SECTION 1.

 The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(a) Existing law imposes various limitations on emissions of air contaminants for the control of air pollution from vehicular and nonvehicular sources. Existing law generally designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency with the primary responsibility for the control of vehicular air pollution, and the air pollution control districts or the air quality management districts with the primary responsibility for the control of air pollution from all sources other than vehicular sources, including stationary sources. Existing law allows air pollution control districts and air quality management districts to adopt and implement regulations to reduce or mitigate emissions from indirect and areawide sources of air pollution to achieve attainment of state ambient air quality standards.

(b) The people of California have a right to know when industrial or commercial operations result in emission of toxic air contaminants that may pose a significant health risk to the people exposed to those emissions.

(c) Diesel-fueled trucks are responsible for 33 percent of statewide oxides of nitrogen emissions annually. These same trucks emit more particulate matter than all of the state’s powerplants.

(d) People who live near stationary sources that attract truck traffic are at high risk for exposure to these health-threatening air pollutants emitted by these medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, and communities near freeways and busy roadways have compounded health risk due to near-constant exposure to criteria air pollutants.

(e) In 1998, the State Air Resources Board identified diesel particulate matter as a toxic air contaminant based on published evidence of a relationship between diesel exhaust exposure and lung cancer.

(f) Diesel particulate matter also contributes to noncancer health effects, such as premature death, hospitalizations, and emergency department visits for exacerbated chronic heart and lung diseases, including asthma, increased respiratory symptoms, and decreased lung function in children.

(g) Children are particularly vulnerable to the negative effect of diesel particulate matter because they have higher respiratory rates than adults and this can increase their exposure to air pollutants relative to their body weight.

(h) Increased respiratory symptoms, such as coughing, wheezing, runny nose, and doctor-diagnosed asthma, have been linked to traffic exposure.

(i) Reducing emissions of these pollutants can have an immediate beneficial impact on air quality and public health.

(j) Existing law does not provide local air pollution control districts and air quality management districts sufficient data collection and enforcement authority to reduce health risks associated with toxic air contaminants, such as diesel particulate matter. This authority would also allow air pollution control districts and air quality management districts to adopt and implement regulations requiring local and areawide stationary sources to provide data on vehicular traffic drawn by stationary sources and other operational data to better calculate local health risks created by the stationary sources.

(k) The state should therefore move swiftly to provide this authority to local air pollution control districts and air quality management districts to encourage air districts to provide incentives to stationary sources to transition to cleaner vehicle fleets, change operations, or take other actions that would reduce the health risk to residents from toxic air contaminants.