It’s been almost four years since a groundbreaking rule targeting air pollution linked to warehouses became law in much of Southern California. Today, the Warehouse Indirect Source Rule, has helped erase airborne toxins linked to cancer, asthma, heart disease and other health threats, according t o the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which enforces the rule. Aimed at large-scale warehouses, the rule tries to be flexible by offering a menu of ways warehouses can cut emissions, from use of solar panels to low-emission trucks. Or warehouses could pay a fee instead. “The results are promising and a bright spot in an otherwise rough moment for anyone trying to breathe clean air,” Adrian Martinez, director of a clean-air campaign for Earthjustice, wrote in a post on the environmental legal group’s website. An Inland Empire environmentalist, while praising the rule, thinks it needs sharper teeth. Ana Gonzalez, of the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice in Jurupa Valley, said her organization still measures high levels of air pollution in warehouse-heavy parts of the Inland region. She also thinks bad actors escape accountability by paying a fee instead of taking meaningful steps to curb pollution. But a logistics industry consultant said the rule — officially known as Rule 2305 — is seen as burdensome and costly by warehouse owners and operators. “As I’ve heard it described before, it’s somewhat like charging In-N-Out for the emissions of the people who come to buy hamburgers,” Lisa Anderson said. Air quality or the lack thereof is a decades-old concern in Southern California, home to some of the worst air pollution in the U.S. Those complaints are often loudest in the Inland Empire, where a massive logistics footprint — more than 1 billion square feet in size, according to some estimates — grew amid a craving for online shopping that became insatiable during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fueling that growth was an abundance of flat, vacant, cheap land, access to freeways and railways to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and a local blue-collar workforce. Today, warehouses employ tens of thousands in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, making logistics a local economic lynchpin. Critics argue the jobs aren’t worth the pollution from warehouse-bound trucks, which they say disproportionately affects communities of color. A public agency formed in 1976, the South Coast district is tasked with protecting and improving air quality for more than 17 million people in parts of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. It is led by a 13-member governing board, most of whom are elected officials from counties and cities covered by the district. In May 2021, the board voted 9-4 to approve the rule after a daylong public hearing featuring comments by more than 100 people. At the time, board member and then-Long Beach City Councilmember Rex Richardson called the rule “one of the most meaningful and consequential steps in addressing air pollution in decades.” The rule faced a legal challenge from the trucking industry and an airline trade group, but a judge upheld the rule in 2023. Also that year, district officials said more than half the warehouses subject to the rule weren’t complying with it. The district said it would start cracking down on warehouses flouting the rule, which applies to warehouses 100,000 square feet or larger. As of 2025, the district has issued almost 800 notices for violating the rule, resulting in $2.1 million in penalties, according to an annual status report by the district. The district program enforcing the rule is called Warehouse Actions and Investments to Reduce Emissions, or WAIRE. The rule’s early rollout “was slow because of communication. I think that’s gotten better,” said Paul Granillo, president and CEO of the Inland Empire Economic Partnership, which sticks up for the logistics industry as part of a holistic approach to economic growth. “I think that it would be very good for the industry and (the district) and others to come together and take a look at the entirety of the rule and the rollout,” Granillo added. “That really needs to happen so that we make sure that if the goal is air quality, that this is actually affecting air quality for the better.” Four years ago, district officials thought the rule applied to 3,000 warehouses. Now they put the number at more than 4,000. The rule sets up a system in which warehouses choose from a menu of 32 options — installing rooftop solar panels or using zero-emission or near-zero emission trucks, for example — to score a required number of points. The total number a warehouse must meet depends on how many truck trips are linked to a warehouse. Instead of earning points, warehouses can pay a fee, with the proceeds going toward improving air quality in communities. Officials phased in the rule over three years, starting with the largest warehouses, with 2026 being the first year all warehouses subject to the rule must comply. Four years ago, the district expected the rule would cut nitrogen oxide emissions — blamed for asthma, reduced lung function, and climate change among other ills — by 1.5 to 3 tons a day. In 2024, the rule was responsible for removing 1.47 tons a day of nitrogen oxides, according to the district’s report, which was discussed at a Jan. 23 district committee meeting. Also in 2024, the rule cleared the skies of 0.035 tons a day of diesel particulate matter, which is linked to problems like lung cancer and cardiovascular disease, the report read. Warehouses are going above and beyond — 3 1/2 times more than what’s required — in earning points to comply with the rule, Kalam Cheung, the air quality district’s planning and rules manager, said Jan. 23. “We’re getting the air quality benefits that we’re expecting,” Cheung told the district’s Mobile Source Committee. “And as the program continues to phase in, we’re expecting that these emission reductions will continue to increase.” In earning points, warehouses have bought enough solar energy to power about 50,000 homes for a year, Cheung added. The district also collected $56 million through 2025 in fees from warehouses that chose not to earn points to comply with the rule. The heaviest concentration of warehouses choosing to pay fees was in an area encompassing including Chino, Chino Hills, Colton, Grand Terrace, Loma Linda, Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, Rialto, San Bernardino, Upland and Yucaipa. Warehouses in these cities and surrounding areas paid between $10 million and $12 million since 2021. The district is still deciding what to do with the fees. Public feedback will be sought on how to spend the money, the district said. Martinez, of Earthjustice, lauded the rule’s accomplishments. He noted that 65% of compliance points came from the purchase of zero-emission vehicles and equipment. “That’s transformative change where we need it the most,” Martinez wrote, adding that the rule accounts for 11% of California’s zero-emission trucks. If the rule’s enforcement program were a state, it would rank 21st for zero-emission truck deployments, higher than states such as Oregon, Minnesota, South Carolina, Kentucky, and Missouri, Martinez wrote. Gonzalez, of the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, was among those who spoke in favor of the rule at the May 2021 meeting. Her son, she said at the time, developed asthma his doctor blamed on diesel exhaust. “Overall, I believe the rule is doing what it was meant to do,” Gonzalez said in a phone interview this month. “I know we can’t fix things overnight.” Ana Gonzalez, executive director of the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, said warehouses not complying with the Indirect Source Rule should be shut down rather than just paying fines “which is a slap on the wrist for them.” (File photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG) That said, Gonzalez thinks there should be harsher penalties for polluting warehouses. “At some point, we have to shut down their operations because they’re just getting away with paying a fine, which is a slap on the wrist for them, but ultimately they’re still contributing to the pollution in our areas,” she said. Gonzalez said her organization has been measuring air pollution in what she called “diesel dead zones” like south Fontana and Bloomington in San Bernardino County. In those places, which are part of the air quality district, “the air quality is actually getting worse,” she said. While the rule might be helping areas with less warehousing, “it is not helping the areas that are heavily impacted with the concentration of truck pollution,” Gonzalez added. Anderson, who runs a logistics consulting firm in Claremont, said warehouses “want to do what’s best for the environment.” “However, at the same time we want to do some things that have more of a common-sense approach to them,” she said. 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But that, along with the other costs that continue to get added — there are warehouses popping up all over Arizona now.” Many warehouses, Anderson said, are choosing to pay the mitigation fee while they ponder the cost of earning points. “They’re going to make good business decisions,” she said. “It’s another business decision. Should I invest in this or pay the fine and how does that fit in with their long-term plans.” ...read more read less