Home
Contact Us
Area Designations
Air Quality
AQ Plans
Air Toxics
Ask Eric Wality
Board
Burn Info
Calendar
CEQA Planning
Employment
Grant Programs
Hearing Board Kid's Zone
Permit
Rules 'n Regs
SB 700
Teachers
Yuba-Sutter Transit

 

Air Quality CEQA Review

[FRAQMD's Indirect Source Review Guideline]
[See Area Designations Here]  [CEQA Thresholds of Significance]  
[Landscaping and Air Quality]
[Health advisory to school District done by South Coast AQMD]

Overview
Please read through this entire page once to get the whole picture. Then go back thru for the details. Direct any questions you may have to air district planning staff.

Introduction
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA; CEQA FAQs) requires public agencies to take responsibility for protecting the environment.  The general public and responsible/commenting agencies such as the air district are provided an opportunity to review and submit comments pertaining to the project to the Lead Agency (typically the city or county planning agency; community development; community services department) prior to project approval by their governing board.  In regulating public or private projects, agencies are expected to avoid or minimize environmental damage especially impacts to the health of its citizens. The purpose of an environmental review is to identify the significant effects of a project on the environment, identify alternatives to the project, and indicate the manner in which significant impacts can be mitigated or avoided. To this end, below is a list of air district-approved resources to estimate project air pollutant emissions, identify a project's air quality significant effects, and select the best available mitigation measures designed to avoid or reduce the air quality environmental impacts of transportation and land-use activities.

All project proponents and Lead Agencies are encouraged to utilize these resources when evaluating a project to ensure an adequate evaluation is performed for significant air quality effects.

Air District Review of CEQA Documents
What if the air district doesn't comment on a project?  All air district recommended tools, procedures, and feasible mitigation measures are presented here at this web site. It is the duty of the project proponent to evaluate the air quality impacts of the project, to determine how those impacts will be mitigated or substantially reduced, and to submit a Mitigation Monitoring Plan detailing the selected measures and the means by which they will be implement and deemed complete.

The materials presented here constitute the same methodologies implemented by air district planning staff to formulate CEQA Review comments to the lead agency. Following these procedures and implementing the measures provided here to the maximum extent feasible, to achieve either a mitigated negative declaration or to achieve a minimum 35 % emission reduction with performance of an EIR, meets air district criteria, provided the emissions evaluation, selected mitigation measures, and proposed Mitigation Monitoring Plan are approved by the Lead Agency.

The Urban Emissions Model
The URBan EMISsions (URBEMIS) model is widely used throughout California by project applicants, environmental consultants, local governments, and air districts, to evaluate the air quality impacts of a project. URBEMIS is the only FRAQMD-approved model at this time. The model is used to calculate air emissions associated with land development projects. The data generated by URBEMIS is used to determine whether or not a project would generate significant quantities of air pollutants from indirect sources to cause a "significant effect" and the extent of mitigation that will be necessary. Not all projects can be evaluated using the URBEMIS model; contact the District for further assistance.  

All other methodologies used to derive emissions estimates for submittal in the CEQA review process, not provided on this web site, must be pre-approved by the FRAQMD Air Pollution Control Officer (APCO).

Air District Policy
Projects submitted for CEQA review unaccompanied by the latest version of an URBEMIS evaluation or without the detailed project-specific parameters necessary for the lead agency, or if preferred, air district staff, to evaluate air quality impacts, significantly impairs the lead agency's/air district's capacity to perform an adequate CEQA environmental review and should be considered to pose a significant environmental effect and required to perform an EIR and implement all feasible and recommended mitigation measures. 

Nevertheless,  project-specific air pollutant emissions estimates and supporting documentation must be submitted with the project during the CEQA review process to ensure public disclosure and to achieve consensus for a proposed negative declaration, mitigated negative declaration, or Environmental Impact Report (EIR).  Project proponents and lead agencies are encouraged to work with the air district prior to project submittal for CEQA review (early consultation) in order to allow an adequate timeframe to assess air quality impacts and prepare a thorough mitigation monitoring plan for the project.

Mitigation Monitoring Plan
An approved (Lead Agency/FRAQMD) written Mitigation Monitoring Plan should be developed, attached, and submitted with the project proposal for approval by the governing Board. At a minimum, the Plan should document each mitigation measure to be implemented, the impact being addressed, the phase of the project in which the measure is to be implemented, implementation goals and timeframes to be met (dates should be provided), actions to be taken by the lead agency, air district, or other agencies if implementation is not successful, and the responsible agency to contact at the time of implementation and/or completion, whichever is applicable, for monitoring and signoff.

Statement of Overriding Considerations: Avoidance of Significant but Unavoidable Recommendations for Projects
It is the recommendation of the FRAQMD staff that until implementation of "all feasible mitigation measures" from the Best Available Mitigation Measures (BAMM) list, the BAMM "Point-Value List", voluntary offsite mitigation projects, and/or written project-specific recommendations from air district staff are exhausted, a project considered for approval as "Significant But Unavoidable" should be avoided entirely by the Lead Agency and governing Board and sent back to the drawing table for further deliberation.  At a minimum, a project proponent that cannot mitigate to below the thresholds after exhausting all measures described above should strive to achieve a minimum 35% mitigation and perform an environmental impact report.

In the unlikely event, and, in order to minimize the potential for proponents to summarily dismiss standard and recommended mitigation measures as impractical or infeasible, a written report should be submitted by the project proponent or lead agency adequately documenting the reasons for refusal to implement sufficient mitigation offsets using BAMM, Point-Value, voluntary offsite mitigation projects, and air district staff project-specific recommended mitigation measures.

The report should include an infeasibility determination for each measure, alternative proposed measures and their associated emission reduction factors for air district review/approval, and a description of and the reasoning behind any modifications made to air district recommended mitigation measures. This documentation should be provided to the air district, the public, and lead agency with adequate time for air district and public review and comment and prior to submittal to the governing board for consideration at a public hearing.

Unresolved issues should be delivered to the governing board for deliberation at the public hearing. District staff will be available to meet with the project proponent, the public, the lead agency, and the governing board to resolve air pollution mitigation issues.

South Sutter County Specific Plan Projects
Land-use projects proposed for the South Sutter County Specific Plan area should work closely with Sutter County, Community Services Department, personnel to discuss adopted air quality mitigation requirements. The Point Value List for SSCSP projects may be reviewed or downloaded here (MS Excel spreadsheet) or obtained from FRAQMD or the County.

Resources: Software and Tools

NOTE: An URBEMIS Screening Analysis should be performed first for all projects to determine if a refined URBEMIS analysis will be required (Use Lower Sacramento Valley Air Basin).

How to Apply the Thresholds of Significance and Implement Feasible Mitigation Measures to Reduce or Eliminate Significant Effect

1. A single-family residential project of two (2) homes or less (including mobile homes), a duplex, or a quadruplex.
    
2. City and County Government Administrative Activities: The administrative component of subdividing or rezoning of parcels or the acquisition of new parcels into the city limits, where no air pollution generating activities occur in the procedure (paperwork).

Other Resources:
http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/PermitToolbox/CheckItems/CEQA/Default.htm#Resources