A special meeting of the Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control Board was called to order May 3, 2004, at 7:03 p.m. in the Board Room of the Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District, 850 Barret Avenue, Louisville, Kentucky, by the Chair, Karen Cassidy. Lee Howard, Lewis Hammond, Barbara Sexton Smith, Sandra Withers, Nadir Al-Shami, and Carolyn Embry were present. A quorum was present.
The following Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District (District) staff members were present: Art Williams, Jon Trout, Lauren Anderson, Jesse Goldsmith, Doug Spillman, and Irene Stephenson. Bruce Traughber, Secretary, Cabinet for Community Development and Shannon Tivitt, Assistant Secretary, Cabinet for Community Development, were also present.
The following guests were present: Regina Henry and Edmo Gutierrez, Cemex/Kosmos Cement; and Tom FitzGerald, Kentucky Resources Council.
Mr. Trout said that the District will request that the Board take action on the proposed amendment to the current Board Order with the Kosmos Cement Company (Kosmos). The proposed required reduction in the existing NOx reasonably available control technology (RACT) emission limit that is a part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-approved State Implementation Plan (SIP) would offset the increase in oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from the closing of the Vehicle Emissions Testing (VET) Program which was required by the Kentucky General Assembly. Mr. Trout said that the District believes that, at the worst, there will be no change in the ozone air quality in the Louisville area; in fact, this replacement could result in a slight improvement because photochemical grid modeling previously performed for the Louisville area demonstrated that NOx reductions were more effective in reducing ozone concentrations than VOC reductions.
Mr. Trout said that by offsetting the increases from the closing of the VET Program, the concern raised by the EPA regarding compliance with the anti-backsliding provisions of Section 110(l) would be addressed, allowing the EPA to approve moving the VET Program from the active portion of the Louisville 1-hour ozone maintenance plan to the contingency measure portion of the maintenance plan.
Mr. Trout said that the other major air quality issue raised during the Public Comment period was whether the ozone air quality in the Louisville area would be worse this summer as compared to last summer. He said that while the NOx reductions at Kosmos were equivalent to the NOx and VOC increases from closing the VET Program, approximately four tons per day NOx equivalent, it is expected that the Louisville Gas and Electric Company (LG&E) will reduce NOx emissions this summer by from 22 to 30 tons per day. Clearly there will be significantly
fewer NOx emissions in the Louisville area this summer as compared to last summer.
Mr. Trout said that the issues that were raised during the Public Comment period and the District’s written responses to those comments were provided to the Board members at the April 31st Special Board Meeting. The amended Board Order has two major changes: a reduction of the allowed NOx emission rate by approximately 1.85 pounds of NOx per ton of clinker produced in the cement kiln and a change in the reporting requirements in Appendix A to focus on reporting exceptions to compliance rather than reporting all emissions. Mr. Trout said that the District is making this change in other Title V permits to reduce the workload of both the companies and the District while maintaining the reporting of instances of noncompliance.
Mr. Howard asked whether there was any additional capital or any other action Kosmos needed to take to achieve these reductions. Mr. Trout responded that the predominant change was that Kosmos established consistent operating parameters for all the kiln operators to maintain rather than allow the kiln operators to operate the kiln differently, thus causing frequent upsets to the kiln.
Mr. Williams said that the use of the NOx reductions from Kosmos to offset the increased emissions from closing the VET Program meets all the requirements of the Clean Air Act that the EPA has identified to the District. Specifically, the requirements that reductions be surplus, quantifiable, enforceable, permanent, and contemporaneous would be met. This action will hopefully conclude a process that began some time ago with the Board and allow the District to move forward in its efforts to improve air quality within the community. This Board and the Air Quality Task Force will focus on new strategies that make sense to the community to attain the new 8-hour ozone and PM2.5 standards.
Mr. Williams said that the District recommends that the Board approve the amended Board Order with Kosmos. If approved, the District will send the SIP revision request package to the Kentucky Division for Air Quality for formal submittal to the EPA.
Dr. Al-Shami asked why the District was requiring only Kosmos to reduce its NOx emissions. Mr. Trout responded that the District had originally proposed some of the reductions coming from LG&E, but that the EPA, after suggesting that such reductions would be acceptable, introduced the additional requirement that LG&E would be required to retire allowances that could have been sold to other utilities in Kentucky or outside the state. Because this loss of potential revenue could affect LG&E’s customers, LG&E officials decided that voluntarily providing SIP-required reductions was no longer appropriate. Subsequently, Kosmos officials agreed to offset the entire increase in emissions from closing the VET Program. Mr. Trout concluded by saying that LG&E and Kosmos were the two largest NOx sources in Jefferson County and that NOx emission reductions from the boilers of the larger industrial sources would be more costly and could not be achieved quickly.
| MOTION: | Mr. Hammond moved to approve the revised Board Order with Kosmos Cement Company as recommended by the District. |
|---|
Ms. Embry stated that she plans to vote against the motion. She said that the VET Program was an important part of the ozone pollution control plan for Jefferson County. The VET Program was responsible for removing approximately 4 tons of pollutants per summer day from our air. The VET Program was also to be a part of our maintenance plan to help us to continue to maintain the 1-hour ozone standard. The removal of the VET Program did not occur until November of last year; the NOx emission reduction measure at Kosmos was implemented before the beginning of the summer last year. Thus, there was no reduction to actually offset the NOx and VOC emission increases that began in November. The elimination of the VET Program warrants new offsetting reductions.
Ms. Embry said that while it may be true on paper that the Kosmos reductions offset the increases, the fact is the Louisville area will be short one pollution control strategy that was in place at this time last year. The reductions from LG&E should not be considered a part of this discussion, but should be recognized as a required part of a federal program that will hopefully help the Louisville area attain the 8-hour ozone standard a few years from now. She said that it appears that the EPA is poised to accept bogus substitutions for our SIP, however the Board does not have to approve this Plan. The community is looking to the Board for leadership to responsibly move forward to achieve clean air goals. She concluded by saying that the Board should ask the District Staff to go back to the drawing board and come up with a new proposal that would develop new reductions that would be real and meaningful and would meet the EPA’s criteria for being surplus, quantifiable, enforceable and permanent.
Mr. Howard complimented the District Staff members for their work with the leadership of this community and coming to a solution as quickly and efficiently as they have. He said that he is looking forward to seeing the effect of the emission changes this summer.
Ms. Smith asked Ms. Embry whether she would like to see Kosmos do something else. Ms. Embry replied that there are other reductions to be had in this community. Ms. Smith asked if this amended Board Order does not pass, would it mean that Kosmos is not required to continue the change that they have made. Mr. Williams responded that they would not have an enforceable requirement to continue the reduction that they have achieved.
Ms. Embry asked whether Kosmos officials initiated this change on their own, irrespective of any VET issues, because it was in the company’s best interest to increase the efficiency of its operations. Mr. Trout said that to the District’s knowledge, this change was initiated in the spring of 2003 on the company’s own initiative. However, he pointed out that in about the October 2002 time frame, Mr. Williams had announced to the Board the District’s intention of pursuing an effort, later named Focus 2003, to effect significant ozone precursor emission reductions during the summer of 2003 to try to lower the Louisville area’s 8-hour ozone design value, the key in determining the level of required reductions pursuant to implementation of the new 8-hour ozone standard. Before the end of 2002, the District was working with the SIP Advisory Panel to recommend control measures to be implemented. Thus, the industrial sector was well aware of the District’s intentions for the summer of 2003 long before the change was made at Kosmos.
Chair Cassidy said that she doesn’t believe that it is appropriate to approve the Board Order and still ask the District staff to look for new reductions to offset the closing of the VET Program. She said that she believes that the District should use its limited resources and limited staff time to address other air quality issues.
Mr. Trout said that the District is investing significant staff resources to develop regulations to implement an air toxics program which, in reducing VOC emissions, will be reducing ozone. In addition to developing the air toxics program, the District staff members have increased their efforts to implement several other programs aimed at reducing ozone precursor emissions.
| ACTION: | The motion to adopt the revised Board Order with Kosmos Cement Company was adopted by a six to one vote, with Ms. Embry voting in opposition to the motion. |
|---|
Mr. Williams told the Board that earlier in the day the District filed in federal court to intervene in the lawsuit filed by the EPA against Cinergy, which operates the Gallagher power plant across the Ohio River from western Louisville. The lawsuit alleges that modifications were made to the units at the Gallagher plant that should have triggered the requirement to significantly upgrade the air pollution control equipment, thus significantly reducing emissions. In the absence of the requirement to install modern controls, the Gallagher plant continues to adversely affect the air quality in Louisville.
The meeting adjourned at 7:34 p.m.
_______/signed/_______
Karen Cassidy
Chair
_______/signed/_______
Jonathan L. Trout
Secretary-Treasurer