APCD Board Meeting of March 19, 2026

Yep, yes ma'am. Good afternoon everybody I'd like to call to order the March 19th 2026 meeting of the Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District Board of Directors can we get a roll call please?

Director Patino? It's

Aguilar-Hernandez,

stepping in

for Patino.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Director Brown?

Here.

And Chair Lavagnino?

I'm here.

We have a quorum.

Okay.

First item of business today will be closed session. Can the clerk please read the item into the

record?

By the way, David's got this microphone so messed up nobody can use it now.

Closed session item C1, Conference with Labor Negotiators Government Code section 54957.6 District Designated Representative Erin Arlen Janay Employee Organizations Engineering and Technicians Associations Service Employee International Union Local 620 And Unrepresented Employees Management and Confidential

Okay we're now going to adjourn the closed session we'll be back in a few minutes Good enough. All right, we're now going to reconvene from closed session. Ms. Richardson can you please report out?

Good afternoon. In closed session today, the board conducted a conference with labor negotiators under government code section 54957.6 with the district designated representative Erin Arlen Janay. The involved employee organizations are the Engineer and Technicians Association Service Employee International Union Local 620 and Unrepresented Employees Management and Confidential. The board took no reportable action.

All right, thank you very much.

Hartman moves to approve.

I'll

second.

Moved and seconded. Madam Clerk can we get a roll call please?

Motion passes 8-3.

Okay, next item up is Approval of Administrative Items. Does any board member wish to pull any of the items on the agenda? Anybody in Santa Maria?

No.

Okay. Seeing none, is there any request from the public to pull any items?

Chair Lavanino, members of the board we did not receive any public requests to pull any of the admin items.

Okay so I can get a motion and second for the administrative agenda. I'll move to approve.

Hartman seconds.

Moved and seconded by whoever you want to pick their let's go for a roll call.

All right,

is

the Director's Report. Ms. Arlen Janae can you give a report to the board please? Good afternoon first off I'd like to start with recognizing

Director Silva on his governor appointment to the California Air Resources Board. He's one of 16 board members, 12 of which have been appointed by the governor. Of those appointees six represent local air district boards. He is the only CARB board member who represents medium-sized air districts a very important role to ensure issues and impacts that face our region are part of the discussion when developing statewide policies on air quality I look forward to working with you as you serve on the State Air Quality and Climate Change Board, and congratulations.

All right, I have more.

Oh there's more? You were just lead off.

Yeah you are. Stick with the CARB theme. CARB last November their board approved changes to their landfill methane gas regulation to enhance methane leak detections including the use of new satellite remote detection of emission plumes they are requiring quicker leak repairs and improved monitoring and reporting This regulation was originally approved by the board in 2010 and the district implements their requirements through an MOU with the state.

We have three active landfills that are covered by the regulation, Tejiguas, Lompoc, and Santa Maria. We are currently or CARB staff is currently working on a 15-day package to provide some more clarification in the regulation and that document is expected to be released later this month. My staff and I have been working with CARB to ensure changes of the regulation are aligned with federal requirements, that air districts are promptly notified when a satellite detects a plume in our jurisdiction and that district workload is assessed. After the 15-day comment period the regulation will take effect January 2027 so we'll be sure to work with all of the local landfills To ensure they're aware of the upcoming changes to the regulation.

Awesome. Director Hartman.

Well, congratulations to the staff who worked so hard on that. They started with a postcard and then people came and redeemed their postcard for the purifier but they had a food truck. They had a number of tables and it really was the most successful event reaching out to hard-to-reach Constituents that I've ever seen and I think we, this is another issue but we have a real question about how we're going to keep people eligible for Medi-Cal enroll. And so there may be opportunities in the future to wrap this up together where we can reach out to people even more broadly.

So just want to put that out there as a thought. Thank you.

Anything from Santa Maria? No, thank you. All right.

And if I may, and music.

Oh it was there okay. Yes okay outstanding any public comment on the director's report?

We did not receive any public comment on the director's report.

Alright so that moves us on to G which is public comment now it's time for members of the public speak on items that are not on today's agenda Did we receive any requests to speak?

Chair Lavagnino, members of the board. We did receive one speaker slip from Simon Vandenberg

Okay Come on up You're the next contestant you have three minutes Good afternoon.

Good afternoon chair members of the board My name is Simon van den Burg I'm CEO of Amfinity Group We manufacture the Infinity Carbon Scrubber System. Approximately 250 units are deployed across seven cannabis greenhouse operations in the Carpentria Valley. I'm here because our work in Carpentria over the past five years has produced what we believe is the most comprehensive body of air quality and odor control data generated for a cannabis greenhouse environment.

We would like your agency and any other decision makers to have the full benefit of it We have reviewed the APCD and OEHHA memos regarding PCO technology, and wanted to address those concerns directly. Over four years of continuous field deployment have added durability data to influence an early testing unit above 90% efficiency after a full year without maintenance.

We've also generated data on our systems Multistage carbon and PCO systems interact to manage peak loads, extend carbon life and contains secondary oxidation byproducts within the system before release. And have the results to prove our technology is safe for plants and most importantly for people. Collectively this work has advanced knowledge regarding the behavior of terpenes solvers and other odor causing components in the greenhouse. The long-term performance of odor control technology under sustained odor caused compound loads and the tradeoff between system architectures in commercial cannabis environments.

We'd welcome the opportunity to share this data with APCD or other county staff in whatever format is most useful. David Harris has connected us with OEHHA staff, I look forward to working with them to alleviate any concerns regarding our technology. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Are there any other requests to speak?

No additional requests to speak.

Thank you for being here today. OK, is there anybody in Santa Maria? Public comment?

No, thank you.

So we don't normally comment on public comments, so thank you for the comment. Appreciate it. I know that item is being worked and of great importance to a lot of us up here. So we're going to move on to discussion item H1. Clerk could you please read that into the record?

Certainly. Discussion Item H1 Climate Heat Impact Response Program or CHRP. Consider recommendations as follows. One, receive and file a presentation on the Climate Heat Impact Response Program, CHRP. And two, adopt a resolution to authorize the district's participation in implementing California Air Resources Board CHRP, which includes a delegate authority to the district's air pollution control officer to enter into grant agreements with CARB for the CHRP program substantially similar to the sample grant agreement included as attachment B of the CHRP board letter. In order to participate in fiscal year 2025-2026 and in future years for amounts not to exceed $2 million, subject to review and approval by District Council Auditor Controller and Risk Management.

B, delegate authority to the Air Pollution Control Officer to make or accept minor amendments to the grant agreement in future years subject to review and approval by District Council Auditor Controller and Risk Management. And C, approving the allocation of $400,000 from the district's Clean Air Fund in fiscal year 2026-2027 to provide additional funding for the CHRP program.

Okay thank you very much. All

right today we have Mike McKay an air quality specialist soon to be the supervisor of our planning division

Got me worried there for a second that year. I

only got up one step, so don't

worry about it. Yeah okay take it away. All

right so good afternoon Chair Labadino and members of the board this is the brief presentation on the district's new grant program called CHRP which is the Climate Heat Impact Response Program. I'll be using the word CHRP multiple times in this short presentation so please bear with me. So we can all probably recall some part of the heat events in the summers of 21 and 22, with all-time record temperatures being set in many areas of California that did not necessarily discriminate based on geography.

These events put significant demands on the state's energy grid. On July 30th, 2021, Governor Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency in California. The first of these two extreme heat events showed a dependence on backup generators and power plants which were forced to operate outside of their normal permanent allowances. In November of that year, CARB Board approved the CHRP mitigation plan to be developed for response to potential future overuse of these grid-reliant backups.

However there was not a funding request to implement CHRP during that time. Then on August 31st, 2022 during the next extreme heat event Governor Newsom proclaimed a second state of emergency with executive orders N1422 and N1522 which remained in effect through September 9th of that year. These proclamations were made to expand the need for backup generators to operate statewide to essentially keep the lights on in California.

On the outreach front for these heat events, the district posted shortcuts on our website homepage for permit holders to notify us of excessive usage. We sent out notifications to all permit facilities via MailChimp and we utilized social media outlets with heat event response recommendations. CARB was then directed to begin implementation of CHRP with a state-funded mitigation plan Funding was established under Assembly Bill 205, which came to pass on June 30th, 2022 just before the second extreme heat event. The source of funding for this comes from the Distributed Electricity Backup Assets Account, which ensures funding for cleaner energy assets to be available to support electrical via the electrical grid during these extreme events.

So for the 21 event, more than $370,000 was allocated to two air districts, Feather River and Placer County. And those were due to localized impacts. Then for 22 which was a significant event impacting a larger portion of California, 24 of the 35 air districts were directed to implement projects that involved the scrap and replacement of emergency diesel-fueled backup generators.

So for some perspective on diesel backup generators, there are roughly 730 of them permitted in our district currently. The image on the right is from our permitted facilities map showing locations of all those permitted engines and the link to that map there's on the bottom left. These engines don't operate on a full-time basis and most of them have an annual permanent limit of 50 hours for testing and maintenance Despite the limited operation of these engines, our 2024 permitted stationary source data show that 19% of all diesel particulate matter and 9% of all NOx emissions were attributed to the uses of those engines in our district.

And those numbers do come from a roughly 50% split between testing and maintenance and actual operation during emergencies. So the engines shown here are two of the nine permitted backup generators that operated during the heat events. The Golden State Water Engine is located on East Clark in Orkut and you'd likely miss the yard where it is located if you're not looking for it.

The sanitary district engine is located just east of the Carpinteria State Beach. And this engine is a Tier Zero, when it was originally installed there were no permit requirements for emergency diesel backup generators. Then when the state air toxic control measure was established in 2005 this unit was grandfathered and operates in compliance today. In July of 2024, CARB was able to distribute the draft CHRP allocation amounts.

These allocations were based on a weighting of 35% CHRP emissions data, 35% air quality severity and 30% based on district population. So as you can see the two tables shown here have the same allocation totals on the very bottom just over 22 million yet the distribution is quite different. As stated in your board letter, when the district received the original proposal our compliance division discovered discrepancies with emissions that were reported to CARB versus actual emissions calculated by the district based off data reported from our permitted sources.

After multiple conversations with CARB it was determined that local excess emissions were considerably higher. One discrepancy for example is the CHRP data was missing four permanent diesel generators that actually operated in our district during this state of emergency So as such, CARB was able to adjust the allocation amounts for many districts that discovered similar discrepancies. And in the end we were able to receive an additional $415,000 and change.

So the original intent of CHIRP is to fund the replacement of old diesel backup generators with new or low emission engine, new zero or low emission engines while following the project requirements that you see on this slide here. And while the replacement of these older engines is desired, the cost of these project types would greatly impact our ability to assist in multiple sources.

So for example in your board letter we noted about receiving a clean air grant application last year for a hydrogen fuel cell generator which has a project cost of over $400,000. So during workshops for CHRP, CARB took into consideration the high cost of these projects and expanded the eligibility to any project that is eligible under the Carl Moyer Guidelines and the Community Air Protection Guidelines.

So as a reminder too, the internal policy for our Cleaner Grant Program is we fund up to 80% of the project cost, up to $250,000, and anything above that would need board approval, and the same would apply for any projects that we fund under this CHRP program. You know, there's a number of hurdles for any number of unique project types. CARB is open to new ideas on a case-by-case basis. So for example like one project type we're considering is proposing voluntary installation of control equipment on these older backup engines and if we come across ideas that are outside of this presentation or the original intent of CHRP then we'll bring it to the board.

So with the board's approval, we hope to enter into a grant agreement with CARB for CHRP as well as allocate $400,000 from the Clean Air Fund bringing the total funding for this program to more than $890,000. We can then start exploring project ideas that are outside the typical grant program box and the image on the right you see there is a hydrogen fuel cell generator that I mentioned on the previous slide This is the first project request of this type that we have received, but I don't think it's a stretch to say that ideas like this could start showing up on a more consistent basis.

So we're working on developing policy and procedures for the program and plan to start outreach soon which will coincide with the launch of our typical late summer clean air grant program. So there's our contact information and then any questions you might have let me know.

Yeah, just a couple of them. First off I was wondering on the diesel backup generator countywide at the 730 that whole map there is there any statistics or is that something that I guess if you just zoom down the map could you see are these usually in proximity to housing? Or like is there a rule about how close these can be to residencies? Do we have that information of which

ones are near? We do have that information. I don't know if we want to speak on that Do you want me to do some research and I can get back to you? But if you zoom in on those individual icons, it'll tell you the address where they're at. And that map will show where housing is related to where that actual engine is located.

Okay. I was just thinking about like in terms of prioritization, it would be something I would be assuming we're looking at generators replacement. If they're near housing and dwelling, those would probably be some of the more critical ones to look at this replacement program for.

Right, and then low-income and disadvantaged communities as well so they would coincide with all of that yeah. And that would be on a case by case basis because there are so many and the funding is I know it's a lot of money but it's still limited for the size of the projects.

Which led me to the next one what is the usual cost to replace a generator like what would it be per?

Well, that big engine is 1,400 horsepower I think and they have small ones that are 120 horsepower. So the range in prices is extreme low to high. I couldn't tell you off the top of my head. We have never funded an emergency backup generator through our grant program so this is kind of new to us too. So we're going to be exploring all those options if you'd like I can put together a list or

Oh yeah, I think it might be premature for the questions though. So yes good to know it's on your radar

there so great that'd be good to know. It definitely is and that's why we're thinking about ideas outside of the box to maybe put control devices on some of the equipment to be able to help more as opposed to just replacing one or two engines.

Yeah all

right thank you.

That's our challenge I think is not knowing the cost and the cost could be significant as Mike mentioned 400,000 was the one that you saw in the last image. So we want to make sure our dollars go as far as possible and benefit as many areas as we possibly can so a particulate filter for an existing diesel backup generator might provide a lot more emission benefits than completely replacing one or two.

Director Hartman

This is a fascinating program. There's a positive feedback loop obviously, the climate's warming and so we get generators so we contribute more climate-warming pollutants to the air and so now we're trying reduce those pollutants as best we can. I was just curious, I mean it seems to me that CARB ought to be looking at these pilot technologies like the hydrogen.

We, to find out more give us more information. I just wondered about battery storage solar and battery how that fits and what other cutting-edge technologies? I realize people have invested a lot in generators and so yeah we maybe have to retrofit old generators but I'd rather get ready for the new

era to the extent that we can. This conversation is happening right now, not just at CARB but also at the legislature with data centers. Data centers are growing throughout the state and our need for AI in supercomputers is growing as well so that's going to have a higher need for backup generators. Linear generators are one thing that's being used those are much lower emissions than traditional backup generator. We actually have a linear generator that we were permitted What

is a linear generator?

It's almost like a black box generator. Dave, would you like to describe it better? You have to come up yeah

So yeah, great question. What is a linear generator? Essentially if you ask a linear generator manufacturer they will tell you it is not combustion. If you ask an air district you'll get kind of different answers. Some people think it's combustion some people think it's not but essentially it takes any kind of fuel traditionally natural gas and it heats it up to the point where it oxidizes and there's two opposing pistons that will move kind In and out against each other, and they go through magnets and produce electricity.

So the emissions as Erin mentioned are much lower than traditional combustion because the temperature is so much lower.

Yeah, and it's been more common in higher populated areas like the Bay Area and South Coast. I think we're fortunate to have one actually be proposed and used. Is it a hospital facility in Lompoc?

It's a care facility in Lompoc.

So we'll see more of that. The emissions are much reduced.

And I guess that raises the question you know we deal with employers on commuting programs but I wonder if it's valuable I mean the big employers are going to need backup generation and whether whatever good technologies are out there we could be sharing that with them.

Yeah, that's definitely something we can look into as far as more education and awareness informed specifically on various types of backup generators beyond the traditional diesel backup generator and have that conversation. That would be in our lane for sure.

Thank you.

Director Brown.

Thank you. Mike, you mentioned in your diesel backup generators country countywide 730 permitted how many of how many other generators are there are out there that are either natural gas or

non-diesel? Or 50 horsepower and smaller we don't know sorry We don't permit anything that's less than 50 horsepower.

Okay, but yeah I mean there could be... You don't have anything else? It's all diesel or it's not above that?

Like as far as what we permit is above 50 horsepower diesel generators what if it's under 50 horsepower there could be hundreds out there that aren't even accounted for that we

don't know about. I guess I'm understanding I'm trying to drill down to what fuel is generating this power. So if it's natural gas, or if it's diesel, so even though you permit anything over 50 horsepower, do you have any generators over 50 horsepower that are fueled other than diesel?

If you guys want to keep asking permit questions, fantastic.

Yeah, so as Mike was mentioning our permit requirements apply to diesel engines that are greater than 50 horsepower. We have a permit exemption for any engines that run on any fuel less than 50 horsepower and then we also have a permit exemption for engines that are greater than 50 horsepower that are spark ignited. So things like natural gas, gasoline, any of those fuels would be permit exempt.

We wouldn't know about them, we don't have them in our inventory. They don't show up on our map basically they don't have to get a permit as long as they operate I should mention for less than 200 hours total.

Another alternative that came up not too long ago at another meeting was these micro nuclear pods that are available and I didn't know if that was in consideration for backup generation or not

They are being considered for backup generators. We haven't had anything, any project come in with that proposal in Santa Barbara County.

Thank

you. Santa Maria? Any questions? Comments?

No.

Okay.

Thank you for the presentation. That was very thorough.

Thanks. All right. So do we have any public comment on this matter?

Chair Lavagnino, members of the board, we did not receive any public comment on this item.

All right, so we have some considered recommendations. Would anybody like to make a motion?

Motion to approve items. Motion to approve. Does that cover us enough?

Staff recommendation, sure. We got one, two A, B and C. Second by Director Lee. Roll call please.

Director Parodi. Director Julian. Director Moseby. Director Rouse. Director Aguilera-Hernandez. Director Brown. And Chair Labadino. Motion passes unanimously.

All right, so I'm going to hand this off after we introduce this item. Unfortunately have to leave a little bit early, so By the way, these are excellent handouts. Appreciate these. So next item is discussion item H2. Can the clerk please read that item into the record?

Certainly. Discussion Item H2 Status Update on Oil and Gas Operations. Receive and file a presentation on the status of oil and gas operations in Santa Barbara County.

Caitlin McNally our Compliance Division Manager will be providing the presentation today.

Good bye and members of the board. My name is Caitlin McNally I'm the manager of our compliance division And today, I will be presenting a status update on oil and gas operations in Santa Barbara County Unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances Marina was unable to attend today's meeting so it'll just be me presenting Next slide So this is the list of topics that I'll be covering today.

And the photo on the right side of this slide shows an oil and gas storage and processing equipment at the Carriaga lease up in northern Santa Barbara County. Next slide. The district regulates onshore and offshore oil and gas sources under the authority of the Federal Clean Air Act, and the California Health and Safety Code. The types of oil and gas sources we permit are listed on this slide. The photo on the right shows an oil well in the Casmalia area. Next slide.

So as Chair Lavinino mentioned, attachment B of the Oil and Gas Board packet that was provided to you includes the status of 18 onshore oil and gas facilities that are undergoing recent or upcoming changes. And I wanted to point out a few of the notable activities. First, CalGEM has completed plugging and abandoning 174 of 210 wells that were orphaned through the HVI Cat Canyon bankruptcy process a few years ago.

They're planning to plug and abandon the remaining wells in the near future, and the photo on the right side of this slide is one of the orphaned HVI Cat Canyon Wells. The four other facilities listed here have also had all of their wells plugged and abandoned recently. Next, the Santa Maria Asphalt Refinery is another facility with a notable change. This facility has been shut in and not operational since 2021 however it was recently purchased through the bankruptcy process in October of 2025 and the new owners are currently preparing to restart the facility.

Lastly, is Sable's San Ynez Unit Oil and Gas Plant which has been conducting restart operations since April of 2025 and recently began sending oil through their pipeline last Saturday as I'm sure you've all heard. I'll go into more detail on their status in a later slide. Next slide. In addition to onshore stationary sources, the district regulates 16 offshore oil and gas platforms in the waters adjacent to Santa Barbara County.

And that's – the details of the status of those facilities is listed in Attachment D of the package, the board package. Six of the 16 platforms are operational, including Platforms A, B, C, Henry and Hill House which are operated by D Corps. And they send their oil via a subsea pipeline to an oil and gas plant in Ventura County. In addition, Sable's Platform Harmony recently began operating.

And the two remaining Sable platforms, Heritage and Hondo, are in the process of restarting. Freeport McMorrin's platform Irene is currently shut in and awaiting a method to get oil to the market. And there are five platforms that have completed plugging and abandoning, and are being decommissioned that are listed here in the last bullet point under the first section of this slide.

Lastly, platforms Hogan and Houchin which are shown in the photo on this slide are in the process of being plugged and abandoned. They have also been granted variances by the district's hearing board which is a quasi-judicial body established to hear applications for variances and other items. The variances that were granted for platforms Hogan and Howchin are for relief from fugitive hydrocarbon component emission limits, operational limits and leak and repair requirements until December 31st 2027.

Next slide. All right, so as I mentioned earlier this slide has more detail on Sable's Santa Ynez unit restart. Their stationary source is made up of five facilities including the Lost Flores Canyon and Popco Onshore plants that are shown in the satellite image on this slide as well as offshore platforms Harmony, Heritage and Hondo. The district regulates the emissions from these facilities, however we do not have direct authority over the pipelines that move oil from Lost Flores Canyon to Kern County.

In 2025 the district conducted 16 inspections of the five regulated facilities and issued seven notices of violation In addition, in 2025 Sable petitioned for and received approval for nine variances from the district's hearing board. In April of 2025 Sable began restarting operations at their Los Flores Canyon facility and Platform Harmony and the next month they began moving oil from Platform Harmony to Los Flores Canyon.

In January of 2026, Sable began restarting operations at Platform Heritage and last as I mentioned earlier just last Saturday Sable began shipping oil from the Lost Flores Canyon facility to Pentland Station in Kern County via the San Ynez pipeline system. Next slide. The current the district currently has four engineers and one technician that work in our permit program There are 183 permitted oil and gas facilities which equates to 13% of our roughly 1,400 total permitted facilities.

There are also 398 active oil and gas permits which make up 18% of our roughly 2,200 total active permits. New and modified facilities are subject to new source review permitting with requirements including best available control technology, air quality impact analysis and health risk assessment modeling, and emissions offsets. These various requirements are triggered at different emissions thresholds and in general the larger the project the more rigorous the permitting requirements.

The district's interactive permitted facilities map, which is shown on the right side of this slide and is available on our website includes all of our oil and gas facilities which you can see in the blue dots on the map. And I have a link and a QR code at the bottom of this slide if you want to look further into it. Next slide. The district has five inspectors who conduct inspections of all of our facilities throughout the county.

District inspectors perform inspections of new oil and gas sources after initial operations have commenced, and conduct routine inspections at each source on a regular basis thereafter. Major oil and gas sources, which are those that have the potential to emit 100 tons per year or more, are routinely inspected two to four times per year. The remaining small and medium oil and gas sources are routinely inspected once per year, once every two years, or once every three years. And the inspection frequency we choose is determined by considering the compliance history of the source as well as district priorities workload and staffing levels.

Oil and gas inspections are one of the most challenging types of inspections that we have. There are many safety issues to be aware of, including potential exposure to hydrogen sulfide emissions, rattlesnakes in the grassy areas around wells onshore, and extreme weather while rope swimming from a boat to an offshore platform in the ocean among other things.

It takes time to travel to some of our oil facilities, whether it's driving to an oil field in the Cuyama area or taking a helicopter or a boat to an oil platform in the ocean. Furthermore, once you arrive at the facility, it can take all day to conduct an inspection of facilities that have many wells, fugitive components and production equipment that are spread over a large area.

The photo on the right is of a district inspector conducting an inspection of a well in the Cuyama area, and they're using a toxic vapor analyzer to measure for fugitive hydrocarbon emissions. And I'll talk more about that in a later slide. Next slide. Alright, so the district uses FLIR infrared cameras to detect methane leaks during our inspections. We recently purchased our second FLIR camera earlier this fiscal year so we now have one available in each of our offices for staff convenience when they need to use them for inspections.