caused by emissions, and improve public health. The Air District’s rules are adopted by the Board of Directors at public hearings, which are open for public comment.

Rules and rule amendments are the product of extensive technical research, cost and environmental analyses, and public input. Public participation is an integral element of this process, and the Air District engages in extensive outreach to both affected industries and members of the public. Draft rules are reviewed at public workshops, and comments are considered and integrated prior to proposing final rules to the Board.

A current list of the Air District’s rules and regulations is available at www.baaqmd.gov.