International Workshop

How to Catalyze Clean Air Solutions in Latin America and the Caribbean to Achieve Health and Climate Goals
October 5-6, 2022, Bogotá, Colombia

Air quality management in California – the latest trends

for tracking and reducing air and climate pollution
Alberto Ayala, PhD, MSE
Executive Director and Air Pollution Control Officer, Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District
Adjunct Professor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, West Virginia University
(Former) Deputy Executive Officer, California Air Resources Board
 Acknowledgements
¡Felicidades por esta nueva
colaboración!
Fundamentals for success in air quality management
• Clear legal frameworks (expectations, authority, responsibilities,
consequences)
• Nexus between air and climate pollution (fossil fuel use)
• Pollution source identification/intensity and technology options
for emission control
• Enforcement, permitting, and compliance
• Balance of “carrots and sticks” to influence supply and demand
• The sticks: regulatory instruments (emission reductions can take
a long time)
• The carrots: subsidies/incentives (early emissions
reductions/fleet modernization)
 Examples of regulatory instruments
all levels of government: federal, state, local

Controlling mobile sources Controlling stationary sources Controlling areawide sources

Examples of subsidies/incentives
Public $$$$$
 Environmental Justice

• Address disproportionate air pollution burdens on vulnerable communities

• Community air monitoring >>> clean air projects >>> Community emission
reductions
• Catalyze socioeconomic co-benefits from clean air investments
Introducing Ambient Air Quality Monitoring

Air monitoring efforts at the global, regional,

and hyper-local scales
 New Technology
Introducing for hyper-local
Ambient Air Quality Monitoring air monitoring
• Affordable sensors for citizen science Street-level pollution mapping
• Community air protection of priority communities
• These are historically marginalized communities
(likely low-income, people of color)
• Deploy monitoring to determine pollution burdens
• High temporal and spatial resolution

Fence-line monitors Mobile Labs

Portable sensors
Understanding neighborhood differences in air
pollution levels

Pictures: AQ Treks - 2B technologies

school outreach programs
IntroducingRegional
Ambient AirAir Monitoring
Quality MonitoringNetworks
• Traditional urban/rural scale air pollution monitoring
• Baseline
• Attainment of national ambient air quality standards
• Useful historical record for trend analysis
• Limited spatial coverage for community-level monitoring
 Air monitoring
Introducing from
Ambient Air above
Quality Monitoring
New statewide
Introducing reporting
Ambient andMonitoring
Air Quality technology
requirements for all emission sources
• Understanding near-source exposures
(mapping permits)
• More complete emission inventories
• All permitted emission sources report
any/all emissions annually
• Statewide clearinghouse of emission reports
• Transparency, accessibility, right-to-know,
and better compliance
• Accelerate adoption of Best Available
Control Technology rules
• Unidentified source inspections
• Significant impact on sources/businesses
Obrigado