SCAQMD Appoints Wayne Nastri as Acting Executive Officer

On April 1, 2016 the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) governing board, comprised of 13 members, voted unanimously to appoint Wayne Nastri, a former (2001-2009) EPA Region IX administrator, to serve an interim six- month term as acting SCAQMD Executive Officer while the Board continues it’s comprehensive nationwide search to seek a permanent position replacement. In March of this year, the SCAQMD Board voted to remove long-time SCAQMD Ex- ecutive Officer Barry Wallerstein who occupied the position for the past 23 years until his recent dismissal.

The SCAQMD is a Southern California regulatory agency responsible for main- taining air quality standards and regulatory enforcement over the four county (Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino) region it is tasked with oversee- ing. While occupying the position Mr. Nastri will be responsible for ensuring the creation and implementation of governing board approved plans and policy aimed at reducing air quality pollution generated from stationary sources.

The SCAQMD Executive Officer is responsible for overseeing a staff of 800 peo- ple and a budget of 137 million dollars annually. Upcoming air quality challenges that the SCAQMD will need to plan for includes achieving compliance with the new federally-mandated ozone standards. In 2015, the EPA passed legislation aimed at reducing the existing National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone concentrations from 75 parts per billion (ppb) to 70ppb.

Areas designated as non-attainment status for the ozone NAAQS will be required to find ways to reduce both NOx and VOC emissions to achieve future compli- ance with the new ozone standards.