Oceano Dunes dust reduction target could be revised. Here’s what that means
After years of working toward a specific goal to reduce unhealthy emissions from Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area (ODSVRA), the target may soon be moved.
A group of scientific advisers who help guide California State Parks in their management of emissions at the popular off-roading park in southwestern San Luis Obispo County want to modify how much dust emitted from the dunes the agency is required to curtail.
Previously, State Parks had been working toward a goal of a 50% reduction in emissions compared to 2013 baseline levels — or from 182.2 metric tons of fine particulate matter (PM10) emitted per day to 91.4 metric tons per day. That was set out in the 2019 stipulated order of abatement between the state agency and the San Luis Obispo County Air Pollution Control District.
But on Thursday, the scientific advisory group presented to the California Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Commission new evidence that the 50% reduction goal was set too high and based on data that didn’t accurately reflect how off-roading on the dunes had impacted emissions.
That’s because the old goal compared emissions at an air quality sensor downwind of the riding area at the dunes to an air quality sensor downwind of an undisturbed dune area near Oso Flaco Lake. But dunes near the Oso Flaco air quality sensor are significantly covered by an invasive weed species that naturally reduces emissions, therefore skewing the target.
The group suggested modifying the stipulated order of abatement to require State Parks mitigate emissions at a lower standard: Down 40.7% from 2013 baseline levels, or to 108.4 metric tons of PM10 emitted per day.
The scientific advisory group suggested the change after an extensive study estimated the amount of dust emitted back in 1939 — which was before the area boomed with off-roading vehicles. Achieving 1939-levels of emissions from the dunes would be ideal, according to Raleigh Martin, chair of the scientific advisory group and a researcher with the National Science Foundation.
“This new target ... is based on the idea of trying to achieve a level of PM10 mass emissions comparable to conditions that existed prior to significant OHV (off-highway vehicle) disturbance within the ODSVRA riding area,” Martin said during the commission’s meeting Thursday.
State Parks is on its way to achieving this goal. As of 2021, the agency had reduced emissions by 22.3%, according to Martin.
By the end of this year — if State Parks can implement all of the dust mitigation measures it has been approved to do — it’s projected to reduce emissions by 31.7%, Martin said during the meeting.
State Parks is required to reduce its emissions by the original goal, 50%, by the end of 2023, according to the stipulated order of abatement. Should the local Air Pollution Control District change the goal to the suggested 40.7%, that would mean State Parks will be more likely to achieve it.
OHMVR commissioners unhappy with dust mitigation measures at Oceano Dunes
But commissioners with the Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Commission weren’t entirely pleased with the updated target.
They want State Parks to withdraw completely from the stipulated order of abatement.
“The stipulated order of abatement has been a disaster for the user experience,” said commissioner Roger Salazar of Sacramento during Thursday’s meeting.
Salazar and others on the nine-person commission argued that any more dust mitigation measures within the Oceano Dunes riding area were unacceptable because of how they have fenced off hundreds of acres of recreational area within the park.
By the end of 2021, a total of 323 acres were blocked off for various dust mitigation measures. These include temporary sand fencing, revegetation and foredune restoration.
The California Coastal Commission recently allowed an additional 90 acres to be installed this year, although that is now halted under a temporary restraining order after a lawsuit was filed by the off-roading advocacy group Friends of Oceano Dunes.
About 900 acres of the 3,600-acre ODSVRA are currently open to off-roading.
Commissioners said they accept the fact that State Parks needs to reduce emissions coming from the park but want to stop any further emissions reduction measures from blocking off any more off-roading areas.
“We shouldn’t be using OHV dollars ... to mitigate things that OHV is not causing,” said commissioner Kimberlina Whettam of Woodland Hills during Thursday’s meeting.
To date, State Parks has spent more than $22 million on dust mitigation measures at the Oceano Dunes from the state’s OHV Trust Fund, which primarily sources its funding from the state’s gas and diesel tax revenue. Other sources of the fund include registration fees for OHVs and some park entrance fees.
Confusion on what emissions reduction target means
Whettam in her comments was referencing a recent study from UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography that shows about 14% of the pollution measured downwind of the dunes is dust, whereas the remainder was materials such as salt and water blown in from the ocean.
She notes that if dust is only 14% of the pollution, then “we’ve mitigated our impact, we’ve reduced the emissions sufficiently” based on the 50% or 40.7% emissions reduction targets.
But the 50% or 40.7% emissions reduction targets are based on total emissions, not just the dust emitted from the dunes.
Although the scientific advisory group does not have data from 1939 to measure how much of the total PM10 emissions were comprised of dust, it says that overall PM10 emissions coming from the dunes at that time were significantly lower compared to recent measurements.
Through that data and various other peer-reviewed studies, the group has long come to the firm conclusion that off-roading on the Oceano Dunes has caused greater dust emissions. Therefore, the group asserts that dust mitigation measures within the riding area are necessary to reduce such unnatural pollution clouding the downwind communities.
But despite explanations of this fact during Thursday’s meeting by Armando Quintero, State Parks director, Sarah Miggins, deputy director of the Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Division at State Parks, and members of the scientific advisory group, Whettam and other commissioners said that any more dust mitigation measures at the Oceano Dunes should be placed outside of the off-roading area — therefore reducing and naturally occurring dust emissions, not OHV-caused dust emissions.
The commissioners said during Thursday’s meeting they will pen a letter to the San Luis Obispo County Air Pollution Control District advocating that State Parks consider withdrawing from the stipulated order of abatement. In the case that the agency does not withdraw, the commissioners said their letter will address where any further dust mitigation measures should go, and that funding for such measures should not come from the OHV Trust Fund.
The county Air Pollution Control District Hearing Board will hold a meeting to discuss the stipulated order of abatement on March 23 starting at 9 a.m.
This story was originally published February 23, 2022 at 10:00 AM.
