The State of California and San Francisco Bay Area governmental agencies have pioneered a variety of firsts in terms of pollution and the environment. In 1955, for example, the Bay Area Air Pollution Control Law was adopted. That year the Bay Area Air Pollution Control District, now called the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, became the first regional air pollution control agency in the nation.

Regional Air Quality

Since then, the Air District has developed an impressive track record in improving and protecting air quality in the Tri-Valley and greater Bay Area region. The Bay Area Air Quality Management District has a long history of championing cleaner air. By 2005, the district’s 50th anniversary, Bay Area air quality was significantly and measurably cleaner than it had been when the district was created. But the agency’s work to protect and improve regional air quality is far from done.

“The Bay Area generally enjoys good air quality,” says Erin De Merritt, Public Information Officer for the agency. “However, like many places in the region, the Tri-Valley area is impacted by catastrophic wildfires and motor vehicle emissions. Therefore, additional emissions reductions from regulation and incentives are needed to continue improving our air quality.”

She notes that Air District regulations that support air quality improvements include the recently adopted building appliance rule amendment that “phases out the most polluting appliances in homes and businesses to protect residents from the harmful air pollution they cause. Regulations tightening controls on fine particle pollution, or PM2.5, including the Wood Burning Rule, help reduce wood smoke pollution in the Tri-Valley. Air District refinery rules that further reduce particulate matter emissions from petroleum refineries are among the most health-protective and stringent regulations of their kind in the country. The Air District is pursuing additional emissions reductions from regulated sources and working to provide incentives that lead to cleaner air.”

As part of its mission, the Air District has many programs that benefit residents and businesses directly. The Bay Area Healthy Homes Initiative seeks to improve health outcomes for Contra Costa and Alameda County residents living in the areas most impacted by air pollution from traffic. The Spare the Air program warns the public when air quality becomes unhealthy and educates them on ways to reduce air pollution. The Clean Air Center program provides funding for county agencies in the Bay Area to create a network of Clean Air Centers. These centers, often at libraries, schools, and community centers, run air filter systems during periods of poor air quality because of wildfire smoke. The centers allow residents to get a break from wildfire pollution by going to a location with cleaner air.

The Clean Cars for All program offers grants for income-qualified Bay Area residents living in qualifying communities to retire their older cars and replace them with new, less polluting vehicles. Alternatively, they can receive a prepaid card to use for public transit or to purchase e-bikes and bike accessories. The Vehicle Buy Back program offers residents $1,200 to turn in working, older cars and small trucks. The program reduces air pollution by taking the most polluting vehicles off the road.

Tri-Valley Air Quality Climate Alliance

As part of its work, the Air District also funds a variety of nonprofits working to prevent air pollution through its James Carey Smith Community Grant Program. One of them, the Tri-Valley Air Quality Climate Alliance (TVAQCA), was formally established under the fiscal agency of the Tri-Valley Nonprofit Alliance in March 2020. Since its founding, TVAQCA has worked to ensure the Tri-Valley’s future air quality in a variety of ways. "We do have really good air quality almost all the time. It's just that sometimes it's not great," says Ron Baskett, Chair of the group’s Oversight Committee.

During certain parts of the year, Tri-Valley hillsides create a kind of natural bowl that can capture pollution. "People understand watershed,” says Terry Chang, Director of Operations. “But the concept of an airshed is new to a lot of people. So we try to get that message across and to let people know that we live in a region that is susceptible to collecting air pollution."

Community and school outreach is an important focus for the nonprofit, which publishes a newsletter and maintains a website and social media accounts to help educate the public about the importance of air quality and available resources. Ann Brown directs school outreach, which includes classroom materials for teachers and speaking at public schools. TVAQCA also has an Air Cleaner Program. Thus far it has built and distributed an estimated 150 simple air filter systems to help protect the Tri-Valley residents most vulnerable to air pollution. They include the elderly, the young, pregnant women, and those with asthma.

"We build box fans with fitted MERV-13 air filters,” notes Chang. “This is an effective way to clean indoor air. We try to reach out to people who are in under-resourced communities who may not have that extra $100 to go out and buy an air purifier when there's a wildfire. We're on to the next build, and I'm working with interns from Alameda County Supervisor David Haubert's office to help us put together one hundred more box fan air filters to distribute because we have a list of seventy-five people on a waiting list."

TVAQCA also promotes other initiatives and programs to reduce air pollution. "One of the things we found out early, due to a study by the South Coast Air Quality Management District, was that emissions from uncontrolled gas-powered landscaping equipment are essentially equal to those of automobiles, and so combustion emissions are the primary source of precursors, as we call it, to produce ozone,” notes Baskett. “So we focused on that issue and started a program to incentivize conversion from gas powered to electric landscaping equipment."

The nonprofit’s initiative provided matching funds to an estimated dozen Tri-Valley landscaping firms and local organizations to buy zero-emission electric landscaping equipment and retire their old, highly polluting tools. Recipients of the matching funds include the Livermore Unified School District and the Pleasanton Parks Division. Another issue for the group involves the harmful emissions from piston-powered aircraft. In October, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced its official determination that emissions from aircraft using leaded gasoline pose a public health threat. According to news reports, that determination is a precursor to a likely ban eventually.

TVAQCA’s accomplishments have been possible thanks to strong support from other regional organizations, officials, and students. The Quest Science Center, for example, has collaborated with TVAQCA on several occasions. That has given the nonprofit more opportunities for public outreach, as well as to distribute air filters. The nonprofit has also worked with Axis Community Health and Meals on Wheels to distribute air filters. Professors and lab technicians at Las Positas College have provided tools for the outreach programs, including a 3D printed model of the Tri-Valley area and its airshed. Several college students from Las Positas have also done important work at TVAQCA as interns.

Nearly one year ago, the City of Livermore rolled out the Livermore Resilient Hub, a city initiative that is being promoted by TVAQCA. The online tool makes it easy and fun for households to check their carbon footprint and gives them points and rewards for making reductions. It allows residents to compete against neighbors or one school compete against another school.

The Livermore Resilient Hub “makes it a fun thing to help reduce your carbon footprint and reduce pollution in the air,” says Phil Bowman, who leads community outreach. “We've approached the City of Pleasanton to see if they will follow Livermore's lead here, and we are getting contacts in Dublin and San Ramon to encourage them to do the same thing as well. It would be cool to see the cities compete against each other, to see which city can do the best job at reducing their carbon footprint."

For more information about the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, please visit www.baaqmd.gov.

For more information about Bay Area Air Quality Management District funding and rebate programs for residents and businesses, please visit www.baaqmd.gov/funding-and-incentives.

For more information about the Tri-Valley Air Quality Climate Alliance, please visit https://tvaqca.org.

To watch a video on greener and quieter landscape equipment created by an intern for  Tri-Valley Air Quality Climate Alliance, please visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj7RJQcrUWU.

For more information about The Livermore Resilient Hub, please visit www.livermoreresilienthub.com.