SACRAMENTO โ The California Air Resources Board has announced two
workshops to discuss the development of regulations to reduce
emissions from mobile agricultural equipment, such as tractors,
combines and harvesters. ย The regulations are required to address
both near-term and long-term requirements under the Clean Air Act
to reduce levels of ozone and will apply to mobile agricultural
equipment.
The first workshop will be held Thursday, March 14, 2013 from
1:30 P.M. to 3:30 P.M. at the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution
Control District (SJVAPCD) located at 1990 E. Gettysburg Avenue
in Fresno. ย (There will be alternative locations with live video
feed of the workshop at the SJVAPCD offices in Modesto and
Bakersfield.)
The second workshop will be Friday, March 15, 2013 from 1:30
P.M.
to 3:30 P.M. at Cal/EPA Headquarters Building in Sacramento.
Workshop details can be found here: ย Agricultural Rule Workshop
Information
http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/mailouts/msc1303/msc1303.pdf
ARB is proposing a two-step approach to the rule-making to
address these agricultural sources of diesel emissions in the San
Joaquin Valley.
The first step addresses a near-term Clean Air Act requirement,
and would implement the 2007 State Implementation Plan (SIP) to
address the current 8-hour ozone standards. ย The near-term
rulemaking, which would be submitted to the Board in late 2013,
will establish the framework for accounting for the voluntary
actions by the agricultural industry to reduce emissions through
their participation in incentive funding programs that accelerate
the use of the cleanest available technology equipment (primarily
Tier 3 off-road engines in mobile agricultural equipment) in the
San Joaquin Valley.
Agricultural organizations working with the San Joaquin Valley
Air Pollution Control District, ARB, United States Department of
Agriculture – Natural Resources Conservation Service, and the
United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA), have
signed a Statement of Principles that allows for a mechanism to
be developed that will provide industry with credit for the
investments made to clean up mobile agricultural equipment. ARB’s
action makes formal the written agreement already reached among
the agencies.
The second step addresses the need to develop a new SIP in the
San Joaquin Valley, to be developed in 2014 and submitted to US
EPA in 2015, for the new 8-hour ozone standard. ย That SIP will
lay out a plan to meet the new ozone standard by the 2032
deadline.
Strategies to be considered will include a wide range of
approaches, including those that depend on the future
availability of the cleanest technologies in mobile agricultural
equipment. While new SIPs will also be needed for other areas of
the state outside the San Joaquin Valley, additional actions for
mobile agricultural equipment in those areas are not expected to
be needed to meet the federal attainment deadlines.
As ARB moves forward on strategies to reduce mobile agricultural
equipment emissions in the San Joaquin Valley, a continued
reliance on financial incentives from United States Department of
Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service, state and
local sources is critical. These monies are expected to fund
near-term equipment upgrades and replacements, and longer-term
approaches, such as an equipment trade-down program, to maximize
the use of the cleanest advanced technologies available for
mobile agricultural equipment.