Board approves 2024 AB2588 toxic hot spots annual report; no public comment at hearing

The Ventura County Air Pollution Control Board unanimously approved the district’s 2024 annual report for the Air Toxics ‘Hot Spots’ Program (AB2588), which documents facility screening, prioritization and health risk assessment outcomes for 2024.

Wanna Au, air quality engineer for the district’s air toxics section, summarized the program’s four-step process: facilities prepare a toxic emissions inventory, staff confirm inventories, the district conducts prioritization scores and health risk assessments as needed, and affected facilities must notify the public and propose risk reduction plans when significant risks are identified. "Facilities that are identified as potentially having significant rates are required to notify the public of those rates and to develop plans to reduce those rates," Au told the board.

The 2024 report lists facilities evaluated in 2024, includes appendices with prioritization scores and health risk assessment results, and notes a list of smaller “industrialized facilities” (for example gasoline stations and auto body shops). Staff stated that during 2024 the district evaluated 16 new facilities, of which three progressed to formal health risk assessments that were also reviewed by the state Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA).

Staff recommended board approval of the annual report; no public speakers requested to comment at the hearing. The board approved the report and the record will reflect staff’s planned monitoring and any required follow-up under AB2588 for facilities that exceed health-risk thresholds.