Bay Area Air Quality Management District

The District launched the now-current name and brand logo in January 2025.

History

The first meeting of the Bay Area Air Pollution Control District (as it was initially known) board of directors was on November 16, 1955, possessing the duty of regulating the sources of stationary air pollution in the San Francisco Bay Area, that is, most sources of air pollution with the exception of automobiles and aircraft.

• 1957 - The Air District banned open burning at wrecking yards;
• 1958 - The Air District limited industrial emissions in 1958;
• 1958 - the Air District opened its first analytical laboratory;
• 1960 - The Air District banned open burning at dumps;
• 1962 - Ambient air monitoring network established;
• 1968 - The Air District later began to regulate agricultural burning in 1968;
• 1970 - Backyard burning banned;
• 1971 - the Air District adopted emissions standards for lead;
• 1971 - Napa, Solano, and Sonoma counties became members of the Air District;
• 1972 - The Air District began making daily air quality broadcasts through the "smog phone";
• 1972 - The board adopted the first odor regulation in the United States;
• 1974 - California's first gasoline vapor recovery program was started;
• 1975 - The country's first air quality ozone model was completed by the Air District;
• 1978 - The Bay Area Air Pollution Control District changed its name to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District;
• 1980 - The Air District proposed a "Smog Check" program, one that would be adopted statewide by 1982.
• 1989 - The Air District adopted the nation's first limits on emissions from commercial bakeries and marine vessel loading;
• 1990 - The Air District adopted regulations for emissions from aerosol spray products;
• 1991 - The Spare the Air program was started, made to notify the public of when air quality is forecast to exceed federal standards;
• 1996 - The Air District founded its vehicle buyback program, intended to buy and scrap older, more polluting automobiles;
• 1998 - The Air District began administrating the Carl Moyer Program to reduce emissions by upgrading heavy-duty diesel engines;
• 1998 and 1999 - The Air District took steps to reduce particulate matter, primarily through regulating woodburning appliances and monitoring particulate matter through pre-existing air quality monitoring stations;
• 2005 - The Air District began to regulate emissions from refinery flares;
• 2008 - The Board passed a law that makes the previously voluntary compliance with wood burning regulations a crime. Citizens wishing to use wood burning appliances during winter months now must check if a Spare the Air alert is in effect, which would prohibit residential wood burning, with certain exemptions.