In the early 1950s, the science of air pollution was energized by the discovery that ground-level ozone was the main chemical in “smog”, a conjunction of “smoke” and “fog” that soon became a household word.
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The Air District currently attains national air quality standards for particulate matter (PM). Therefore, the District is not required to develop a PM plan at this time. U.S EPA lowered the 24-hour PM2.5 standard from 65 µg/m 3 to 35 µg/m 3 in 2006. EPA is required to designate the attainment status of the Bay Area for the new standard by December of 2009. A plan for the new national standard would then be prepared if the region is designated nonattainment.
The District has adopted a PM Implementation Schedule, per the requirements of SB 656, as discussed below. In 2003 the California Legislature enacted Senate Bill 656 (SB 656, Sher), codified as Health and Safety Code (H&SC) section 39614. This legislation seeks to reduce public exposure to PM 10 and PM 2.5 and to make progress toward attainment of State and national PM 10 and PM 2.5 standards. SB 656 required ARB, in consultation with local air quality districts, to develop and adopt a list of the most readily available, feasible, and cost-effective control measures that could be used by ARB and air districts to reduce particulate matter. The bill required the ARB and air districts to adopt implementation schedules for appropriate ARB and air district measures.
To comply with SB 656, the Air District reviewed the list of 103 potential PM control measures prepared by the Air Resources Board and developed a Particulate Matter Implementation Schedule which was adopted by the District’s Board of Directors on November 16, 2005.