Crowd Sourcing of Environmental Data Act of 2019

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 1284 To amend the Clean Air Act to give States the option of monitoring covered criteria air pollutants in designated areas by greatly increasing the num- ber of air quality sensors in exchange for greater regulatory flexibility in the methods of monitoring, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FEBRUARY 14, 2019 Mr. SCHWEIKERT (for himself, Mr. CA´RDENAS, and Mr. AGUILAR) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce A BILL To amend the Clean Air Act to give States the option of monitoring covered criteria air pollutants in designated areas by greatly increasing the number of air quality sensors in exchange for greater regulatory flexibility in the methods of monitoring, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Crowd Sourcing of En- 4 vironmental Data Act of 2019’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:12 Mar 01, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1284.IH H1284 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 1284 IH SEC. 2. OPTION FOR EXPANDED MONITORING. 1 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 110(a) of the Clean Air 2 Act (42 U.S.C. 7410(a)) is amended by inserting after 3 paragraph (3) the following: 4 ‘‘(4) OPTION FOR EXPANDED MONITORING.— 5 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Any State may include in 6 a State implementation plan a program for moni- 7 toring one or more covered criteria air pollutants in 8 one or more designated areas by— 9 ‘‘(i) continuing to use the monitoring sys- 10 tem (including for purposes of baseline meas- 11 urements) that was in operation as of the sub- 12 mission of the revision to the plan; and 13 ‘‘(ii) greatly increasing the number of air 14 quality sensors, which may include mobile sen- 15 sors, for such monitoring system. 16 ‘‘(B) STATE DISCRETION.—Subject to subpara- 17 graphs (C) and (D), the Administrator shall allow a 18 State to make a revision to a State implementation 19 plan in accordance with subparagraph (A) at the 20 State’s discretion. 21 ‘‘(C) ENSURING QUALITY.—On an annual basis, 22 each State that conducts monitoring pursuant to 23 this paragraph, as a condition on the continuation of 24 such monitoring, shall demonstrate to the Adminis- 25 trator that the quality of the data produced through 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:12 Mar 01, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1284.IH H1284 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 1284 IH such monitoring meets all applicable data quality 1 standards under this Act. 2 ‘‘(D) REVIEW BY ADMINISTRATOR.—A State’s 3 annual demonstration under subparagraph (C) is 4 deemed to have met the standard described in such 5 subparagraph unless the Administrator issues a 6 written response— 7 ‘‘(i) finding that such standard is not met; 8 and 9 ‘‘(ii) explaining the basis for such finding. 10 ‘‘(E) GREATER REGULATORY FLEXIBILITY.— 11 With respect to each designated area in which a 12 State conducts monitoring pursuant to this para- 13 graph, the Administrator— 14 ‘‘(i) shall not require any particular meth- 15 od of monitoring to be used or not used, so long 16 as the data derived from such monitoring meets 17 all applicable data quality standards under this 18 Act, as described in subparagraph (C); and 19 ‘‘(ii) shall allow the State involved to con- 20 sider data derived from monitoring pursuant to 21 this paragraph in making any determination on 22 whether an exceedance of the national ambient 23 air quality standard for the criteria air pollut- 24 ant involved has occurred. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:12 Mar 01, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1284.IH H1284 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •HR 1284 IH ‘‘(F) DEFINITIONS.—In this paragraph: 1 ‘‘(i) The term ‘covered criteria air pollut- 2 ant’ means an air pollutant for which air qual- 3 ity criteria have been issued under section 4 108(a), except that such term does not include 5 carbon monoxide or nitrogen dioxide. 6 ‘‘(ii) The term ‘designated area’ means an 7 area that is designated under section 107(d) as 8 being in nonattainment, in attainment, or 9 unclassifiable.’’. 10 (b) REGULATIONS.—Not later than 12 months after 11 the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator of 12 the Environmental Protection Agency shall promulgate 13 final regulations to implement section 110(a)(4) of the 14 Clean Air Act, as added by subsection (a). Such regula- 15 tions shall specify how a State must demonstrate to the 16 Administrator, as required by subparagraph (C) of such 17 section 110(a)(4), that the quality of the data produced 18 through monitoring pursuant to such section 110(a)(4) is 19 at least as good as the quality of the data that would be 20 produced for the respective air pollutants in the respective 21 areas if the State did not exercise the option to conduct 22 monitoring pursuant to such section 110(a)(4). 23 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:12 Mar 01, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H1284.IH H1284 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS