Memorandum
Date: July 22, 2025
To: The Honorable Lake County Board of Supervisors
From: Douglas Gearhart, APCO
Subject: Sitting as the Lake County Air Quality Management District Board of Directors Continued Discussion of the Draft Replacement Fee Schedule (Rules 660-668)
Executive Summary:
The Lake County Air Quality Management District (District) is required to follow the legal process outlined in California Health and Safety Code (CA H&SC) in order to adopt new rules or fees, modify existing rules, and repeal rules. This is a continuation of the discussion from the workshop and hearing held on June 10, 2025 and July 15, 2025.
As you know, the District is proposing to repeal the existing fee rules and replace them with a new fee rule and structure. The new structure is intended to provide clarity and better transparency to the District fees. The fee rule proposed is considered a new rule under CA H&SC 41512 .7 and 42311. The structure of the fee is changing significantly, every permit will undergo reassessment for the new structure and a new permit incorporating all the necessary changes and updates will be issued to each source. This review will take upwards of 4 months to process the over 600 existing permitted facilities. The District has not increased fees since 1996, other than implementation of burn permit fees in 2003 and annual CPI adjustments. The industries emitting air pollution affected by these permits have received significant economic advantages for the past 30 years due to the undercharging of actual costs. The proposed fee increase is to bring all sources emitting air pollution to a point where they are paying the cost of the regulatory programs required by law to regulate their contribution to air pollution within the community. The District has carried these programs for many years, but due to increasing requirements and additional mandates, the District is unable to keep up and can not continue to meet our obligations which impacts e...
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