Legal Definitions - air-quality-control region

An air-quality-control region is a specific geographical area identified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) where multiple communities experience shared air pollution challenges. These regions are established to enable coordinated efforts to monitor air quality and implement strategies to improve it, often spanning across state lines or encompassing a significant portion of a single state. The goal is to manage and reduce pollution that affects the air people breathe in that particular area.

• Example 1: Imagine a densely industrialized corridor along the Ohio River, where factories and power plants in parts of Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania all contribute to smog and particulate matter that drifts across state borders. The EPA might designate this entire stretch as an air-quality-control region. This designation would allow the federal government to coordinate air quality monitoring and pollution reduction efforts across all three states, ensuring that emissions from one state don't disproportionately harm communities in another, and that a unified strategy is developed to improve the air for everyone living there.

• Example 2: Consider a large metropolitan area like the Los Angeles Basin in California. Due to its unique geography (surrounded by mountains that trap air) and a high concentration of vehicles and industrial sources, air pollution, particularly smog, is a persistent problem affecting millions of residents across numerous cities and counties within the state. The EPA would designate this entire basin as an air-quality-control region to facilitate a comprehensive, unified approach to monitoring air quality and implementing pollution control measures that address the shared atmospheric challenges across the vast urban expanse.

• Example 3: In a vast agricultural area, such as the San Joaquin Valley in California, air quality can be significantly impacted by dust from farming operations, emissions from agricultural equipment, and ammonia from livestock, alongside other sources like wildfires. If these widespread sources create a common air pollution problem affecting numerous rural and urban communities throughout the valley, the EPA could designate it as an air-quality-control region. This would enable a coordinated effort to monitor and improve air quality across the entire agricultural landscape, addressing the specific types of pollution prevalent in that environment.