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3.Response to Comments L Commenter suggests that the County could have conducted ambient air quality dispersion modeling to evaluate whether ambient air quality standards would be violated, or the County t could have used short-term significance thresholds developed by other air districts to screen for 6, significance of criteria pollutant emissions. See Response to Comment B-10. L Response to Comment B-14 V, Commenter states that the significance criteria are incomplete because the Draji EIR relied solely on emission thresholds to determine the significance of ProjectNOx and ROG emissions and these thresholds are not intended to be standalone environmental policies. Commenter L references court rulings from Communities for a Better Environment v. Calif. Resources Agency, 103 Cal.App. 4th 98, 109 (2002)and Mejia v. City of Los Angeles, 13 CaLApp.4th 322(2005), Lto support this statement. The thresholds of significance used in the DEIR are identified and discussed in Section 4.6.2. Where quantitative thresholds are used,they are selected based on local and state standards,and the professional judgment of the lead agency and its consultants. It is correct that regulatory standards should not to be considered de facto CEQA thresholds (per the Communities for a Better Environment decision). However,health-based quantitative standards may be used when supported by substantial evidence. The emission thresholds for criteria pollutants relied upon in the DEIR are based on the SJVAPCD's Guide for Assessing and Mitigating Air Quality Impacts (GAMAOI). The GAMAQI is prepared to assist lead agencies in the preparation of CEQA documents, and should be differentiated from those instances where a lead agency uses a regulatory standard taken out of context. It should be noted that Mejia v. Los Angeles concerns the use of a regulatory standard in order to avoid preparation of an EIR. That is not the case here,where an EIR was prepared, and the EIR found significant and unavoidable impacts related to air quality. In addition, the fair argument standard quoted in the comment only applies to negative declarations,not EIRs. L Response to Comment B-15 LCommenter states that the DEIR wrongly concludes that the emission estimates for the project construction would be less than significant. Commenter states that the Project's construction phase would result in significant adverse impacts on trlr quality during construction due to NOx emissions from diesel powered equipment as well as fugitive dust PMJ0 emissions. and that the Draft EIR does not propose any mitigation for these emissions. !_ The DEIR considers the air quality impacts of the project in terms of construction and operational phases. Construction is defined as site preparation(grading)for future operations, construction of Lquarry facilities,and the removal of overburden prior to excavation of aggregate. Removal of overburden is phased to correspond to the phasing of mining operation(see Section 3.6.2).The objective is that site preparation for the next phase would not occur until the existing phase is nearly complete (phasing also provides for ongoing reclamation of the mined phases, rather than waiting for operations to complete on the entire site). i Cern Venalis Quarry Wning and Reclamtion Project 3-7 ESP 1203015 Final Emironmantal Impact Report June 20M