Potential Warehouse Fees and Pollution Mitigation Requirements being Considered for all of San Diego County Warehouses
SDAPCD will be conducting a public hearing on June 8, 2023, at 2:00 p.m., before the San Diego County Air Pollution Control District Governing Board for the purpose of receiving public comments on an update on strategies and options under consideration to reduce indirect source emissions from warehouses, distribution centers, and ports in San Diego County.
The proposal under consideration would establish a fee to fund the air district’s plan (similar to Rule 2305 established in the LA area) even though this measure is being litigated in LA and as stated in the report this measure in San Diego would be “the costliest measure the District has ever enacted in terms of the compliance costs per pound of reduced emissions.” The new plan would impact all warehouse100,000 square feet or larger.
Affected warehouses must earn a certain number of points annually, depending on the number of truck trips made to and from the warehouse each year as tracked by the operator. To earn points, warehouses must complete any combination of items from a menu of several different implementation measures, including buying and/or using zero-emission or ultra-low NOx on-road trucks, zero-emission cargo handling equipment, zero emission charging and fueling infrastructure, solar panels, or indoor particulate filters for nearby sensitive land uses.
What the District may not know is that many warehouse operators do not own trucks, so how would they even garner points? Only through setting up very expensive solar panel equipment? We invite you to carefully read the proposal and voice your opinion.
Copies of the report summarizing the potential options for consideration can be found here. A video summary of the item can also be found here in English or here in Spanish.