Travis County Commissioners Court
January 21, 2009
Item 10
10. Receive staff update on designation of Travis County as non-attainment for the 8-hour ozone national ambient air quality standard and court consideration and action in support of the 2009 big push initiative. And we have with us today?
>> good morning, judge Biscoe, members of the Commissioners court, I'm john white, natural resource environmental quality division of t.n.r. With me is addle noel our air quality project manager, tom webber, environmental quality program manager. A special guest, bill gill from capcog who is an air quality expert that we greatly value in the entire region. We were here in early December talking to you about the I am pending recommendation by tceq that Travis County be designated as non-attainment. You asked to come back and tell you about what has happened at tceq as well as inform on the subsequent meeting of clean air coalition and various other organizations, but particularly focusing on clean air coalition. I'm going to turn it over to adel and bill and let them fill you in on what has transpired.
>> as john said it was previously reported in December tceq recommended that Travis County be designated as non-attainment. This recommendation is based on high ozone readings for the years 2006, 2007, and 2008. If designated as non-attainment, it could have several impacts on Travis County. General conformity will have to be done, which is a review of all federal projects to make sure there's not an impact. Transportation conformity, which is a review of transportation projects that need to be neutral on their impact. Non-attainment new source review, which in a nutshell it's a one to one, any source that moves into our area would have to have another source reduce its emissions, reasonable available control measures, which we have already taken into consideration which we have done since the early compact agreement. Actions like stage one, vapor recovery, I and m program, low hanging fruit like that. The e.p.a. Will base their non-attainment or attainment designation on the most recent three years of data. That would be the years 2007, 2008, and 2009. So there is a chance that Travis County area will not exceed the standard and will not be designated as non-attainment. Since I wrote the background some new information has come forward. In the background it says that 76 could be our highest reading. If it's 76 or lower it would be okay based on new mathematical calculations that number is actually 77 parts per billion. Good news there. What would happen, some e.p.a. -- e.p.a. Can designate our area as attainment or non-attainment. Some of these scenarios could be all five counties within the metropolitan statistical area could be designated as attainment. Travis County could be the only county that is designated as non-attainment. Travis County, Williamson county, hays county could all be designated as non-attainment or all five counties could be designated as non-attainment. We won't know until e.p.a. Makes the recommendations. Probably sometime in March. Therefore the year 2009 is our critical year. In an effort to achieve or maintain or attainment status this year has been deemed as the big push. The big push will continue to implement the 8 hour ozone flex program, we will invite other jurisdictions within our area to participate in the big push and join up and sign up. We are going to do a public outreach program, with an enhancement, campco has a contract hopefully to spend money on doing public outreach to get our message out to the public. What they can do to reduce ozone in their area. We're going to try to obtain low emission fuel for our whole area. Coordinate Austin energy and lcra will coordinate environmental dispatch of
>> [indiscernible] generating facilities. Basically that means that on high ozone action days, if there is a plant that's going to emit a lot of emissions, they will try to lower or not use that plant and use the energy facilities that emit less emissions. Going to identify high ozone sources and encourage these sources to reduce their nox emissions on high ozone action days. I'm available to answer any questions that you may have.
>> I have a couple. What will it take to ensure that -- that the -- that the program, big push, will be actually embraced by other entities other than what Travis County is trying to do? To reduce the level of ozone.
>> okay. The -- the ozone flex program plan was signed by 11 other jurisdictions.
>> I know. But what I -- I understand that. But I'm going to let you answer, but my concern is who will make sure that it's done even though there has been volunteer efforts, da-da-da, everything trying to do this, now the standards have changed from 85 I guess parts per bill down to -- now down to 75 parts per bill as far as non-attainment versus attainment. My concern is the aggressiveness of the other parties involved in this process. The enforcement of what we're trying to do here to make sure we all become non-attainment -- attainment, how and what will be emphasized, mandate type of stuff.
>> the mandate kind of stuff comes when you get designated non-attainment, we have been trying to avoid that through the early action compact and the 03 flex. The clean air coalition which judge Biscoe participates on, consists of elected officials from all jurisdictions in the five county area. They are the ones that are making commitments to make this work.
>> I know, I have been a part of that, also, I have been in several of the meetings as a member of that also in the past year when we have actually dealt with that. And I recall a lot of things, but -- but even so there are still some -- some forces that -- that we may not have control over as much. I'm thinking about prevailing winds, things coming from other counties that's not responsible for the outcome of where that -- those emissions travel which also could jeopardize our quality of our air and my concern is basically back to where it was and what it is, those kind of things that do not respect borders and jurisdictions such as bad air emissions that will reflect us and placing us in a non-attainment status is my concern. And then what happens if -- it's just a lot of loose ends that I'm still not -- I haven't been able to embrace because of other persons or other county's behavior and the emissions that go on in these other counties, they may be non-attainment, but it doesn't appear that some of the things that are going on there is really -- has really helped our situation, especially with the prevailing winds. A lot of that stuff is coming from the -- from the east -- eastern cities and so that bothers me a lot. Not having control of our destiny. Other counties have, too, I'm not knocking them. Things are out of control when you start measuring the air emissions, some of these measurements are not part of the things that we contributed to. So that's my concern.
>> well, you are entirely correct that -- that our destiny is not total under our control. Emissions from other areas within the state as well as outside of the state will have impacts on our ozone when we see high ozone here. I think throughout the process with the early action compact and the 03 flex, we have taken the position, our officials have taken the position, we will take care of what we can locally, we will make those commitments and we have more so probably than any other area around the country who is currently attainment. But we have also I think been forceful in commenting to both tceq and e.p.a., we are doing our part, we have bought our place at the table, so to speak, we now expect you to do your part. You have got to take care of those sources outside of our region. I think --
>> done though. The question is that actually being done where we don't have to be punished for the efforts that we are making and the commitment that Travis County I know have been making. In this regard. So at the other level, at the state level that you just mentioned to ensure those other folks do not emit the type of damaging emissions that will pull the threat to non-attainment status for counties that are really trying to stay in attainment.
>> that is, we took an active roll in commenting to tceq on the coal fired power plant permits that we felt would have a negative impact on our area, we didn't just sit back and let tceq do that without trying to comments. Senator watson was at the hearing or the meeting at tceq to protest that permit. We have done everything we can, we will continue doing that. I believe our officials feel like we need to do everything we can locally, but at the same time we need to remind tceq and e.p.a. Of their obligations, we will continue doing that evaluating the impacts and we have the monitoring --
>> the good news that adell mentioned a few minutes ago were approved by the elected officials at the meeting of the clean air coalition, right?
>> correct.
>> two or three things. One is that we had a 78 in 07, was that 76?
>> 76 in --
>> 76.
>> 76 in 07. 74 in 08, we need 77 or lower in '09, we can do it. The main point I think is that we have to get more Travis County residents to try to implement the measures that we have adopted than we've had previously. We said we would beef up the public education effort. I'm convinced that we can do it, we would have to get a lot more Travis County residents on board. The other county residents have committed to do more or do as much themselves. If we take the lead perhaps they will follow it. The other point that I would like to make is that e.p.a. Has looked at this as a regional problem that requires a regional solution.
>> exactly.
>> Williamson county, though, by the way Commissioner huber and I were at the last capcog meeting. Williamson county went to tceq and basically argued that the monitor showed Travis County to be in non-attainment, not Williamson county and not hays. Tceq took the position that Travis County should be the one to suffer and not the others.
>> [laughter] so -- so the ultimate call is made by the e.p.a. They will view this as a regional project. Justice and fairness did prevail at the capcog meeting and we did not vote to ask e.p.a. Just to focus on Travis County. Justice did not prevail because I was presiding over the meeting. But I'm glad Commissioner huber and I were present. That was clear. So, you know, there is that postponement. To be honest the -- there is that possibility. The monitors show Travis County to be in non-attainment, but that's where the monitors are, right? But the others are smaller, probably cleaner, they do contribute to the problem based on the number of vehicles that come here each day and polluting vehicles contribute to this greatly. We have the I and m program in place and it's helping. There are other measures that we need to take. The ones that we have been taking we need to beef up. I'm convinced that the average person doesn't participate because the average person does not know the real potential consequence of non-attainment. It's kind of like fueling. Kind of like when you cut your yard, during certain days, not 365 days a year. You focus on the ozone action days and basically get it done. But when we give the call we have to have more than a small percentage of Travis County residents participating. It needs to be a much greater number. And I'm convinced that public education will help there some. The other thing, I'm be quiet, is that if you go in the non-attainment, you are looking at pretty much 25 years of things that you must do. If we get past '09 with 77 or lower, then we sort of are safe indefinitely.
>> yeah. The -- the -- there's a couple of things. One is e.p.a. Pretty much when they change the standard, they don't care what any area is doing. We have tried make the case that we are already doing everything that we need to, so just leave us alone and let us take care of our business. They said no when we do a new standard we have to designate based on what the monitor says. After that point if say two or three years down the road we had a bad year for ozone, we saw high ozone, if we were attainment, engaged in the middle of our 03 flex plan doing everything, e.p.a. Has the discretion to say you are already doing everything, we don't need to go back and designate you. So getting past this hump right now, this '09 year is really important. The other thing is that we expect that the emissions are going down as far as the on road and non-road vehicles because of the federal standards. If you look at the models show quite a -- quite a reduction in emissions over the next five to 10 years from those programs. So you would expect to see that benefit at the monitor. So getting past this year is -- is really important because we hope that over time the emissions will go down and we don't have to face this non-attainment thing again. As judge Biscoe pointed out, it's not just a short term. Once you get designated non-attainment, then they have two 10 year maintenance plans after you come back into attainment. So there's quite a bit of reporting and commitments and all of the structure that's go with non-attainment that stays with you for some time.
>> do we have any idea as far as monetary equivalent of those particular counties in the state of Texas that are in non-attainment, have been there, have not gotten back into attainment, what has it actually cost them as far as money is concerned, whatever that punishment that they hand down that whatever that is. From e.p.a. Has there ever been any calculation of the money that was maybe lost to those counties or how is it measured as far as -- as far as them being in non-attainment status, programs, highway money, how does it work? And if -- do we have any calculations on that? For not being in attainment, what actually happens.
>> well, ray perryman did a study a couple of years ago, looking at non-attainment and how much it costs to areas to have to deal with that. It is quite expensive. The primary costs of course are going to be in having to pay for all of the controls that you have got to put on different types of businesses. That's something that if you are say a petroleum refinery or something like that, you are looking at hundreds of millions of dollars, not just to small but to continue operating those controls. For an area like us, we don't have that type of industry, but say the cement plant down in buda, other large sources would have to install additional controls as well as what they call area sources, gasoline stations, dry cleaners, things like that. Everybody would have to foot the bill for control. Now actual cost to government, if you look in dallas area, they have got just at the cog there, they have got 22 people doing air quality planning work to try to deal with all of the regulations that come down and the city of dallas, city of fort worth, there are quite a bit of additional expense at the government level to deal with all of the -- the regulations that come down. Now the other part of that is of course transportation and the transportation conformity is quite expensive. And you hear a lot of times the threat that e.p.a. Will withhold highway funds, federal highway --
>> I have heard that, also.
>> that only happens if you are unable to do the correct planning. That is you -- you can't demonstrate conformity with your emissions budget and your air quality plan. If you do that, then the funds are -- are delayed or withheld until you can do that. And normally, local areas when they are faced with losing a lot of the federal funds will go back and redo their plan until they can meet that conformity. But what that does do is that delays projects. It can delay highway projects significantly.
>> the reason why I asked that question is this. Because it appears to me that yes we are going to try to get everyone to volunteer, make sure that the residents, everyone's business and everybody else that's interested in Travis County being within attainment and remain in attainment, these are the penalties that-- that can be assisted on you for -- for non-attainment situations, reference, dallas county, reference, other counties, I think harris county may be one, reference points on down the line to let folks realize that -- that this is,, maybe vapor recovery things. On and on. You mentioned the other type of situations, maybe transportation dollars. I think folks don't really realize the penalties that's assessed with being in non-attainment status. I think if there was a parallel with those two, the average citizens wouldn't understand it but the business communities, a lot of other folks,
>> [indiscernible], but the business community and the other folks if they knew that this was cause and effect on a lot of things that would affect quality of life and expense, I think those should be paramount and should be married, step by step, side by side comparison process, I really believe that the educational part of this may be still lacking as far as the other sides meaning that the attainment information is very important but also this is what happened with someone if you are in non-attainment.
>> I think as part of the project that campo is funding for outreach that we can try to collect the -- collection the information on that, so we can put a dollars and cents value. I think that would be real important for people.
>> now I would like to see the results of that because when folks ask me about it, there are consequences that you must comply with, if -- if you do not strive for attainment. That would be good to have just to show examples of what happens if you are not in attainment.
>> first, how much lead time do we often have in knowing when an ozone action day is going to occur?
>> it's normally not until the day before at 2:00 p.m. What tceq does is they will look at what the current ozone levels are, what the weather forecast is for the next day, what the regional ozone levels, they will make a call at that point. Then they will release that and clean air force then has an e-mail list they will send it out to businesses and subscribers locally.
>> as the new kid on the block, there may be something already in place I don't know about. I am wondering what the importance of the big push initiative, with the importance, if Travis County doesn't already have something, the county is a major employer, shouldn't develop their own ozone action plan program and take a leadership role in putting this type of program out there. Maybe it's work at home, maybe it's car pool on those days that kind of thing. But if we do that and set an example, perhaps that will be a way of educating others as well.
>> we do have an ozone action day program in place for employees -- for staff and e-mail -- an e-mail is sent out to all employees that do have access to e-mail letting them know that tomorrow is an ozone action day which lists out tips on how to reduce your individual impact.
>> we maybe ought to review that list and supplement it or update it. But now the first ozone action day generally is in what month?
>> it could be as early as April. That's when the ozone season starts. But normally you are not going to see higher ozone until late may.
>> so we have at least two months to get ready. Even if it were to happen on April first. I think we ought to take advantage of this. Not only is it a good idea with Travis County, but we also ought to get with the city of Austin, we take the lead, try to get other major employers in the area to do the same thing. That will substantially more impact than we've had historically but tough do it.
>> absolutely. The other thing would be alternative. I know that dry cleaning, they are usually located in neighborhoods. That has an impact on the immediate residents. But are there -- have new alternatives been developed for the different areas in which we can reduce our use of -- of those services or things that add to the ozone?
>> well the -- the reasonably available control measures, a list of a whole lot of things that you can do, of course in dallas and houston they have taken care of just about everything. We did in our early action compact took care of some of that, we put additional requirements on gasoline station, the smaller level of gasoline stations, that's a neighborhood issue as well as a reasonable issue the volatile organic compounds. We also have included a regulation on degreasing operations so that the solvents that they use, the way they do the degreasing are now regulated. So, you know, we will continue, we were in the 03 flex or the eac, now the 03 flex committed to continue planning for improvements. Where we see additional things that can be done that are reasonable. I mean, we're not going to go out there and try to levy a lot of additional expense that's not warrantied. But where there are reasonable control, a lot of times you save solvents. It's actually money making situation for a company that -- that hadn't really thought about reducing or changing solvents. But those kind of things that have some benefit that are reasonable we will continue evaluating those and try to incorporate those into the plan.
>> those might be part of the education that we would or pieces, education pieces that we would issue again to make sure that -- that we remind people of some of those things that -- steps that we can take.
>> things like the -- like the low emission gas cans, you know, if you have got several gasoline cans sitting out in your garage, old style that are evaporating away, maybe you want to get rid of those. So there are a lot of little things basically the public can do to help out. That hopefully we will be including that in the outreach measures.
>> I would like to dove tail on what you just said. There are a lot of little things that we can all do because we all do our part in creating the circumstance and in fixing the circumstance. It's my understanding I have heard from various statistics that roughly a quarter to a third of the co 2 emissions in the state are due to tail pipe emissions, is that -- roughly correct?
>> yeah, carbon dioxide, right.
>> then the lion's share is industrial?
>> in Texas of course we have got a lot of industry that burns fuel. Refining and petrochemical. We probably have a higher percentage of co 2 than most states.
>> my understanding is that we produce the highest amount of co 2 of any of the states.
>> we are seventh in the world if we were a country.
>> so back to my point that we are all doing our part to create the circumstance. Irrespective of whether we live in Williamson, travis, hays, dallas, tarrant. And we don't have a the lot industrial sources here. Most of what we can do is on an individual level. Am I correct about that? Individual choices regarding gas cans, trip consolidation, idling, help me out. What are some of the other things that us -- that we as individuals can do in the big push.
>> energy conservation, of course, translates into emission reductions at power plants. And power plants are big both for global warming, greenhouse it was emissions as well as nox, which is an ozone precursor, anything that you can do to reduce the need for additional power plants then you are helping not only global but also ozone.
>> turning off our lights, shorter hot showers, all those kind of things that will reduce your overall electricity bill and your gas bill.
>> those --
>> I was going to say and consider a lot of those things that could reduce energy consumption more a longer term. The big push I think it is some of these little things day to day, the gas cans, the actual way in which you get to your employer and back, and things that can affect things directly and immediately.
>> if you think that your little part won't make a big dent we're here to tell ya it will. And one of the reasons why Williamson was being considered for inclusion was because even though they weren't showing a monitor rating that would put them in non-attainment, they represented a third of the trips generating on the highway system was what my understanding was, is that a correct understanding?
>> as far as the commute vehicles in Travis County, I don't think it was quite a third, but tceq staff considered it significant enough they had included Williamson in their recommendation for non-attainment. That of course was changed by the commission. But the e.p.a. Criteria for including in the designated area was one of the things was the amount of commute traffic and Williamson definitely has a lot of that.
>> even though Williamson doesn't look as bad as travis and travis doesn't look as bad as hair, what I'm saying -- as harris, irrespective of whether we are designated or not we need to do our part.
>> Commissioner, I think we can refresh some of the things that we have done in our ozone action day alerts. In the past there's been a warning fatigue. People are it's the same old warning over and over again, pretty soon they kind of tune it out. I think the urgency this year that a little bit can make a big difference can probably revitalize that a little bit. It might help us to get some attention from news media and the like that will help to promote that idea. Simple things like mowing your lawn, small engines are an enormous source of ozone forming precursors, those are big things that we can all do and it's seemingly trivial, but if we are all thinking about it on those couple of days here and there it will make a big difference.
>> you want to -- on the media, channel 17, do the things that you just stated, everybody appear to be leaning toward educating folks to be a part of this process. Education, outreach, I'm hearing all of these things. But then again what can we do individually or what can we do collectively to make sure that the public hearing outreach is effective and the question I'm asking to staff have we looked at maybe the channel 17 media, our channel 17 to put these type of -- of -- as Commissioner eckhardt was saying, the little things that make the difference. It does when you -- that collectively being done. Placing this on the media where folks in the community will say -- I can do that. I can do this. I can do that. But knowing what to do I think is part of -- of the solution and so have y'all considered putting this on -- have you already done it --
>> we have done things like that in the past. Get an opportunity to revisit and refresh those efforts.
>> any other type of vehicle that we can use to get the word out in the outreach arena to educate folks here on how critical this is.
>> one great example is casis elementary school school students came up with a project to reduce idling in their school drop off zone through a voluntary program where the kids who wear the orange vests that help the kids in and out of their parents car remind drivers to turn off their motors within 10 seconds because the elevated levels of nauseous fumes were a health hazard not only were they a health hazard but also contributing to our overall emissions, that was one excellent thing that aisd is considering implementing at all of their dropoff sites I understand.
>> it gave attention to it with the news media that covered it, too.
>> saying it is okay to turn off your car and restart it. With the new engines it does not hurt your car, folks. To turn off the engine when -- rather than letting it idle. Your starter will not wear out faster according to the news media coverage of it.
>> and judge can I make a point. Citizen action, we can all do this about ozone is real lawn mowers, also known as push lawn mowers versus this motorized polluting lawn mowers which are -- the benefits would not only improve the ozone level, but it would be improved health. Lower emissions and less poison because those little motors they don't have any controls on stuff like ozone and, you know, pollution unlike cars that have lots of different controls. Little lawn mowers and those devices they pollute a whole lot and we would be helping our fellow citizens get more in shape. It would be a win-win if you guys took your opportunity to recommend people go out and buy a real lawn mower. Her a lot cheaper and it's a lot healthier to use, not only on the physical level, but on the community level for ozone. I just wanted to --
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> capcog has outreach money.
>> campo.
>> campo does.
>> right.
>> for air quality.
>> campo. For air quality. Campo has about I think it's 50,000 and then Austin energy talking to them yesterday they were going to add to it. So there may be somewhere 60, $70,000 into this project to do the outreach for this big push.
>> okay. Why don't we get with the city of Austin, campo, capcog, the clean air force, also, try to figure out what additional things we can do, maybe get a report back in about two weeks. And we put together a strategy to in fact do them.
>> uh-huh.
>> seems like some of the stuff, like idling, if we know where trucks idle, during the day on ozone action days, maybe we ought to get law enforcement officials to go by there. We have not issued citations in the great scheme of crime these probably don't stand out. But I think on ozone action day in '09 it's really a pretty big deal. We would have to chat with a.p.d. And the sheriff's office but if you are talking about what five or six days a year.
>> last year it was about that. Normally we see 15 to 20.
>> we need to pray for a five or six day year, don't we?
>> uh-huh.
>> 15 or 20 is a lot more.
>> right.
>> yeah.
>> what's the -- was it because it was so rainy comparatively cooler was that the explanation for the low numbers?
>> last -- we see two high periods of ozone usually. June is one and then late August, sent is another. Kind of different -- September is another. In June it was rainy the whole month, that doesn't produce ozone. In June of 2008, it was very hot, you know, it was like the second hottest month on record and the wind was blowing more than usual. So if you get extremely high temperatures over 100, what it does is it raises what they call the mixing layer, so you have more area for that ozone to disburse so you don't see as high of concentrations but the wind is the main thing. If it's blowing above a certain speed it's going to disperse it. Basically the meteorology for 2007 and 2008 was a little bit unusual.
>> unusually beneficial.
>> right, to ozone. Not just for here. Houston saw that benefit, too. So, you know, under normal conditions we would see higher ozone in -- in June than we have in the past couple of years. Then of course September we have a front that moves through, basically you are going blowing from missouri valley down through east Texas into our area, that's when you see a high level of transported emissions, what we add is a little bit on top of that.
>> the problem deserves more attention in '09 because of our situation.
>> right.
>> let's do it. Big year if we can -- welcome have to have help from the meteorology, too. But what we can do locally I think most people are convinced that we need to do whatever we can and maybe we will be lucky on the meteorology and maybe we will get through this year without an -- a non-attainment designation. We will keep doing all of the things that we can do, this year is really important.
>> we will have an action and strategy item on the agenda in two weeks, if we are not ready then we will postpone one more week which will be three. It will be on in two or three weeks though.
>> okay.
>> judge, may I have that study that was done, I think you called it --
>> by perryman.
>> could I have a copy of that. The reason why I'm asking, there are probably some folks that may get a chance to look at this presentation today. There may be a business that -- that may be affected or there may be somebody that may be affected if we do not get back into an attainment status. I would like to maybe look at that report to look at those businesses that -- that had to comply because they -- they had reached non-attainment status. What kind of businesses they were because some of those businesses just may be here in Travis County. The cost association, if that's in the study to -- to give those benefit or residents whoever they are, an opportunity to say this is really what happened if we do not reach, if we do not retain an attainment status. So I'm concerned about that report.
>> [one moment please for change in captioners]
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, January 21, 2009 2:03 PM