FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 6, 2000 

CONTACT
Doug Allard 961-8853
Tom Murphy 961-8857

Thirty years of Cleaner Air —
County Reaches Clean Air Milestone

GOLETA, CA — Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District (APCD) announced today that the county has met the federal ozone (smog) standards. The announcement comes at a time when APCD, established in 1970, is celebrating its thirty-year anniversary.

APCD Director Doug Allard notes, "Meeting the federal standards represents an important milestone for us. We want to celebrate this achievement—and thirty years of cleaner air—with all the agencies, businesses, and individuals working with us for cleaner air." Allard credits cleaner automobiles, reduced pollution from businesses, and consistent public and Board support for the accomplishment. And the weather helped.

It was a close call. With just one more high smog day recorded at a particular county monitoring station, the county could have failed to achieve the federal one-hour ozone standard. This could have meant reclassification from a "serious" to a "severe" smog area by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), and associated additional rules for businesses.

Instead the county will be considered an area that has complied with the federal one-hour and eight-hour ozone (smog) standards—at least for now, based on 1996-1999 air pollution levels throughout the county. Allard points out that the weather during this recent three-year period was not conducive to smog formation, and remarks, "It’s important that we develop a margin of safety, because, with different weather patterns, we could easily violate the standard again." He notes that the county met the federal smog standard based on 1991-1993 data, then violated it again in 1994. And the county still does not meet the state ozone standard.

APCD also still has to be concerned with other air pollutants, including air toxics, chemicals released into the air that are known or suspected to cause cancer or other serious health problems. Allard refers to the state's recent identification of diesel particulate exhaust as an air toxic, noting, "Air toxics will be taking center stage in the future." Reducing emissions of greenhouse gases involved in global warming will be another important issue in coming years.

"We still have work to do, " says Allard. "But we've come a long way over the past thirty years." He points to several other milestones for this time period, including those listed below.

• APCD established.
• National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) signed.
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) created to protect all aspects of the environment.
• The first Earth Day held April 22, 1970.
• Federal Clean Air Act Amendments of 1970 enacted. They serve as the principal source of statutory authority for controlling air pollution. Establishes basic U.S. program for controlling air pollution.

• ARB adopts the first nitrogen oxide standards for automobiles in the nation.
• Federal EPA promulgates National Ambient Air Quality Standards for particulates, photochemical oxidants (including ozone), hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide.

• First Two-way Catalytic Converters come into use as part of ARB's Motor Vehicle Emission Control Program.

• Federal Clean Air Act Amendments of 1977 enacted.

• APCD issued its first Clean Air Plan.

• California Smog Check Program goes into effect to identify vehicles in need of maintenance and to assure the effectiveness of their emissions control systems on a biennial basis.
• Mid-late 1980s: APCD permitted 3 major onshore oil and gas processing facilities and 6 offshore platforms and achieved an air quality benefit through the permitting process.

• Governor Deukmejian signs California Clean Air Act. Sets forth the framework for how air quality will be managed in California for the next 20 years.
• APCD established the Innovative Technologies Group to fund voluntary emission-reduction projects.

• The county experienced its last First Stage Smog Alert Day.

• President George Bush signs the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 (including language that established authority for APCD to apply local air quality control requirements on offshore sources in federal waters) into law.

• APCD was selected for the President's Award for Sustainable Development, and for the California Governor's Award for Economic and Environmental Leadership.

• Santa Barbara County meets federal smog standards.

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