Chairman Bruce Traughber opened the September meeting of the Louisville Metro Air Quality Task force (Task Force). Eleven Task Force members were present, and Sharon Dodson attended for George Siemens. A quorum of the Task Force was present.
Art Williams, Director, Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District (District), said that to date there has still been only one exceedance of the 8-hour ozone standard. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is now indicating that the 8-hour ozone Phase 2 Implementation Rule will not be published until November. As with ozone levels in the Louisville area, the monitored PM2.5 levels have been low this year. The year-to-date average PM2.5 level is the lowest in the five years that the District has been monitoring PM2.5 and five of the first eight months of this year have had the lowest monthly average in those five years. As of today, Metro AIR NET, the current monitoring data for the Jefferson, Bullitt, and Oldham Counties (Kentucky) and Clark and Floyd Counties (Indiana), can be accessed on the District’s web page (www.apcd.org). There is also a link on the District’s web page to the TRIMARC traffic cameras.
Cynthia Lee, Environmental Programs Manager, discussed
Guidance on State Implementation Plan (SIP) Credits for Emission Reductions
from Electric-Sector Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Measures.
Cinergy announced that it will install additional controls on its Gibson Plant, located 100 miles west of Louisville, that will reduce nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide emissions, which should result in reductions of both PM2.5 and ozone in the Louisville area. Cinergy also announced that it will install baghouse controls on the Gallagher Plant which will be 70 percent more efficient than the current control equipment in reducing particulate emissions. In addition to reducing PM2.5 emissions and opacity, Cinergy will install its first activated carbon injection system to reduce mercury emissions.
The District’s Strategic Toxic Air Reduction (STAR) Program, if adopted, would result in the reduction of volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions, thus contributing to lower ozone concentrations.
Dr. Larry Palmer summarized the Workshop on Air Quality and Urban Planning, which was held as part of the International Conference of Urban Planners. The relationships between local planning, corridors, neighborhoods, and air quality were discussed.
Jon Trout, Assistant Director, gave the presentation
Metro Louisville - 8-Hour Ozone NAAQS - Past, Present,
and Future (Adobe Acrobat format ,
910 KB; Microsoft PowerPoint
format , 832 KB).
This presentation summarized the information that had been
presented to the Task Force to date, with an emphasis on the past, current,
and projected future Louisville area ozone air quality and emissions.
With the new information on the adverse health effects of fine particulate ozone, the EPA could have chosen an even lower standard. It was suggested that the goal of the recommendations of the Task Force should be to achieve levels that are healthy, rather than reducing emissions just enough to comply with the standards. It was suggested that the concept of a growth margin should include enhanced health as well as economic viability. It was cautioned that diesel particulate emissions are now being recognized as a real health problem, not just a nuisance.
Chairman Traughber asked the Task Force members to consider how a more restrictive ozone standard could be established and what data would be needed to support this standard. Related issues would involve both new and modified sources, considering both technology and ambient concentration benchmarks, and would apply to both industrial sources as well as the design of neighborhoods and streets.
Questions regarding the establishment of a more restrictive ozone standard included what the benefits would be; how the benefits would be determined; what the social benefits would be; how the consequences would be determined; and whether the more restrictive standard should be included in the State Implementation Plan (SIP), thus becoming federally enforceable but more difficult to make changes determined by the community to be appropriate.
It was suggested that the benefits of air quality better than the standard clearly outweigh the costs to achieve the improve air quality. Areas that have achieved good air quality have also experienced an improvement in the economic environment. It was suggested that not all reductions would need to be in the SIP, just what is required for attainment and maintenance of the standards. It was asked whether the margin of safety should be dynamic in that future reductions would be needed to offset growth or is the margin of safety a one-time amount of excess reduction that would be diminished by growth.
It was suggested that more information about the ozone modeling that has been done to date, including what the inputs of the model were, how conservative the assumptions were, and what the results mean. Additionally, there was concern expressed about the timeframe for the Task Force to develop its recommended strategy by January, partly because the new Lake Michigan Air Directors Consortium (LADCO) model runs will not be completed for another two to three months and partly because the EPA implementation rules are not finalized, leaving a great deal of uncertainty as to what will be required in the Louisville attainment plan. Chairman Traughber acknowledged that it would be unfair to require the Task Force to develop a recommended strategy in the absence of the EPA requirements and guidance.
When asked whether the Task Force that was created by Louisville Metro was actually regional, Chairman Traughber indicated that the recommended regional strategy would be presented to Kentucky and Indiana state officials as well as the Louisville Metro Mayor and Air Pollution Control Board. It was acknowledged, however, that the majority of the emissions in the Louisville area are from Jefferson County.
Chairman Traughber said that the adverse health effects of ozone are not yet understood by the Task Force members and the case must be made for establishing a goal for air quality to be substantially better than the standard. He suggested that the next step for the Task Force is to establish what the goal should be, but central to that decision is a better understanding of the health effects of ozone, the ozone model inputs and results, and the assumptions for future emission reductions. Additionally, more information about the expected future growth of the Louisville area is needed. Appropriate speakers on this issue are Paul Coomes of the University of Louisville and Joe Regan of Greater Louisville, Inc.
The Task Force established two committees, one to focus on the health effects of ozone and the other to review the ozone modeling that has and will be performed to give a better understanding of what the modeling predicts the ozone levels will be. Dr. Powell and Dr. Palmer volunteered to be on the health effects committee; Chairman Traughber said that Dr. Troutman of the Louisville Metro Health Department will be invited to participate. Tom FitzGerald said that he would provide information on the adverse health effects of ozone. Chairman Traughber said that all Task Force members will be invited to participate on these committees and that non-Task Force members may be asked to participate.
The next Task Force meeting will be Friday, November 19, 2004, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m., in the District’s Board Room, 850 Barret Avenue, Louisville (the October 22nd meeting was rescheduled).