SB 674: Air pollution: covered facilities: community air monitoring systems: fence-line monitoring systems.

Existing law requires a refinery-related community air monitoring system to be installed near each petroleum refinery that meets certain requirements. Existing law requires the owner or operator of a petroleum refinery to develop, install, operate, and maintain a fence-line monitoring system in accordance with guidance developed by the appropriate air quality management district or air pollution control district. Existing law requires the air districts and the owners or operators of refineries to collect real-time data from those monitoring systems, maintain records of that data, and, to the extent feasible, provide to the public the data in a publicly accessible format.

This bill would expand the application of these provisions to any covered facility, defined to include refineries that produce gasoline, diesel fuel, aviation fuel, biofuel, lubricating oil, asphalt, petrochemical feedstock, or other similar products, and to include facilities with operations related to a refinery that are located on contiguous or adjacent properties. The bill would require the refinery-related community air monitoring system and the fence-line monitoring system to be updated or installed on or before January 1, 2028, after a 30-day public comment period, as specified. The bill would require the appropriate air district to establish pollutants for the monitoring systems to monitor and would include certain pollutants identified by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. The bill would authorize the air district to exclude a pollutant for monitoring at those monitoring systems, as provided. The bill would require air districts, on a 5-year basis, to review the list of pollutants being measured and would authorize the air districts to revise the list, as provided. The bill would require the air districts and the owners and operators of covered facilities to maintain records of the data collected from those systems for at least 5 years and would require the owners and operators to post online, and to notify the public of the availability of, quarterly reports containing certain information. The bill would require owners and operators of covered facilities to notify the air district and the public, as provided, as quickly as possible of any exceedances of specified pollutant thresholds. The bill would require the owners or operators of covered facilities, within 24 hours of a fence-line monitoring system detecting an exceedance of those thresholds, to initiate a root cause analysis and to determine appropriate corrective action, as provided. The bill would require the owners or operators of covered facilities to conduct third-party audits of its fence-line monitoring system, as provided, to ensure the accuracy of the system. Because the bill would impose additional duties on air districts, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

Under existing law, a violation of requirements for stationary sources or any rule, regulation, permit, or order of the state board or of an air district is a crime.

Because this bill would impose the monitoring systems requirement on owners or operators of covered facilities engaging in other types of refining processes and would impose additional requirements on owners and operators of covered facilities, a violation of which would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for specified reasons.