Cities seek voice on air-quality

By consensus rather than a formal vote, Anderson’s five-member city council directed City Manager Dana Shigley to seek city representation on the Shasta County Air Pollution Control Board.

Shigley will join with her counterparts in Redding and the city of Shasta Lake in negotiating the particulars with Larry Lees, Shasta County’s administrative officer.

Under jurisdiction of the California Environmental Protection Agency, the state is divided into 28 air pollution control districts and seven air quality management districts that report to the state’s Air Resources Board.

The districts — either county-wide or regional in jurisdiction — deal primarily with controlling air pollution from stationary sources and for developing rules and standards for potential industrial and commercial development, Shigley informed the council in her background statement.

Shasta County’s Air Quality Management District is governed by a five-person board of directors and historically, the county’s board of supervisors have served a dual role as members of the county’s air pollution control board, Shigley noted.

In 1994, state legislators passed a bill allowing cities to seek representation on the local air pollution control board and for nearly five years, from 1994 until 1999, negotiations took place between Shasta County and its cities to try to reach agreement on how many members an enlarged board would have and how many representatives from each government entity would be required.

“No agreement was reached, however, and in 1999 the matter was dropped,” Shigley said.

As long as matters addressed by the county’s air pollution control board were considered routine and non-controversial, the county’s three cities remained complacent with the status quo.

Lately, due mostly to legislation such as Assembly Bill 32 and Senate Bill 375 that seek to impose new air quality standards that might adversely impact all jurisdictions, the Redding City Council voted to pursue anew the issue of membership on Shasta County’s Air Quality Control Board, Shigley noted.

“I think that if the City of Redding is going to be there, then the City of Anderson should also be there,” she said.

Mayor Norma Comnick then polled other members of the council and heard affirmative statements from Debe Hopkins, John Day and James Yarbrough.

Comnick then directed city staff “to move ahead with negotiations.”