Inland Empire Community Advocates Demand Greater Oversight, Clearer Enforcement on Warehouse Rule Amid Air Quality Concerns 

Following a series of legislative advancements meant to curb freight and logistics pollution, community advocates remain steadfast. They are calling for stronger enforcement, public participation and coordination among government agencies as the South Coast Air Quality Management District implements its warehouse emissions rule across a region where goods movement accounts for roughly half of smog-forming emissions. 

As the distribution heartbeat of the nation, the Inland Empire is home to over one billion square feet of warehouses — with 55 million square feet added since 2023 and an additional 125 million square feet pending review — as roughly 40% of the country’s consumer goods travel through San Bernardino and Riverside counties from the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

According to a 2026 State of the Air report by the American Lung Association, San Bernardino and Riverside counties rank first and second, respectively, for the most polluted counties in the United States. This marks the 26th consecutive year that the region’s ozone and particle pollution has topped the list. While advocates welcome local mitigation efforts, they continue to press air-quality agencies for bolder action. 

During an Aug. 22 Freight Communities Action Coalition (FCAC) meeting, SCAQMD Assistant Deputy Executive Officer Ian MacMillan described a recent Warehouse Indirect Source Rule (ISR) as the first regulation of its kind in the country. The Warehouse Actions and Investments to Reduce Emissions (WAIRE) program, or Rule 2305, adopted in May 2021, applies to warehouses of at least 100,000 square feet. The rule requires operators to take actions to reduce their air-quality impacts, including zero-emission trucks, electrification and solar infrastructure upgrades. MacMillan said the rule has reduced emissions by about 15%.

Even so, compliance has presented challenges as SCAQMD has issued 970 violation notices and conducted about 6,000 site visits while working to bring warehouse operators into compliance.

To date, the agency has collected roughly $2.6 million in warehouse-rule penalties, with nearly one-third of the violations settled. Under Assembly Bill 98 (AB 98), those funds have been set aside while SCAQMD gathers community feedback so its governing board can decide how to reinvest that money. 

Karla Cervantes, a Sierra Club San Gorgonio chapter coordinator who works closely with FCAC, said residents remain concerned over AB 98, specifically its enforcement and how frontline communities burdened by freight pollution will benefit from redistributed penalty payments. 

Cervantes said SCAQMD should hold more workshops in heavily impacted communities and explore resources for additional air monitoring, warehouse electrification, transportation improvements and other mitigation efforts developed with regional stakeholders and researchers. 

She also argued that responsibility for freight impacts is distributed, however diffusely, through state and regional government agencies, often leaving cities and counties with an outsized authority over land-use decisions that determine where warehouses are built. 

“If we don’t have certain policies or legislation in place, cities and counties can do very egregious things when it comes to land use,” Cervantes said. 

MacMillan similarly told attendees that SCAQMD is not a land-use agency and does not regulate where warehouses are constructed.

“We deal with the after effect,” MacMillan said, referring to the agency’s role in regulating the impacts of logistics facilities on air-quality.  

Cervantes added that the fragmented organization of state and regional agencies is confusing, leaving residents to inefficiently search for and confirm which agency has authority. She suggested creating a collaborative body with “liaisons” from regional, state and air-quality agencies for community stakeholders to easily identify where their concerns will be addressed. 

“That way, when community members are concerned, we’re not having to jump from agency to agency; from email to email; from phone call to phone call,” Cervantes said. 

Jonathan Belloso, another attendee, likewise argued that penalties alone are insufficient when warehouses and industrial developers have enough capital to continue expanding, and called for regulators to more clearly demonstrate how enforcement produces benefits for those most immediately affected.

“These organizations have to do more to get in the face of the average citizen and let us know what’s going on and what they’re actually doing about it,” Belloso said. “We hear a lot of stuff about penalties, but . . . these companies who build these warehouses . . . have so much capital — a few penalties doesn’t do anything to put a wrench into their expansion.”

In response to follow-up questions from Inland Empire Community News, SCAQMD  said the warehouse ISR is producing the emissions reductions anticipated when the rule was adopted and that the agency expects those reductions to increase over time. However, the agency acknowledges that reaching air-quality goals will require more action across multiple levels of government. 

“We know that additional actions will be needed at all levels of government, including internationally (e.g., ships and aircraft), federally, and at the state level to help the region reach its air quality attainment goals,” SCAQMD wrote in an email. “The effort will involve a combination of regulations, incentives, collaboration, diplomacy, and other strategies.”

When asked whether repeat violations of the warehouse ISR could result in stronger penalties, SCAQMD said violations and potential penalties are evaluated individually based on the circumstances of each case and the authority provided under state law. Repeat offenses are among the factors considered when determining penalties, while statutory maximums vary according to the nature of the violation.