The California Air Resources Board has approved the first three Community Emissions Reduction Programs (CERP) within the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) under Assembly Bill 617.

Residents living in the three communities are heavily impacted from high levels of air pollution sources including ports and inland warehouses traffic. The plans were developed under the requirements of AB 617, requiring community-driven action to identify, to monitor and to reduce air pollutants of specific concern to each of community. The plans approved are for:

• Wilmington, Carson, West Long Beach. Some of the key strengths for the Wilmington, Carson, West Long Beach CERP are the rules for flaring and equipment used at refineries, fenceline monitoring at refineries and incentives for port-related equipment. Other recommended actions to strengthen implementation identified for the Air District, CARB, and steering committee to work together are to prioritize strategies and utilize enforcement feedback.

• East Los Angeles, Boyle Heights, West Commerce. The East Los Angeles, Boyle Heights, West Commerce Community CERP will focus on a railyard Indirect Source Rule (ISR, a local regulation used to control or reduce emissions associated with new and existing indirect sources), use new technologies to help target incentives and enhanced enforcement for trucks.

• San Bernardino, Muscoy. Focus on a warehouse Indirect Source Rule, air monitoring at concrete batch and asphalt plants and air filtration at schools are a key strength of the San Bernardino, Muscoy Community CERP. It will also conduct quarterly idling sweeps for neighborhood truck traffic.

The community emissions reduction programs were developed through a partnership between the South Coast Air Quality Management District and community steering committees for each of the three communities, which include community residents, local businesses, air district representatives and other stakeholders to develop the specific emission reduction strategies included in each of the programs.

To address the requirements of AB 617 (C. Garcia, 2017) CARB developed the Office of Community Air Protection (OCAP). Its role in supporting development of community emission reduction programs is to establish program guidelines, called the Community Air Protection Blueprint, and to coordinate the overall process to ensure the requirements of AB 617 are met.

Approval of these three South Coast Air Basin plans bring the total Board-approved number of community emission reduction programs under AB 617 to seven. Generally, reduction strategies in community emission reduction programs target emissions for pollutants of concern and from sources of concern that are identified in collaboration with community residents. The types of sources have included:

• Heavy-duty trucks and passenger cars
• Residential energy use
• Urban sources
• Industrial and agricultural sources including pesticides
• Oil and gas operations

p>Many of the strategies included in the three approved programs will take focused coordination between multiple public agencies. This includes ports, agencies involved in making land use decisions for large facilities, and agencies that can influence vehicle traffic or routing as well as truck idling activity. Those include CARB, the local air district, and other state and local agencies.