APCD Board Meeting of May 21, 2026

All right, good afternoon everybody. Let me find this thing. I'm going to call to order the May 21st 2026 meeting of the Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District Board of Directors. Make it a roll call please.

We have a quorum.

Okay, first item of business today is Closed Session. Can the clerk please read the item into the record?

Item C, Closed Session. C1 Conference with Labor Negotiators Government Code Section 54957.6 District Designated Representative Erin Arlen Janae Employee Organizations Engineering and Technicians Association Service Employee International Union Local 620 and Unrepresented Employees Management and Confidential

Great. Ms. Richardson, how long do you anticipate?

Chair Lavagnino maybe 15 or 20 minutes.

Okay great we'll be back about that time Okay, we're now going to reconvene from closed session. Ms. Richardson will you please report out?

Chair Lavagnino today in closed session the board conducted a conference with labor negotiators under government code section 54957.6 with district designated representative Erin Arlen-Ginay this involved employee organizations engineering and technicians association service employees international union local 620 and unrepresented employees management and confidential the board took no reportable action

Okay, great. Next item of business is the approval of the minutes of the March 19th 2026 meeting.

So move.

Wait a second. It says did I say March 26? March 19, 2026. Okay, I said it right, right? Yeah, okay. Sorry. Still stands? Yes, still stands. Second. Roll call please.

Motion passes unanimously.

Great next item is the approval of the administrative items, is there any public that pulled any items on the administrative agenda?

Chair Lavanino no public member pulled any items on the administrative agenda.

Any directors like to Santa Maria Bob we're all good? We're good. Can I get a motion? To move the administrative.

So

moved. Director Silva? Second. Director Brown? Roll call, please.

Motion passes unanimously. Great

next item up is the director's report

all right thank you I have a few items I'd like to bring to your attention first off wildfires and smoke this week really felt like a jumpstart to wildfire season excuse me it's smoking here So I wanted to share a refresher on our outreach process and interagency involvement when it comes to wildfires and smoke. First off, we haven't seen and don't expect significant air quality impacts from the recent fires. The Santa Rosa Island fire, the Foothill Fire in Cuyama and the Sandy Fire in Ventura, not to mention several other small fires that popped up. We have noticed some moderate air quality index conditions for PM and ozone in a couple of instances of unhealthy for sensitive group conditions out in Kuyama. Yesterday we were very close to exceeding the state standard for the ozone level which was...we were watching that and luckily we did not exceed the standard As a reminder, we provide 24-7 air quality readings at all of our monitoring stations throughout the county on our website OurAir.org.

Our website has current conditions and it's also linked to EPA's fire and smoke map and that's a really good tool to re-familiarize yourself if you're not familiar with it right now. It incorporates our monitors with our regulatory network as well as the low cost sensors of the Purple Air or the Claritins So it provides both a regional and a neighborhood level of conditions, and it's updated every two minutes with the low-cost sensors. So it's a real great resource, and it also has a plume displayed on it. The tools are available in English and Spanish, and in addition to that we also have a three day forecast so you can look at our website and see not only what is it forecasted to be today but the next two days as well.

As you know, we've done a lot of outreach for clean air rooms and the importance of having a clean air environment during wildfires. We encourage people to have an air purifier on hand and if you happen to have an air purifier I encourage you to take a look at that filter I did the other day and I got it replaced right away after I saw what it looked like so now's the time to check your your filter.

If you don't have one or if you're looking for more resources on how to do it yourself, we have a lot of videos and infographics on our website. And those are also in English and Spanish. We've been also working with partners throughout the county on creating clean air centers. These are public spaces for people to gather if they don't have a clean air room at home And typically when the air quality conditions reach an unhealthy level, these centers are open and available for folks to come in and utilize.

I'd like to remind you that we issue air quality alerts. We work with the County Health Department when the air quality conditions are expected to be unhealthy or worse for prolonged times. Years ago, we created a system with already approved templates for different scenarios that we can use at a drop of a hat and we could reach out to county health and issue these alerts in a very timely manner. These alerts are also bilingual. We, you're probably familiar with them because we email you the alerts. We also send them out to local media, our listserv and text messages.

In addition to working with the County Health Department, we also are keyed in with County Office of Emergency Management to share information. We attended a meeting that was held yesterday for the fire season outlook which is expected to be a challenging year so we're just wanting to make sure that we are ready and we are working closely with all the resources not only at the county level but the cities as well Unfortunately, we are very familiar with wildfires and wildfire smoke impacts to our county. But as an agency, we definitely have an all hands on deck approach when we are impacted with wildfires, as well as our rotating duty officer. We have someone on our management team that's assigned Every day of the week to make sure that we're tracking local air quality conditions and updating not only our social media, but any other notification that needs to get conveyed off hours.

So if you have any questions or any additional recommendations please let us know how we can do it better and how we can work better with your agency. The next item Director Silva is very close to this one. It's related to the CARB cap and invest regulation next week at CARBs May 28th meeting they will consider modifications to the cap and invest program to address both affordability and industry leakage out of the state The two factors that are being considered include an expanded utility climate credit, that's what we all receive through our utility bills and the manufacturing decarbonization incentive for industry.

Both of these actions will result in a significant reduction to the greenhouse gas reduction funds GGRF Thank you. and an already diminished GGRF funding, and what it means for communities that have realized the air quality and public health benefits from both the AB 617 Community Air Protection Program and also from the Farmer Grant Program. For Santa Barbara County, AB 617 has provided over $6.3 million for 74 emission reduction projects to local businesses and agencies Over $1.5 million to Air District Operations for the implementation of the requirements included in 617, as well as the implementation of the incentive funds and close to $2 million for local community organizations to expand awareness and monitoring in the disadvantaged portions of our county Through CAPCOA and other meetings with key stakeholders, we are working to ensure that while the state moves forward with these efforts to meet climate goals it also finds a way to secure funding that's needed to maintain these important cost-effective local programs that provide public health and disadvantaged communities throughout the state.

All right, two more items. First off the next item anyway is APCD board meeting location. Some of you might be aware we have a board meeting location conflict with SPCAG for our August and our September meetings For 2026, SPCAG removed their July meeting and modified their meeting location for the remainder of the year. While we maintain the rotation both agencies have had consistently for years.

This has resulted in two different primary locations for both agencies. We've historically coordinated our meeting locations and unfortunately From the Air District's point of view, the first half of the year we hold the meetings in Santa Barbara chambers for the county government and the second half of the year we hold the meetings in Santa Maria board chambers.

This helps ensure equitable access for board members and public to access across the county because of this year's scheduling shift by SBCAG, board members will likely be divided between two locations for August and October APCD meetings. It only impacts two meetings, but obviously the split attendance can reduce a cohesion in the board discussion. I wanted to bring this to your attention so that you may consider whether any adjustments or alternative solutions are appropriate. I've also discussed this issue with the Executive Director at SBCAG and emphasize the importance of coordinating early so for 2027 we can avoid any of this scheduling conflict.

So on to a more positive thing. In your June meeting, and I believe you heard about this at your last meeting with SPCAG, we're going to be hosting a joint lunch for board members at the same meeting location in Santa Maria. So this is dedicated time between the meetings. It's intended to provide an opportunity for you to relax, connect, and strengthen your working relationships during an informal lunch setting Additional logistic, logistical details will be shared with you shortly. And Director Lee we are taking you up on your recommendation for a restaurant that you thought would be perfect for this situation so we haven't finalized that yet but you'll soon be getting more communication

from... So Director Lee is making restaurant recommendations in Santa Maria now?

He well he kind of...

Okay all right I'm just checking.

Well you can help me with that

You know I can't help you with that, I'd be in and out burger baby.

And that concludes my director's report.

All right any questions for Director Janine? Good okay uh that takes us to public comment.

Uh Chair LaVanina we do have an attendee on Zoom with their raised hand Jacqueline Moore. I will allow you to speak and unmute when you are ready.

Hello, thank you for the time today. My name is Jacqueline Moore from the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association and I represent commercial shipping vessels that operate on the West Coast. And I wanted to take this opportunity to speak on the Voluntary Blue Whales Blue Skies Vessel Speed Reduction Program which PMSA members have supported for almost a decade now in which the Santa Barbara Air District is a project partner in.

And I'd first like to thank Director Arlene Jeanette for spearheading the formation of our requested Technical Working Group Advisory Committee. And I do look forward to our first meeting in June. Now, the air quality portion of the program seems to have been a bit overshadowed by the Great Whale conservation benefits and PMSA and other vessel representatives have some real concerns on the lack of or at least publicly shared critical analyses, especially on the program's impact to air quality and NOx emissions. And this of course would be an unintended consequence that no one wants, especially given the Air District's mission. So we do hope a compromise can be agreed upon and look forward to continuing to work with you Erin and other partner air districts on this program We really genuinely wish to ensure that it remains successful and maximizes emission reductions.

That concludes my comments, thank you for the time.

Thank you for that, appreciate that. Okay, that takes us to our discussion items if there's no other public comment and we go to H1.

Discussion Item H1, Fiscal Year 2026-27 Proposed Budget. Consider the fiscal year 2026-27 proposed budget as follows. One, receive the proposed budget for fiscal year 2026 27. Two, hold a public hearing to accept comments and provide direction to staff regarding changes desired by the board. And three, schedule a budget adoption hearing for June 25th, 2026. All right.

Thank you. Today Tina Aguilar, the APCD's Administrative Division Manager and I will be presenting on our proposed budget for 26-27. It runs from July 1st 2026 through June 30th 2027. We have a total of six slides and it should take us about 10 minutes to walk through this presentation. As required by the California Health and Safety Code, we hold two hearings for this budget. So it will come back to you for your meeting in June on June 25th for consideration of adoption.

In late March, we published our draft proposed budget. It was posted onto our website. It was sent out notification to the 762 permitted facilities in our region that also was noticed in the Santa Maria Times and the independent newspaper. On April 21st, we held a public workshop and we had no public attend that workshop. And to date, we have also received no public comment on the proposed budget.

So moving into the next slide. Each year, early in the calendar year we do a forecast for anticipated revenue. After we know what is the revenue scenarios looking like, we program out our expenditures to make sure we have a balanced budget. For this year we have a proposed budget of $15.2 million and this is an increase of 13.7%. This is primarily due to two key factors, the first one being grants those are pass-through funds that we receive from the state that have a legislative purpose it isn't to be used by the air districts but rather to be passed through to fund grant projects such as changing out older diesel tractor with the newer technology.

So after removing the, oh so in addition to the grant funds which are equivalent to 31% of our total overall budget, the second factor is associated with our permit re-evaluation cycle. Every three years we reevaluate our permits and and the number of permits and the cost of that permit re-evaluation I'm going to talk a little bit about what we're doing here at the Air Pollution Control We have an operating budget of $10.4 million and that's roughly 8% higher, which is primarily due to the high year of the permit re-evaluation cycle and also the increase of revenue from Rule 210.

Our staffing remains the same at 34 full time equivalent staff. So I've talked about the grant fund revenue. In addition to the $4.7 million, we are securing $234,550 to administer those fees. In addition to that revenue coming in, our rule 210 changes are significant for us. As you know with our long-range fiscal strategy we did a Cost recovery for the way we manage our permit program.

And in that analysis, a matrix study we found at that time and this is three years ago that we were only recovering 46% of the cost that it took us to implement our permit program. With that information, we were able to secure board approval to modify our Rule 210. That was our fee rule. It was the first time our fee rule was updated in over 30 years and with that, we also had a cost recovery policy of 85% cost recovery that we're hoping to reach.

So with the rule modification, we the board directed us to implement a fee increase of 12% per year until we reach the 85% cost recovery and also to apply what we have historically applied the consumer price index. This year we look at the April to April CPI increase of the prior year, which was 2.7%. So when you have 2. 7% CPI plus the 12%, where we're proposing a 14.7% increase in fees and that's I just haven't highlighted here the California Health and Safety Code have a maximum fee increase of 15%. So that is below the 15% fee cap defined in the health and safety code All right, so now I'm going to turn it over to Tina and she's gonna walk through the numbers.

Yeah we'll get into a little detail about our operating budget. So when looking at the pie chart on the left you'll see that 50 percent of our operating revenue is from our district fees those include things like permit fees air monitoring fees and annual emission fees The green piece includes grant revenue for the district's operations, and those come from EPA and the state to implement the Clean Air Act. There is also a small slice that represents interest the district is receiving for our cash balance that we keep with the county treasury.

Use of operating fund balance is decreasing by 68% from the prior year, or roughly $265,000. The district has budgeted to use a portion of Fund Balance Money's $125,000 in our Clean Air Fund to fund a clean air room program that benefits residents in Cuyama. The district has a strong fund balance projected to be approximately $9.6 million, 40% of which is passed through grant funds that have been encumbered for grant projects.

Of the other 60%, or 5.7 million, 2 million has been set aside for the district's fund balance policy which says that the district is to maintain or surpass 20% of the operating budget at any given time and this is included in the committed fund balance category. Looking at the chart on the right, like most agencies of our size, the district's largest operating expenditure is staff.

Salaries and benefits make up 67% of total operating budget. Some good news to report as of the most recent actuarial release from SB CSRS dated December 2025, the district's pension is almost fully funded at 96.4%. We are so close to 100. Because of this, we saw a 9% decrease in this category from the prior year which is a savings of roughly $175,000. Approximately 1.67 million or 24% of the salary and benefit costs can be attributed to retirement contributions.

We are headed in the right direction and my hope is this expenditure continues to decrease in the years ahead. Operating SNS increased 7.3% from fiscal year 25-26. Administrative overhead costs are captured here. Total overhead SNS cost to support the district represents approximately 45% of the total SNS budget and includes utilities, rent for our Santa Barbara office space, IT support, building maintenance costs, legal counsel fees, postage, office supplies just to name a few.

The increase in this category is mainly due to new legislation that requires all government websites to be ADA accessible. The district website already has an ADA feature, however we have budgeted funds for the effort to make sure all of our PDFs on our website are also compliant. Fixed assets increased $318,000 from the previous fiscal year. The district has budgeted 300,000 to update existing homegrown permit and compliance programs and databases. And we're calling this effort IDS 2.0.

Erin will discuss this in a little more detail when going over the district's goals for next year. A few other things budgeted next year in the fixed asset category is a new electric vehicle to replace the aging EV pool vehicle that we currently have. and the installation of EV chargers at the Santa Maria office. The fixed asset budget also includes the purchase of equipment for the district's data acquisition system, and the monitoring section to replace analyzers and monitoring equipment for all sites as needed to stay up-to-date and use the best technology available.

So based on the current budget before you today, revenues are projected to meet expenditures and therefore the district's proposed fiscal year 2026-27 budget is balanced. On this slide, you'll see a pie chart that breaks down the district's expenditures by program. Just thought this might be a good visual to show how funds are allocated across the district.

All of our major functions are actually divided pretty evenly. So I'll pass it back now to Erin so she can discuss the district's goals for next year.

This slide highlights some of our key areas that go beyond our core responsibility, and Tina mentioned IDS 2.0. Gosh it's been around for decades the original IDS I think over probably 40 years 30 to 40 years we've been using a system that's been extremely beneficial for us but it's definitely time for an update And Director Brown, one thing you mentioned we discussed briefly.

You asked how much are we using AI? How much is that helping our agency at this point? Are we seeing any efficiencies and at that point in time which I think was just two months ago it was like not much. But things are changing rapidly with our knowledge and experience, and comfort level with the inclusion of CLAWD into helping us with some of our core database changes. So we have a contractor who's been working with us for many decades now who is very energized in using CLAWD and working on some core changes to IDS, but we also want to go beyond that to maximize just not what one person could do for us because we wanna make sure we have a strong pool that can support it. And we have a request for proposal that we're gonna be issuing trying to upgrade our IDS 2.0 this one year so we can realize a number of improvements across the different divisions that interface on these programs.

We also are in the second year, I believe. We're moving into the second year of our PM study. We received a grant from EPA to do an assessment of particulate matter and community engagement on the issue up in the Santa Maria Valley area. We have a consultant who has identified some special monitoring locations. Those are fully equipped now. We're about ready. I think we're still doing some beta testing but we're about ready to launch one-year long data collection Up in the Valley and that will also then incorporate the community engagement aspects.

Our Clean Air Fund Programs, you're familiar with these. Those are the Lompoc area where we were able to work with the schools and the community centers establishing clean air centers. We also have a Community Air Center in Buellton and we're working with the Children's Museum as well on an interactive display. And then You Heard Kuyama will be our next focus for Clean Air Purifier Program. So that's going to be exciting for us to expand our reach into those three communities And we were able to have a very successful program this year in Old Town Goleta.

As far as a positive aspect when we work with our permitted sources, we want to do a recognition program and Director Brown I'm pretty sure you're the one that mentioned this as well at a recent board meeting is there a way that we can recognize those sources that are doing a great job at being in compliance? And it's something that we've been wanting to do for a number of years We're going to put the emphasis on that going into this new fiscal year.

And then Blue Whales, Blue Skies we are working and expanding that program it actually launched on April 22nd to have a statewide program. We are heading up our technical advisory sessions those are going to start just in a few weeks where we pull in all stakeholders to ensure as we move forward with this program we definitely provide an air quality benefit while also reducing the harmful risk to the mammals So those are the key programs I wanted to put a spotlight on in addition to the core responsibilities that we have.

And that concludes our presentation. Tina and I are available if you have any questions.

Questions from the board, Director Silva?

It was actually just going back to the pension liability question and I don't know exactly how CSRS and PERS are different necessarily in that But at 96% funding, congratulations first off. I was wondering is CSRS one of the ones like how PERS is that if you get above the funding it's kind of becomes almost locked out from access? If you overfund the liability or are you looking at like a 115 fund or anything for that diversification or is that not a case for CSRS?

I don't believe SPSRS does anything like that. We have OPEB, which is for the health benefit. Once we reach a hundred though, I'm not sure how that would work. I can look into it though definitely.

Thank you. We're just...we had this conversation come from our PERS perspective for it so just wanted to make sure that we're in compliance there. So thank you. Yep.

Director Brown?

On your fee schedules, in the increase on the Rule 210 that you presented. You're going up to 12 plus the CPI and you're capped at 15%. My question is what percent of these new costs how does that affect your customers margin? What, what is the impact to your customer as to the percent that they're paying for their regulation? That you're, that they are required to make these costs right. This is a required item but how much of that overall cost is it in their margins do you know?

I do not

know. I'm sure would be different for different companies. Yeah

exactly.

I didn't know if you had a thumbnail or something like that.

We haven't looked industry by industry. We definitely have engaged industry when we move forward with our fee rule, you know, we have our Advisory Council that worked with us closely as we developed the recommendations to your board to increase the fees and change Rule 210 And on the CAC, we have industries from agriculture industry from oil and gas as far in the environmental organizations as well. And that margin aspect didn't come up.

I think one aspect you could put is a benefit that they've had for many years since we have I think it's important to note that we've been shouldered the cost of that permit, you know when we're not even recovering 50% of what it takes to implement and it's been shouldered with other funds that were not intended to cover permit costs originally. I just want to know

what the hardship is on the customers?

Yeah, you

know,

I think what's important we have it in our budget. It's in the budget document itself And we haven't heard any comment on the proposal to increase it.

One other question I had was do we have any, is there any duplicity with what we do with other agencies? To be as specific as possible Is Vandenberg Space Force doing anything that we're doing as well? As far as are they mirroring some of the things that we're doing and is there an opportunity to to diversify or outsource some of these duplicate endeavors.

For Vandenberg, we focus on the air quality aspects of their operations that fall within our regulatory authority and that applies to the commercial operations as well as the federal operations so even Vandenberg Space Force Base projects itself were the local agency that evaluates and permits those activities. They don't do that aspect, that's relegated to the local air district.

So the monitoring and so forth is all by us?

Well Vandenberg has a requirement to contribute funds to the Lompoc monitoring station. That is a permit requirement based on their power plant that they have onsite And the emissions associated with that operation.

But it's not, it's not duplicit?

No.

That's what I want to make sure of. Is

that it? Any questions from Santa Maria or Bob? We're good in Santa Maria. Okay. All right then I guess we have three items.

Chair, let me know we do have to open this item for public comment.

Let's

go

for

it. Oh,

we do not have any? Okay. All right does anybody like to make a motion? We're receiving it. We're going to hold a public hearing and schedule a budget adoption hearing so do we need a motion I guess? We do okay.

So moved.

I'll second.

And those are items one two and three on the on the agenda, so can we get a roll call please?

Motion passes unanimously.

All right that takes us to H2 the prescribed burn program update.

Discussion Item H2, Prescribed Burn Program Update. Receive and file an update on the prescribed burn program.

We're going to have a presentation today from Kaylee Bonomo, and this is her first presentation to the board. Kaylee has been with the Air District for just about three years before she joined our agency we had the opportunity to work with her she worked for Capcoa and a lot of us have the privilege of working with with Kaylee and then before that she worked for CARB so she comes with some different perspective that were very thankful to have at our agency Thank you so much.

Good afternoon, as Erin said I'm Kaylee and I work in the compliance division at the district. As part of my role I have the privilege of working on the prescribed burn program and I'm here today to give you an update on this program. Included here is a picture of a prescribed burn that occurred last November at the Sedgwick Reserve here in Santa Barbara County.

You can see the smoke rising vertically and this lift is what we really want to see with our prescribed burns. Next slide please Included here is another picture from that Sedgwick prescribed burn. So this picture was taken at the beginning of the burn, so you can see that the smoke is a little darker as the fire was just getting started but we still have that really good smoke lift that we're looking for.

And this brings me to the district's smoke management program. The goal of this program is to minimize smoke impacts from permit and prescribed burns to communities in Santa Barbara County through implementation and enforcement of state law. For clarity, there are two categories of burning that are regulated by the district. Permit burns and prescribed burns. This presentation will mostly focus on prescribed burning. Next slide please.

That being said, I would briefly like to mention permit burning. These burns require a permit that is issued by the Santa Barbara County Fire Department. There are three types of permit burns. There's agricultural burning, fire hazard reduction burning and residential dry vegetation or backyard burning. Fire hazard reduction burning is the burning of cuttings from trees, vines or bushes that have been cut to reduce a potential fire hazard. The burning is restricted to high and very high fire hazard severity zones.

Agricultural burning is the open outdoor use of fire to reduce waste produced from agricultural operations. Backyard burning is the burning of dried leaves, weeds, grass clippings, shrubbery and the prunings by occupants of one and two family dwellings. And only within the northern Santa Barbara County. This excludes the incorporated cities of Solvang, Santa Maria and Lompoc.

Pictured here is the Santa Barbara County Fires map that shows active burn permits. The dots you can see on the screen change color when that permit holder is burning. You can scan the QR code to be brought to this map. Next slide, please. If a burner has been issued a permit by Santa Barbara County Fire, they are allowed to burn on a local burn day in their area.

The local burn day decisions are made by Santa Barbara County Fire based on factors associated with fire danger and can be the same or more stringent than the daily decision made by the California Air Resource Board. The district may provide input on local burn day decisions based on potential air quality impacts. These local burn day decisions only apply to Santa Barbara County fire permits, permit burns and are available on the Santa Barbara County Fire website and via a phone message recorded by county fire.

A photo of county fires burn day decision map is included on the screen. This map is updated at 4 p.m for the following day. If you scan the QR code on the screen it will take you to this map. The district does not issue these burn permits, but we do share information with the public for awareness and respond to smoke complaints. Next slide, thank you. Now I'm going to transition to the main focus of this topic which is prescribed burning.

So prescribed burning is the controlled application of fire to the land to reduce wildfire hazards, clear downed trees, control plant diseases, improve rangeland and wildlife habitats and restore natural ecosystems. Included here is a photo of a prescribed burn that occurred in 2020 Prescribed burns are ignited under a specific set of environmental conditions that collectively constitute a prescription.

These conditions include temperature, wind speed and direction, fuel moisture and relative humidity but seasonality and other factors may be included. The district's local rule regarding prescribed burning was unanimously adopted in 2002. In 2018, SB 1260 authored by Hannah Beth Jackson was enacted to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires by expanding the use of prescribed burning.

There are three main types of prescribed burns. Pile burns, broadcast burns and air curtain incinerator burns. Pile burning is the burning of piles made from the debris or dead vegetation left after fuel reduction projects that involve thinning or cutting a vegetation. Broadcast burning is where low intensity fire is applied across a predetermined area called a burn unit.

This burn unit can vary in size from less than an acre to tens of thousands of acres. Air curtain incinerator burning is the burning of wood waste inside an air curtain incinerator, which is a pollution control device used to burn wood by blowing high velocity air over the fire in a box, which is a cleaner and faster alternative to traditional open burning.

So while we have not had an ACI burn in our county yet, the United States Forest Service does have a district permit for the use of an air curtain incinerator. Prescribed burns are conducted by land managers including federal, state, local or private entities. Throughout our region the primary land managers are Santa Barbara County Fire and the United States Forest Service.

On the screen is a photograph of a prescribed burn that the United States Forest Service conducted near Painted Cave earlier this year. Other land managers in our region include the National Park Service, Vandenberg Space Force Base, State Parks, University of California Santa Barbara and the Santa Barbara Cattlemen's Association. The District supports prescribed burning as a vegetation management tool for reducing the risk of wildfires, which produce more harmful smoke and ash for longer durations and at unpredictable times. The District's Smoke Management Program is designed to minimize smoke impacts to the public By providing early and comprehensive outreach about upcoming burns so that people, especially sensitive groups like children, seniors and those with heart and lung conditions can take proactive steps to protect themselves from any smoke impacts.

The Smoke Management Program also helps prevent exceedances of federal and state ambient air quality standards. There are four main components of the district's smoke management program. Smoke Management Plans, Ignition Authorization Requests, Smoke Impact Monitoring and Prescribed Burn Outreach. On the screen is a photo from the 2024 UCSB Lagoon prescribed burn.

This burn was conducted by Santa Barbara County Fire in conjunction with UCSB. UCSB professors and students were able to utilize the burn for research, so this photo was taken right after ignition and county fire can be seen spraying water to lessen the flames which causes a slower burn and allows for more complete combustion. Next slide please The first step toward completing a prescribed burn in Santa Barbara County is the submittal of a Smoke Management Plan, or SMP.

Land managers submit SMPs through the Prescribed Fire Information Reporting System, or PFIRS for district review and approval. The primary goal of the SMP is to define the ideal prescription for conducting a successful burn while minimizing air quality impacts. SMPs include burn info, ideal burning conditions, smoke sensitive areas, project maps and smoke mitigation measures.

Additionally the SMP includes the land manager's public outreach methods. The district requires a two-step notification process that involves the district and land manager issuing a joint news release 2 to 3 weeks prior to the burn and jointly issuing a media advisory on the morning or day prior to the burn. Smoke management plans take a lot of time for land managers to put together and require frequent communication with district staff.

If an SMP needs to be amended, the district returns it to the land manager with comments and the land manager addresses the comments and resubmits. Once the smoke management plan is complete, the district approves it and shares it with neighboring air agencies. This includes San Luis Obispo County, Ventura County, and San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District.

Next slide please.

After receiving approval for their smoke management plan and prior to burning, the land manager submits an ignition authorization request in PFIRS. Prior to approving an ignition request, district staff review the National Weather Service forecast and a district's air quality forecast for ozone and particulate matter for the proposed burn date. Staff will check forecasted temperature, wind speed, wind direction, relative humidity and mixing height to ensure forecasted conditions align with the prescription included in the SMP and that they're conducive to smoke lift and dispersion.

District staff will also generate a smoke model that predicts cumulative impacts of smoke from the prescribed burn and will review forecasted air quality conditions to determine if a burn has the potential to cause an exceedance. In the days leading up to the prescribed burn, staff discuss forecasted conditions with CARB and provide input on burn day decisions based on what we may be seeing locally.

Lastly, staff will check the CARB burn day decision forecast to see if the proposed prescribed burn dates are predicted to be burn days. In 2025, CARB allowed burning in our air basin on 346 out of 365 days which is approximately 95% of the year. After reviewing all available information, staff will decide whether to approve an ignition request. If ignition authorization is granted, staff will inform the land manager of the ideal window for burning based on the forecast and smoke models.

On the screen is a blue sky run that staff provided to the United States Forest Service after approving ignition of a prescribed burn last month. The blue sky smoke run shows the anticipated smoke plume expressed as PM 2.5 from a prescribed burn based on forecasted meteorological data and burn info. District staff used this modeling tool prior to granting ignition approval to visualize the prescribed burned smoke path.

Most ignition requests are approved by the district. However, land managers do not always decide to burn. If weather conditions are not within the identified fire prescription, land managers will not burn. Between April 2016 and April 2026, the district received 352 ignition requests. Of these requests 18 or about 5% were denied due to anticipated poor smoke lift and dispersion.

The decision to deny an ignition request is made after extensive discussions with CARB meteorologists and the land manager, and is a joint decision by the district and land manager. After approving a smoke management plan and receiving an ignition request, staff work to deploy a portable air quality monitor called an Environmental Beta Attenuation Monitor or E-BAM near the prescribed burn if it is determined that the E-BAM would be a useful supplement to air quality readings from the district's permanent air monitoring network and low cost sensors.

E-bams are usually set up at schools or medical buildings and staff across multiple divisions are trained to handle e-bam deployment. Once deployed, the e-bam's AQI readings will appear on the Air Now Fire & Smoke map. Next slide. For burns that occur near sensitive receptors, district staff will be on site collecting meteorological data, participating in a safety briefing and sharing the spot forecast and latest available meteorological data with the fire crew.

If staff are not onsite they will remain in contact with the land manager throughout the burn and check nearby monitors to record air quality readings. To preempt impacts to the public or the environment, anticipated concerns and our documented observations are conveyed to the land manager in real time for evaluation and response. In rare circumstances if necessary due to smoke impacts staff will work with a land manager or burn boss to stop the burn however it is not always possible to immediately stop the burn and can depend on the terrain burn type and other factors If the district receives complaints from the public about a prescribed burn, staff contact the reporting party as quickly as possible.