Policy Background: The South Coast Air Quality Management District

Abstract

In this chapter, we review the background of the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD), the agency responsible for regulating polluting industries in the Southern California region. The origins of the AQMD can be traced to the emergence of air pollution in the Southern California region during that 1940s that was caused by the region’s economic and population growth. The causes of air pollution and policy solutions were poorly understood at the time. The State of California created the Los Angeles County Air Pollution Control District (APCD) in 1947. The federal government finally intervened with the passage of the Clean Air Act of 1970. The State of California created the AQMD in 1977 to monitor and enforce air pollution control rules and regulations in Southern California in compliance with the Clean Air Act of 1970. The official jurisdiction of the AQMD covers all of Orange County and the nondesert portions of Los Angeles, RiversideRiverside county, and San BernardinoSan Bernardino county counties, a region covering approximately 10,473 square miles and home to approximately 17 million people.