Air Quality Plans

The District is required to prepare and update air quality plans to meet or maintain compliance with federal and state air quality standards. The two most common type of air quality plans are: attainment plans, which must show how the region will attain an air pollutant standard by a certain date; and maintenance plans, which must demonstrate how the region will continue to maintain compliance with a standard. Development of these plans requires extensive collaboration with other agencies within the region, industries, businesses, the public, as well as cooperation with the other Air Quality Management Districts (AQMDs) and Air Pollution Control Districts (APCDs) within the Sacramento Federal Nonattainment Area (SFNA) planning boundaries, which for ozone and PM_2.5 include all or parts of Yolo-Solano AQMD, Placer County APCD, Feather River AQMD (not for PM_2.5), and El Dorado County AQMD. The PM₁₀ nonattainment area boundary includes only Sacramento County. A map of the nonattainment areas is available here.

Federal and State Planning Efforts

The table below shows a list and links to existing plans (Attainment and Reasonable Further Progress (RFP) Plan and Maintenance Plans) and reports for ozone and particulate matter, which are the two pollutants of greatest concern in the Sacramento region. This table includes Federal Register actions taken by the EPA and other relevant information.

Federal Planning

Standard	Designation, Federal Register, Attainment Date	Planning Documents and Notes
Ozone (O₃)
2015 NAAQS 8-hour Std of 0.070 ppm	Severe-158 August 2033	Sacramento Regional 2015 NAAQS 8-Hour Ozone Attainment & Reasonable Further Progress Plan and Appendix A (xlsx) and Appendix F (xlsx) (2023) Sacramento Region 2008 and 2015 NAAQS 8-Hour Ozone Proposed Contingency Measures & Reasoned Justification (2024)
2008 NAAQS 8-hour Std of 0.075 ppm	Severe-15 (77 FR 30088) July 2025	Sacramento Regional 2008 NAAQS 8-Hour Ozone Attainment and RFP Plan (2017)7 Updates to the California State Implementation Plan6 (2018) Sacramento Regional 8-Hour Ozone Milestone Compliance Demonstrations (MCD 2020 Report) (Submitted to EPA 03/30/2021) EPA Partial Approval Rule (86 FR 58581)5 (2021) Sacramento Region 2008 and 2015 NAAQS 8-Hour Ozone Proposed Contingency Measures & Reasoned Justification (2024)
1997 NAAQS 8-hour Std of 0.08 ppm (Revoked)	Severe-15 (69 FR 236858, 75 FR 24409) June 2019	Sacramento Regional 8-Hour Ozone Attainment and Reasonable Further Progress Plan and Appendices A -I (2013) EPA Approval Rule (80 FR 4795) (2015)
1979 NAAQS 1-hour Std of 0.12 ppm (Revoked)	Severe-15 (56 FR 56694, 60 FR 20237) November 2005	Sacramento Area Regional Ozone Attainment Plan (1994) EPA Approval Rule (62 FR 1150) (1997) Exceptional Events Demonstration for High Ozone in the Sacramento Regional Nonattainment Area Due to Wildfires (2011) Redesignation Substitution Request for the 1979 1-Hour ozone standard (2017) (no action taken by EPA due to South Coast decision to vacate RS request options.)4
Particulate Matter – 2.5 Microns (PM_2.5)
2006 NAAQS 24-hour std of 35 μg/m3	Moderate (79 FR 31566) December 2015	PM2.5 Maintenance/Implementation Plan and Redesignation Request3 (2013) Wildfire Mitigation Plan for the SFNA for PM2.5 (2023 Updates)
2024 NAAQS Annual std of 9.0 μg/m³	TBD	EPA promulgated this new standard on Feb 7, 2024. California Air Resources Board submitted recommendations for area designations in January 2025.
Particulate Matter – 10 Microns (PM₁₀)
1987 NAAQS 24-hour std of 150 μg/m³	Moderate (58 FR 76334) January 2000	PM10 Implementation/Maintenance Plan and Re-designation Request (2010)(referred to as First Maintenance Plan) EPA Approval Rule (78 FR 59261) (2013)
1987 NAAQS 24-hour std of 150 μg/m³	Moderate (58 FR 76334) January 2000	Exceptional Event Demonstration for November 2018 PM10 Exceedance in Sacramento County due to Wildfires (2020) Second 10-year PM10 Maintenance Plan for Sacramento County (referred to as Second MP) (2021) EPA Approval Rule (89 FR 18548) (2024)

State Planning

Planning Document Type	Document Description	Current Planning Document
Air Quality Plan Update and Triennial Assessment2	Districts assess their progress in meeting state air quality standards	2015 Triennial Plan and Air Quality Plan Update Appendices
Annual Progress Report1	California Health and Safety Code (CHSC) section 40924(a) requires submitting reports to CARB on timelines to develop and implement control measures	2017 Annual Progress Report

^Footnotes:

⁸ The SFNA is currently classified as a Serious (86 FR 59648) nonattainment area. Preliminary photochemical modeling results do not support the attainment by the Serious classification deadline. As a result, the SFNA air districts have requested a voluntary reclassification to Severe and the request is pending EPA's approval. The voluntary reclassification letters are available here: Air Districts to CARB (pdf) and CARB to EPA (pdf).

⁷ The SFNA air districts approved this plan in October 2017 and CARB approved the Plan on 11/16/2017.

⁶ This was a statewide plan, which included the SFNA. It addressed outstanding legal issues such as establishing a base year of 2017 (instead of 2018) and establishing contingency measures.

⁵ EPA approved both of these plans in 86 FR 58581. Final action on the contingency measures element was deferred due to the 9th Circuit Court decision ( 08/26/2021), which found that EPA's contingency measure approach reflected an unreasonable interpretation of the CAA and was arbitrary and capricious because it provided a nominal emission reductions. EPA disapproved the contingency measures portion of the Plan on 06/15/2023 (88 FR 39179).

⁴ The United States Court of Appeals Court decision (02/16/2018) requires full compliance with all five conditions in CAA §107(d)(3)(E) including the need to develop a Maintenance Plan.

³ Approved by all SFNA air districts but never submitted to EPA due to exceedance in 2013.

² The triennial assessment reports the level of air quality improvement and the quantities of emission reductions achieved from control measures for the preceding three-year period.

¹ California Health and Safety Code (CHSC) section 40924(a) requires districts to prepare an Annual Progress Report and submit the report to the CARB summarizing its progress in meeting the schedules for developing, adopting, and implementing the air pollution control measures contained in the district's Triennial Reports by 12/31 of each year.

Action taken by CARB on these items, including staff reports, resolutions, submittal letters to EPA and public hearing notices can be found here.