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Pollution TransportPollution Transportfrom Other Air from Other Air

BasinsBasins

San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution

Control District

September 20, 2007

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Northern Domain(CCOS & CRPAQS)

Ozone Attainment

• Modeling is based on domain-wide reductions

• How could strategies in other air basins impact/help Valley attainment?

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Transport from Recent Wildfires

• Day Fire – Fall 2006

• Zaca Fire, Moonlight Fire, Lick Fire – Summer 2007

• Biscuit Fire and McNally Fire – Summer 2002

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Day FireDay FireSeptember 18, 2006

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Zaca FireZaca FireAugust 13, 2007

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Zaca FireZaca FireAugust 14, 2007

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Moonlight and Lick Fires

Moonlight & Lick FireSeptember 05, 2007

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Moonlight and Lick Fires

Moonlight & Lick FireSeptember 06, 2007

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Butler 2 Fire

•

Biscuit and McNally Fires July 29, 2002

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Wildfire Impactson Air Quality

• Particulate matter (soot & ash)• Precursors (NOx & VOC) form ozone• Plume can also block sunlight and reduce

surface ozone• Many fires impact air quality in the Valley

every year• What attainment challenges result from

wildfires?

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Does Wildfire Smoke Resemble Urban Plume?

• Since wildfire emissions can travel from other districts, can anthropogenic emissions?

• What meteorological conditions are required to transport from these directions?

• Do we observe worse pollution on these types of days?

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What We Know About Transport

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Transport Couples

• Air travels moreroutes than identified by ARB

• Are thereair quality impactsfrom unidentifiedregions?

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CCOSModeling can

be used to evaluate

transport from Bay Area and

Sacramento

As the ozone forms…

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…Moves into the Valley…

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…And into the Mountain Counties.

This episode also tracks a major wildfire

to the southeast.

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What We Have Learned From Previous Studies

Methods - tracers, modeling, windflow & timing• ARB triennial review last done 2001

– Ozone 1-hour windflow and timing only• 1990 SJVAQS Tracers & Modeling

– Tracer study: Bay transport to Mountain Counties, later attributed to SJV

– Transport evaluated & reported in Policy Findings & SJV 1-hour ozone attainment SIP

• 2000 CCOS– Transport working group – no final products– Analyzed for 8-hour compliance by domainwide

reductions for SIP, no transport analysis completed

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What Has Been Done to Mitigate Transport

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Transport Mitigation• State law to reduce ozone transport between

basins: requires ARB to identify basin transport couples and set action requirements

• District BARCT regulations to reduce transport emissions are the most stringent in the state

• Lawsuits filed by District for failure to provide relief from pollutant transport received from Bay Area:

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New Issues and Remaining Questions

Regarding Transport

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Northern DomainNorthern Domain

Southern Domain

Modeling• Transport between

domains was not considered

• How do precursors and ozone move between the separate domains?

• How could this impact air quality?

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Questions• Are historical 1-hour ozone transport

evaluations appropriate for 8-hour ozone?• Is there a relationship between “clean”

days in upwind areas and “dirty” days in downwind areas?

• How much ozone above the surface is carryover and how much is transport?

• How far can pollutants travel and how long can they persist?

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Questions, continued• What types of transport events occur in

the Valley?

• How much impact do other districts have on the Valley during these events?

• How often do these events occur?– Understanding the type and frequency of

events can help us prioritize control strategies

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Recommended Next Steps

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General Questions

• How much impact do other regions have on Valley air quality?

• Can the Valley meet the federal 8-hour ozone standard faster with reductions in other districts?

• What measures could be implemented by other districts to achieve attainment ahead of schedule?

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Action Plan Development

• Identify federal, state, and local resources for evaluating air pollutant transport

• District analysis of existing data for 8-hour events and air pollutant transport couples

– Internal efforts, infrastructure and staffing– External contracting

• Review of upwind district BARCT measures• ARB triennial review

– Include non-peak 8-hour ozone exceedances– Better methods & more clarity in findings

• Future air quality study: CEC/NOAA 2010

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Recommendations

1. Develop an action plan to:– Better quantify the impact of air pollution transport

from all neighboring air basins – Determine if reductions from other districts would

enable the District to attain the federal 8-hour ozone standard earlier

– Identify all feasible control measures for significant sources in neighboring districts that transport air to the District

Submit action plan no later than first quarter of 2008

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Recommendations

2. Pursue all available legislative and legal remedies to ensure that air basins that transport air pollution into the Valley are subject to equivalent requirements as the District