ICAPCD’s role in air quality enforcement at Salton Sea
Earlier this week, the Imperial County Air Pollution Control District Hearing Board postponed the Nov. 20 public meeting to a later date by request of the Imperial Irrigation District. The meeting was scheduled to issue a stipulated order for abatement on IID’s property at the Salton Sea playa on the Red Hill Bay Project.
Readers may be wondering what the following terms mean and what they have to do with air quality: Red Hill Bay Project, hearing board, and order for abatement. We will do our best to explain these items to help the public understand the work ICAPCD is doing at Salton Sea, as it is ICAPCD’s responsibility to protect the people and environment of Imperial County from the effects of air pollution.
Red Hill Bay Project
The Red Hill Bay Project is a historically known joint effort between the IID and United States Fish and Wildlife Service and is located adjacent to the Alamo River on the Salton Sea playa. The main goal of the project is to create hundreds of acres of habitat while reducing air emissions from exposed playa. Although construction activities began in November 2015, construction has been sporadic and required mitigation actions have not met ICAPCD or U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requirements. As of June 2020, nearly five years since work began, the site was still experiencing events of excessive airborne dust that violate ICAPCD rules and threatens public health and safety.
Earlier this year, the ICAPCD conducted investigations within the RHB Project area and issued several notices of violations. NOVs were issued to
IID specifically for Rules 401 (visual discharge of pollutants into the atmosphere), 801 (to reduce the amount of PM10 during construction), and 804 (to prevent, reduce, or mitigate PM10 emissions in open areas).
Hearing boards
Hearing boards are established in every air pollution control district throughout California and operate pursuant to the California Health and Safety Code and/or any applicable air district regulations and rules.
Hearing boards are generally composed of five members appointed by an air district’s Air Pollution Control Board. The Hearing Board performs the quasi-judicial function of an air district by applying legal criteria to reach decisions specific to a particular regulation emission source for a specific factual situation.
Hearing boards do not make rules, but rather are bound to apply the standards set forth in district rules and regulations and state law to specific cases brought before them for resolution. The hearing boards are essentially a legal decision making body.
Order for abatement
An abatement order requires a company or agency operating out of compliance with an air district’s rules and regulations to take specific corrective actions or to shut down its operation immediately. This is a severe remedy reserved for serious violators and is the strongest administrative sanction available to an APCD.
We encourage all to stay informed by visiting the ICAPCD website at www. apcd.imperialcounty.org and our AB 617 Community Steering Committee website at www.ICAB617Community. org.
To view the air quality in your area, please download the Imperial Valley Air Quality app on Apple and Android devices by visiting www.ImperialValleyAir.org
Gil Rebollar is an analyst for the Imperial County Air Pollution Control District. Katie Burnworth is the special projects coordinator for the district.