West Mojave Plan FEIR/S - Desert Managers Group

constituted a majority of the total PM 10 emissions.The original Searles Valley PM 10 Planning Area abutted the Owens Valley PM 10 Planningarea on the north and included Rose Valley, Indian Wells Valley and Searles Valley. TheUSEPA recently broke the federal nonattainment area into three separate nonattainment areasbased upon the county lines. These three new federal nonattainment areas are called the CosoJunction, the Indian Wells Valley and the Trona PM 10 nonattainment areas. Emission sourcesidentified in the SIP include construction/demolition, public unpaved roads, paved roads, mobilesources, unplanned fires, public disturbed areas, fuel combustion (cogeneration boiler and stacksat Trona), North American fugitive, industrial roads, agricultural fields and military activities. In1990 there was an estimated 3.98, 4.76 and 9.18 tons/day of PM 10 emissions in the CosoJunction, Indian Wells Valley and Trona nonattainment areas respectively. Activities on BLMlands are estimated to contribute 8% of the total PM 10 emissions in the Trona nonattainment area.The primary source of BLM emissions is OHV activity and unpaved road travel in the SpanglerHills Open Area and surrounding areas. The Trona PM 10 SIP targets the BLM emissions for a20% reduction. The Kern County APCD and Mojave Desert AQMD have developed rules toimplement the SIPs. Current monitoring data has not indicated any recent exceedances of theNAAQS in any of these three nonattainment areas. As a result, documents have been preparedfor the three areas requesting a reclassification from nonattainment to maintenance.The USEPA classified the San Bernardino County desert area as a PM 10 non-attainmentarea on January 20, 1994. The Mojave Desert AQMD prepared a “Particulate Matter (PM 10 )Control Strategy Plan” and submitted it to the state for inclusion into the state SIP. The USEPArecently disapproved the plan and returned it to the Mojave Desert AQMD for revision. Emissionsources identified in the plan include construction/ demolition, city and county unpaved roadstravel and wind erosion, paved road entrainment, city and county disturbed areas and industrialactivities. Four BLM open areas (Stoddard Valley, Johnson Valley, Rasor, and El Mirage) arewithin the nonattainment area and the West Mojave planning area. The draft plan called forBLM to prepare a Dust Control Plan for activities within the core problem area of thenonattainment area. At the present time there is no approved SIP for the nonattainment area toguide actions there. Currently new rules are being drafted to come into compliance withUSEPA. These new rules will likely require BLM to prepare dust control plans for the entirefederal nonattainment area.Ozone: The South Coast Air Basin and the San Joaquin Valley Air Basin are bothfederal non-attainment areas for ozone. Much of the ozone pollution in the desert has beentransported in from those two areas. Several studies have looked at the ozone pollution problemin the desert areas. The studies show that the peak ozone levels do not correspond to the peaktemperatures and ultraviolet (UV) levels, but are occurring much later in the day indicating thatthe ozone is being formed down wind and is being transported into the area from its source bythe prevailing winds. Heavily impacted areas by ozone transport include the Victorville-Barstowarea, the Antelope Valley and Joshua Tree National Park. The NAAQS for ozone do notrecognize transport as a factor in their standards. As a result, the USEPA has classified most ofthe Salton Sea and Mojave Desert Air Basins as non-attainment areas for ozone. The onlyexception is a strip along the northern and eastern edge of San Bernardino County that isexcluded from the federal ozone nonattainment area. The state standards allow for theChapter 3 3-54