The governing board of the San Joaquin Valley Air District voted Thursday to ask federal officials to formally acknowledge that the region met the one-hour ozone standard.

In 1979, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) revised the national ambient air quality standard for ozone to a concentration of 0.12 parts per million averaged over one hour.

To adhere to the standard, a district can have no more than three days exceeding that standard over a consecutive three-year period at any monitoring site in the district.

Valley air-quality leaders held their breath all October while watching ozone monitors throughout the state.­ October marked the end of the official ozone season that starts in March.

On Thursday, the air district said that for the first time in recorded history, the San Joaquin Valley in 2013 had zero violations of the hourly ozone standard.

“Having to deal with air pollution is a big problem,” said Dr. Segun Ogunjemiyo, the chair of the geography department.­ “There are so many factors. The policies seem to be working.­ I think it’s a big achievement.”

There is financial significance to staying below the standard.

Since 2010, the EPA has imposed a $29 million penalty on the district, which Valley residents have been paying through a surcharge on vehicle registration.

That penalty would be lifted if the EPA agrees with the Valley air district.

The claim, however, is not without debate.

In 2010, the monitoring station at the Arvin site south of Bakersfield was moved two miles and subsequently showed lower ozone readings.

“Some people are challenging them,” Ogunjemiyo said.­ “That area is notorious for high levels for ozone.­ Some environmentalists say that they moved monitors from where they know there will be high ozone.

“There have been improvements.­ There is no doubt about that. You only have to have one station in your district break the standard, then the whole region will not meet standard. That is why eliminating a station makes a difference.”

What is not being contested, Ogunjemiyo said, is that the Valley has not reached the eight-hour standard, which is the new ozone limit set by the EPA that district’s have to stay below.

Even though the one-hour standard was replaced by the eight-hour standard, district’s that did not achieve the one-hour standard still had to in order to be free from the fine.

“Even though they didn’t break the one-hour standard, they broke the eight-hour standard,” Ogunjemiyo said.­ “There have been a number of days it was exceeded.”

He said the ozone concentration measurement that a district can’t exceed in an eight-hour period is lower than the old standard, which means it is easier for a district to go over the limit that determines a bad air day.

Ogunjemiyo said it will be difficult for the Valley air basin to achieve that standard.