A public hearing of the Air Pollution Control Board of Jefferson County was called to order December 18, 2002, at 9:00 a.m. in the Board Room of the Air Pollution Control District, 850 Barret Avenue, Louisville, Kentucky, by the Chairman, Joseph Vibbert.
The Chairman read the opening announcement, rules, and purpose of the hearing, which was to review the proposed amendment to one regulation.
Mr. Trout explained that the purpose of the proposed action is to enhance the District’s control over open burning activities that are exempt from the general prohibition of opening burning as specified in this regulation. In particular, the District would have the authority to impose limitations on the composition and amount of material to be burned and not allow open burning on days for which there is already a health concern, such as Ozone Action Days. The proposed amendments add requirements in certain cases for the submission of written requests, including certain information about the material to be burned, and an affirmative District approval before some open burning activities would be considered exempt from the general open burning prohibition. Also, references to other agencies involved in reviewing the approvals for certain open burning requests were updated.
Mr. Trout further explained that a situation occurred a couple of months ago involving a fire training exercise that received a lot of publicity due to the fire training exercise being scheduled for an Ozone Action Day. The current regulation does not provide the District with explicit authority to disallow fire training exercises on Ozone Action Days. In this case, the fire department did not plan to undertake their scheduled fire training exercise on the Ozone Action Day. However, the District believes that this regulation should be reviewed and updated as appropriate and specific District authorities should be included.
Mr. Trout said that during the written comment period, Patrick Schmidt expressed concern that the District would require all citizens doing a backyard barbecue or a small cooking fire at a park to submit information to the District, which would then have the authority to limit these non-commercial cooking fires and prohibit these fires on Ozone Acton Days. Mr. Schmidt suggested that references to fires pursuant to section 2.1.1 be excluded from the applicability of sections 2.3 and 2.4. Mr. Trout said that the District indicated in the response to this suggestion that, while the District would have the authority to require the submittal of information for these non-commercial cooking fires, submittal is not mandatory and the District does not intend to request that citizens having a small backyard barbecue or cooking fire at a public park send this information to the District.
Further, Mr. Trout indicated that the website for the Kentuckiana Ozone Prevention Coalition (KOPC) suggests that persons refrain from using lighter fluid on Ozone Action Days, not that citizens should not have cooking fires on Ozone Action Days. The KOPC website does suggest that, when purchasing a new grill, people consider a gas or electric grill. Mr. Trout said that the District does not intend to prohibit backyard barbecues and other similar non-commercial cooking fires on Ozone Action Days. However, the District believes that it is appropriate to have the authority to establish reasonable limitations on a specific fire that exceeds the intended scope of a fire authorized by section 2.1.1. Therefore, the District disagrees with Mr. Schmidt’s suggested additional language for section 2.3 and 2.4.
Mr. Trout said that the District intends to recommend that the Board adopt amended Regulation 1.11 Control of Open Burning Version #9, Draft #6 - Proposed, November 11, 2002, at the Board meeting today, pending evaluation of any comments made at today’s Public Hearing, provided a quorum is present at the Board meeting.
Mr. Schmidt said that he believes that small cooking fires are insignificant in meeting the ozone standard and the emissions from these fires could not be measured by the ambient monitoring equipment. He said that the District should not require citizens to send in a form each time they have a small cooking fire in a public park or in their backyard and the District should not prohibit these small cooking fires on Ozone Action Days. Mr. Schmidt suggested that sections 2.3 and 2.4 be amended to exempt section 2.1.1 fires from the notice and limitations requirements except for fires from sources that have resulted in recurring complaints.
A copy of Mr. Schmidt’s statement was submitted for filing and is attached to the original minutes.
The public hearing adjourned at 9:17 a.m.
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Joseph D. Vibbert
Chairman
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Jonathan L. Trout
Secretary-Treasurer