Bay Area Air District

The Bay Area Air District is the regional agency in California that regulates stationary sources of air pollution in the 9-county Bay Area region which includes Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, southwestern Solano, and southern Sonoma counties. Created in 1955, the Air District was the first regional air pollution control agency in the country. It is governed by a 24-member Board of Directors composed of locally elected officials from each of the nine Bay Area counties. In the San Francisco Bay Area, the Air District permits over 10,000 air pollution sources and equipment. The Air District created the Spare the Air Program in 1991 to provide the public with advance notice when air quality is expected to be unhealthy, educate residents about air pollution, and encourage actions to improve air quality in the Bay Area. The Spare the Air Program, asks residents to reduce air pollution by making clean air choices every day such as walking and biking more often, taking transit, telecommuting or carpooling, driving less, reducing energy consumption at home, and not burning in their fireplaces during the winter months.