Travis County Commssioners Court
June 17, 2003
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Item A1
There is an added item, a 1, consider sending comments to the Texas commission on environmental quality concerning the executive director's recommendation on 8 hour ozone national ambient air quality standard [indiscernible] and take appropriate action.
>> good morning.
>> good morning. [indiscernible] walker with Travis County t.n.r. I -- I put together some backup and a draft letter, I don't know if the court has had a chance to look that over or not. I'm more than happy to go over it. And in any kind of detail if you would like, if you have any questions we can start that way. What's the court's pleasure?
>> what makes this action necessary?
>> last week, the -- the Texas commission on environmental quality executive director as required by the clean air act made her recommendations for non-attainment designations in the state of Texas. This kicks off a basic nine-month multi-phase process, but the comments to her recommendation are due tomorrow at 5:00, written comments. There will be a chance to provide oral comments on Friday at 10:00 a.m. And that's it. It's a fast moving process at this point. Basically, the executive director makes for recommendations to -- makes her recommendations to the governor. The governor has to make his recommendation to the u.s. Environmental protection agency on July 15th. So that's -- that's the hurry. Basically, her recommendation for the central Texas metropolitan statistical area that we are in, the Austin now Round Rock msa or really the Austin-san marcos msa with Travis County only would be designated non-attainment. And that is the comments that we -- that is the recommendation on which we would be making comments, which I have drafted with the help of the judge, letter to that effect.
>> even though the tceq recommended that, [indiscernible] non-attainment status [indiscernible], Travis County, also [indiscernible] have to be reviewed by the -- by the interstate on environmental protection agency, e.p.a., That -- in that arena of the -- of the e.p.a., They will have the -- they will have basically final say so as far as whether to adhere to the recommendation or do something else.
>> yes, sir. You are correct. The final designation lies in the hands of the federal government through the u.s. E.p.a. And that designation will -- the final designation per a court consent decree that was signed last year will come out in April of 2004. E.p.a. Has basically, according to that decree until December 17th of this year, to make a counter proposal, if you will, for what they are going to recommend the designation be. They will make their recommendation by that date, there will be 120 day comment period, and then a final designation will come out next April.
>> I guess in the five county region that we are looking at, Travis County is the only county of the counties that actually have [indiscernible] air monitoring equipment, is that correct?
>> well, that has any kind of historical air monitoring. Recently capco through some state funds and the clean air force did place a monitor in dripping springs, so hays county now has one. Hays county, caldwell county actually had one a few years ago, but we moved back to Pflugerville -- moved that to the Pflugerville area to get some different prevailing winds, it's all based on meterological data as to where you place the monitors. But yes, currently, for any kind of historical Monday portion purposes -- monitoring purposes, Travis County is the only county in our five county msa has that monitors with three years of date take.
>> data. Okay. Thank you.
>> the comments the importance of the five central Texas counties working together to solve this problem. More than -- houston is on the tceq commission.
>> the other four counties were represented and I think we were all of one mind on the fact that -- the fact that in spite of the fact that Travis County is the only one for which data is available and that data indicates basically non-compliance with the 8 hour standard, the solution to the problem is caused by all of us, probably contribute more than our share as the largest county, but the solution will depend on all of us working together. So the comments are intended to capture that notion more than anything else.
>> yes, sir. As you all know, we have a very effective regional process here to address air pollution in our region. We feel like it's been working rather well. We feel like we have cooperation from all of the players at the table and we pretty much do things by consensus and we just are asking the state and federal government to note do anything that's going to upset that coalition, really. To continue to let us work as they have encouraged us to do as a region to clean up what is clearly a regional problem. We do mention in the letter it's not just air pollution from this region, air pollution blows in from other parts of the state, other parts of the united states, other parts of other countries, from mexico as well. It really is a bigger issue than the citizens of Travis County can tackle by themselves and that's how we have been approaching it, we expect to continue to -- to do it that way.
>> okay.
>> I just wanted to ask one final question. In the spirit of the compact, would this of course involving the five county regional approach, in going forward, toward the e.p.a., Would that -- with that particular plan, program, would this the recommendations made by tceq, being forwarded to the u.s. E.p.a. Impact any of the things that we have been working on currently for the early action compact plan?
>> the draft letter that you are --
>> yeah.
>> no. It's my understanding that --
>> because we've been putting a lot of hard work into that --
>> it's my understanding that judge Biscoe has talked with the other county judges as well as some of the other elected officials in this region who are all, who understand that this recommendation is just the first step in a lengthy process and the ultimate result will probably not look like this recommendation and we are going to continue to work together as we have been.
>> okay.
>> the recommendation is for us to authorize this draft letter be placed on Commissioners court stationery signed by all of us this afternoon, then we need to deliver this to the executive director either this after newspaper or tomorrow morning?
>> we can e-mail it in, no problem. Or we can fax it in, yeah.
>> all right.
>> by 5:00 tomorrow they have to be in.
>> I would like to see move approval. -- I would like to move approval.
>> Commissioner Daugherty?
>> have you ever gone before the commission? I suppose that we are going on Friday or -- you are going on Friday to read the letter or to reiterate here's what we have sent you.
>> that's up to you guys. I plan to be at the meeting. I'm more than happy to read the letter into the record to take any other comments that you would like. If one -- one of you or more than welcome to attend the meeting. It's not necessary. None of that is necessary as long as we get the written comments in. If you would like to, however, reiterate to the folks your feelings about this process and where we are how we've been working in this area to address these issues, it's up to the court.
>> could we -- we have what reduced 1%, is that what we are showing? We are supposed to be somewhere in the 15 to 20%, but what we have done to date has resulted in a 1% decrease?
>> well, that's to address the one hour ozone standard, which we do not violate in this region. So under that standard the old standard we have put together a clean air action plan called the 03 flex agreement, voluntarily even though we don't have to do it. That's how we really get this coalition. The reason we did that bass to start working together as a region and start discussing these issues together and see what kind of things that we could agree on, where there might be some contentious issues in the future, so when we had to start dealing really with the 8 hour standard, which we knew was coming, we would have a working relationship. We've been very successful at that. I think all members of the body would agree that I think we have built some trust there that is important. So, yes, we want -- we have only been able to under the o 3 flex agreement reduce things voluntarily by about one percent. What we have really been doing is building a network to really start tackling this bigger issue of complying with the 8 hour standard, which is going to be tough. It's not an easy thing to do.
>> yes.
>> it's going to require some sacrifice. On everybody's part.
>> I think that it's -- it's going to be really, really important to -- to identify how we really are going to try and reach out to people to say this is really an issue, y'all. Because this is not an issue to people. I mean, it's real easy in conversation, but talk about -- to talk about, you know, these are the things that could happen to us, I mean, you know, the biggest thing is being cut with our federal collars for this area.
>> transportation.
>> but it -- I think there needs to be a real practical approach with -- I'm sure that I know how much you think about this -- but to really find out how could do you really reach people. Like today is an ozone action day. I would bet you all the money that I have in my pocket that people haven't changed one thing that they are going -- that they were going to do today. The buses are free. I doubt that there's any more ridership today than there ever is. If your lawn needs mowing and you are set to have -- if you have a lawn service, I bet that you lawn, as a matter of fact I saw people in my neighborhood today mowing their lawn. The kind of things that we try to, you know, we see it on television, we see that, you know, tomorrow is an ozone action day, it gives you a list of the things to do. But it really is like people just kind of go oh, okay, somebody else needs to do that. Now, I don't know how you do that. But it is-- it is something that -- I mean, it's like garbage. If you are not going to get people to recycle, if you are not going -- if you are really not going to touch people somehow. I would like to know if there's a group of people that sit around and say, okay, how do you really practically get people to identify that this is really an issue? You know, yesterday we were in a -- in a meeting with rica, some of the rules and regulations that may come about, for example -- with not being able to work with off road equipment on ozone days. That is going to get somebody's attention. That's recent building roads, I mean, where you are just not going to be able to use the machinery and -- and those -- those contractors that are still under the guidelines of finishing a project on time that we will have huge -- that will have huge effects on us. So I'm interested to see exactly what we -- how we go about -- about really getting people to say, you know what, because everybody likes the buzz phrase of quality of life, and then air, clean air, clean water, this and that, but I'm not so sure there it's not just really lip service that people just sort of go, hum okay. But hopefully somebody else will do that. So -- so I know that you -- that you were -- that you work diligently with it, but it is an issue. I mean, I can see where getting the 15 to 20% -- as a matter of fact I think the only way that we are going to really attain those sort of numbers since vehicular emissions is really the biggest cause of our ozone problems.
>> yes, sir.
>> is, you know, getting the older cars off the road, number one, and number two continuing to build our infrastructure of our road system so that cars are moving more than they are stopped. Because that is -- I mean, the stopped vehicle is the real culprit, I mean, with -- with auto emissions. So -- anyway, didn't mean to pontificate, but I know that you are working on it.
>> only old car
>> not necessarily. But new cars are generally cleaner due to federal standards on new engines, yes, that is true. Although a well maintained 12-year-old car if it's tuned up properly, might not necessarily -- maintenance is very much the key. Another key two things I wanted to -- I wanted to respond to. A car can be sitting idling, it's running a low sulfur gasoline or diesel.
>>
>> [one moment please for change in captioners]
>>
>> sulfur gasoline. So you don't have to do anything, nobody has to do anything. You go and fill up your car in a couple of weeks you are going to be getting ultra low gasoline which is going to cut emissions by quite a personal and nobody really has to do anything. There are things that have to be done -- most people do want to do something about clean airs. It polls as one of the highest environmental issues statewide and especially here. It really is a health issue to most people. And we've actually been doing some surveys through a consultant, we've had stakeholder groups, four stakeholder groups we got going in February. We've had a lot of involvement from the public, from private sector groups as well as individuals and environmental groups who have all been sitting down and working on a list of emission control strategies that we've actually had to turn into the federal government last week. If you haven't seen the final list, I'm sorry about that. I know I forwarded drafts, but the final one was sent into e.p.a. As here's the measures we're looking at and they wanted to make sure we were on target and everything. But there are some issues that we've gotten a lot of public input on that once we get them back and get a little analysis on them we will have a huge public outreach effort to survey people and find out which of those measures they are more inclined to want to do and that sort of thing. So I hope you will feel people are getting some information and feedback. But we do find -- I was just out at lockhart at the chisholm trail today on Sunday and handing out information and everybody was very interested in clean air and wanting to know what we were doing and had ideas about how they can get involved. So that process is ongoing, but we're always trying to do better, so we'll keep you posted.
>> I second the judge's motion.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
Last Modified: Wednesday, June 18, 2003 9:52 AM