Coalition
Coalition for Reasonable Regulation of Naturally Occurring Substances v. California Air Resources Board
Opinion
Opinion
Blease, J.
This is an appeal from a judgment which upheld an Air Resources Board (Board) regulation that barred the sale and supply of rock which contains asbestos for the surfacing of unpaved roads.
The plaintiffs, mining and construction industry groups, challenge the Board’s compliance with the Tanner Act (Health & Saf. Code, § 39650 et seq.) and with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
The Tanner Act provides for the identification and regulation of toxic air contaminants by airborne toxic control measures (called an ATCM). The Board is the state agency primarily responsible for implementation of the Act. It has identified asbestos as a toxic air contaminant that has no safe level of exposure for human health. (Cal. Code Regs., tit. 17, § 93000; hereafter Regulations, section 93000.) The Act authorizes the Board “to reduce emissions [of toxic air contaminants] to the lowest level achievable through application of [the] best available control technology . . . .” (§ 39666, subd. (c).)
The Board exercised this authority in adopting the 2000 ATCM. It reduces from 5 percent to less than 0.25 percent (the minimum detectable level) the amount of naturally occurring…