Owning Our Air is the AB617 West Oakland community-led plan to reduce emissions of toxic air contaminants (TACs) and exposure to TACs in the West Oakland community. Owning Our Air is a collaboration between community activists, neighbors, business leaders, government representatives, the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project (WOEIP) and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (Air District). Owning Our Air includes strategies to reduce emissions and exposure to emissions through changes in land use and truck management policies addressing truck idling, parking, and routing; investment in cleaner on- and off-road equipment, biofilters, and air filtration; and the expansion and accelerated implementation of existing health, transportation and land use programs and plans. In addition, Owning Our Air includes measures to expand existing Air District and California Air Resources Board (CARB) air quality enforcement activities within West Oakland to address local emissions.

This presentation will examine the ways that Owning Our Air builds on and expands the Air District’s existing research and relationships with the West Oakland community. For example, by augmenting regional air quality modeling data with local data, Owning Our Air seeks to understand both existing emissions and exposure to emissions at a neighborhood scale, block by block. In addition, building on existing relationships, WOEIP and the Air District entered into an equal partnership and shared responsibility for marshalling resources and providing data and direction to a Community Steering Committee. WOEIP and the Air District guide the Steering Committee, but the Steering Committee is the final decision-making body for development and implementation of Owning Our Air. These factors contributed to creating the community approved Owning Our Air and chart a path forward for others to create local air quality plans that reflect the voices and values of the community that created them.

California’s Assembly Bill 617 requires the state’s regional air districts to develop community emission reduction program plans in partnership with communities excessively burdened with air pollution and related health problems. This unprecedented legislation is intended to honor community knowledge and elevate residents’ voices on par with those of air district professionals, bringing a participatory planning framework to air quality management. Additionally, AB 617 localizes air quality management from the regional to the community-scale.

This presentation assesses the progress of AB 617 in meeting its ambitious policy goals. It draws on a statewide evaluation and an in-depth case study of one of its implanting communities (West Oakland). The study documents the challenges, successes, and equity-forward methodologies of the implementation process using data from in-depth interviews, surveys and participant observation. Key findings include the need for building agency and community capacities for improved partnership development; the value of community-led planning; the difficult balance between state-wide policies and place-based implementation; and importance of applying an environmental justice framework. The West Oakland AB 617 Community Air Action Plan proposes creative solutions to long-standing air pollution puzzles by fostering cross-sector collaboration between government, the private sector, and the public. This research also investigates the applicability of AB 617 innovations from West Oakland in other environmental policy contexts and the scalability of the localized solutions AB 617 generates. Public health, policy, and planning professionals can learn from the lessons of the AB 617 process in West Oakland and throughout the diverse communities of California.

This presentation will provide observations on key lessons and implications of the West Oakland experience based on his decades-long involvement as a U.S. EPA environmental justice practitioner with this community. Comments will address both process and outcomes of this long-term collaboration between the community, agencies and other stakeholders in evaluating and addressing disproportionate impacts affecting a largely minority community. The purpose of this commentary is to kick off robust panelist and audience discussion.