WAIRE Points and Fee Calculator

South Coast AQMD Rule 2305 (the WAIRE Program) makes operators of large warehouses earn points each year for their truck traffic, or pay a mitigation fee instead. Estimate the points you would owe, what the fee route would cost and the filing fees, for compliance years 2026 and later.

An estimate for planning, not a compliance filing.

Building

Indoor floor space in this one building that may be used for warehousing. Leave out office, maintenance, manufacturing and retail areas that are physically separate from the warehouse area.

If you share the building, enter the warehousing space your lease allows, not just what you use today. Blank means the whole building. Under 50,000 sq ft can be exempt.

Warehousing space used by other operators your parent company owns or controls. If you and they together use more than 50,000 sq ft, the 50,000 sq ft exemption doesn't apply.

Truck traffic

How do you want to enter traffic?

Count visits, not trips: each truck visit (in and out) counts as two trips. If you don't know a truck's weight class, count tractors as Class 8 and straight trucks as Class 2b to 7.

Blank uses 260.

Points you already have

From WAIRE Menu actions, points banked from earlier years, or points the building owner passes to you. The fee covers whatever is left.

Results

Example values are loaded. Replace them with your own.

Filing fees (Rule 316)

Shown separately from the mitigation fee. These are the fees for filing before the deadline; filing late adds the fee in the last column.

Rule 316 Table 1 fees, as amended May 1, 2026 and effective July 1, 2026
Report or notificationWho files, and whenFeeAdded if late
Why

Each truck visit counts as two trips, one in and one out (Rule 2305 (c)(25)). When a truck's weight class is unknown, tractors count as Class 8 and straight trucks as Class 2b to 7 (Rule 2305 (d)(1)(B)).

The "Estimate it for me" option uses the default weighted truck trip rate in Rule 2305 (d)(1)(C), which South Coast AQMD applies when an operator's trip records are lost. It is a rough proxy: actual traffic at a building can be far higher or lower.

The WPCO here is for compliance years 2026 and later, when the Annual Variable is 1.0 for every building size (Rule 2305 Table 2). Earlier years were phased in by building size.

Sources: South Coast AQMD Rule 2305 (adopted May 7, 2021) and Rule 316 (amended May 1, 2026, effective July 1, 2026).

This is an estimate, not a compliance filing. Confirm with South Coast AQMD or a WAIRE consultant.

This is an estimate, not a compliance filing. Confirm with South Coast AQMD or a WAIRE consultant.

Compare buildings under WAIRE

Comparing buildings? I can run this for each building on your shortlist and show which ones cost less to operate under WAIRE.

By Dan Scodeller. Last updated .

What WAIRE is and who it applies to

WAIRE, the Warehouse Actions and Investments to Reduce Emissions Program, is South Coast AQMD Rule 2305. It targets nitrogen oxides and diesel particulate matter from trucks serving large warehouses in the South Coast AQMD area: Orange County and the urban parts of Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

It applies to a single building with at least 100,000 square feet that may be used for warehousing. Within that building, an operator owes points only if it uses at least 50,000 square feet for warehousing.

How WAIRE points are calculated

Each year the operator owes a WAIRE Points Compliance Obligation (WPCO), set by its truck trips:

WATTs = Class 2b to 7 trips + 2.5 × Class 8 trips
WPCO = WATTs × 0.0025 × Annual Variable

A truck that enters and leaves counts as two trips, and the Annual Variable is 1.0 from 2026 on. Take a 300,000 square foot building with 100 tractor visits and 20 straight truck visits a day, 260 days a year. That is 100 × 2 × 260 = 52,000 Class 8 trips and 20 × 2 × 260 = 10,400 Class 2b to 7 trips. WATTs = 10,400 + 2.5 × 52,000 = 140,400, and WPCO = 140,400 × 0.0025 × 1.0 = 351 points.

Earning points vs paying the mitigation fee

Points can be earned through actions on the WAIRE Menu (the table above), through a custom plan South Coast AQMD approves, or by paying a mitigation fee of $1,000 a point, in any combination. Rule 316 adds an administrative fee of 6.25% to the mitigation fee. In the example, 351 points cost $351,000 plus $21,937.50, or $372,937.50 a year, about $1.24 per square foot.

Menu actions such as chargers or zero-emission trucks have their own costs, which this calculator does not estimate, so price them before comparing them with the fee.

What this means if you are leasing a building

The obligation falls on the operator, which is usually the tenant. Before you sign, ask the landlord what solar panels, truck chargers or other WAIRE measures are already in place, whether the owner earns points from them, and whether the owner will pass those points to you. Rule 2305 lets an owner transfer points to an operator at the same site within three years of earning them. Put the answer in the lease.

Compare buildings on estimated WAIRE cost as well as rent: the same operation owes similar points in either, but pays less where the owner passes points to it.