~Draft~

Meeting Summary

WESTAR Fall Business Meeting

Seattle, Washington

October 1-3, 2008

 

 

Attendees:

 

      Members/Delegates:

 

            John Coefield, MT                              Dave Klemp, MT

            Alice Edwards, AK                            Martin Bauer, ID

            Stu Clark, WA                                    Regg Olsen, UT         

            Paul Tourangeau, CO                          Mary Uhl, NM

            Sim Larkin, USFS                               Terry O’Clair, ND

            Bruce Louks, ID                                 Pricsilla Ligh, HI

            Bruce Polkowsky, NPS                      Ty Howard, UT

            Cheryl Heying, UT                             Sara Rees, WA

            Elizabeth Waddell, NPS                     Jeff Johnston, WA

            Tina Anderson, WY                            Chris Shaver, NPS

            Sandra Silva, USFWS                        Pete Lahm, USFS

            John Stormon, WA                             Doug Schneider, WA

            Willy Nagamine, HI                            Ira Domsky, AZ

            Greg Remer, NV                                 Angela Zahniser, BLM          

            Rita Bates, NM                                   Colleen Cripps, NV   

            David Collier, OR                              

           

      Guests:

 

            Bill Harnett, EPA-OAQPS                 Nikola Davidson, NW Bio    

            Lee Gribovicz, WRAP                        Tom Moore, WRAP   

            Laurel Dygowski, EPA                       Tom Webb, EPA

            Pat Cummins, WRAP                         Colleen McKaughan, EPA

            Mahbubul Islam, EPA                        Dennis Ransel, Clark Co. NV

            Janice Adair, Western Climate           Dan Brown, EPA

            Herman Wong, EPA

 

            WESTAR staff:

           

            Dan Johnson                                       Cherie Ezell

            Bob Lebens                                         Don Arkell

            Jeff Gabler

 

 

           

Note:   Click here to go to an annotated agenda with links to all the presentations and background documents

 

 

Joint WESTAR/WRAP session on regional haze

 

This session was a round-table discussion from each state on completing each element of BART and reasonable progress requirements of haze plans, and what specific assistance from WRAP is needed. A checklist was used to itemize each element. Two WRAP projects were identified that would help the most states that have not yet completed their haze SIPs:

  1. Generic 4-factor analyses for selected sources or source categories identified by states. Among the most likely source categories are electrical generating units (EGUs);
  2. Revision of plan for the regional modeling center to make a final modeling run after BART is known for sure from all states. New direction is to abbreviate this project to only update emissions inventories for EGUs and NOx BART, conserve resources for later modeling runs. (Scope to be recommended by IWG, reviewed and determined by AMC)

 

1. Executive Session

 

Several action items came out of the Executive Session, including:

  • The directors discussed potential revisions to the WRAP organizational structure and a draft report by the WESTAR/WRAP Coordination Workgroup on efforts to coordinate the work of the two organizations. MOTION: Mary Uhl moved, and Colleen Cripps seconded a motion to recommend the following revisions to 1) the “Proposed WRAP Organization Chart starting in 2009”, and 2) the “Progress Report  WESTAR/WRAP Coordination Workgroup – General Summary” as follows:
    • WESTAR recommends WRAP revise the proposed WRAP organization chart for 2009 reflecting an addition to footnote #3, the addition to read as follows: Activation and pursuit of any work under this forum, per the 2000-2012 WRAP Strategic Plan (pg. 18), would only occur after funding for these activities is ascertained and provided, and/or further discussion and approval by the WRAP Board or the Air Managers Committee.
    • The “Progress Report WESTAR/WRAP Coordination Workgroup – General Summary” dated 9/10/08 shall be revised with similar language in Bullet #3 under Principles of Organizational Structure.

The motion carried unanimously.

 

  • Dan Johnson requested air director concurrence to submit the current three-year workplan to EPA with minor editorial revisions in support of a request for FFY2009 funding. MOTION: Terry O’Clair moved, and Martin Bauer seconded a motion to submit the existing workplan with no substantive changes to EPA for FFY2009 installment of the EPA grant funding. The motion carried unanimously (12 of 15 members were present for the vote).

 

  • Dan Johnson requested approval of funding to support the activities detailed in the current three-year workplan, funding that is derived from 105 grant dollars set aside from EPA regional allocations (member contributions). MOTION: Paul Tourangeau moved, and Martin Bauer seconded a motion as follows: For the financial support of WESTAR, each WESTAR member authorizes the use of the state’s share of their 105 grant funds as has been authorized since FY2000 (totaling $280,000 “off the top” of applicable Regional allocations). If funding provided by EPA differs significantly from the levels expected, as summarized in the 2008-10 workplan, a revised workplan and budget will be submitted for Council approval. All members present voted to approve the motion (12 of 15 members were present for the vote). ACTION ITEM: Dan Johnson will contact the directors from those WESTAR members that were not present for the vote and seek their concurrence on the motion.

 

2. Introduction and Welcome

 

Stu Clark provided an overview of Washington State, highlighting the state’s diversity and air quality challenges, including climate change, diesel emissions, and particulate matter non-attainment. Click here for a copy of Stu’s presentation.

 

3. Business

 

a.       Review/Approval of Spring 2008 Meeting Summary

 

MOTION: Paul Tourangeau moved, and Cheryl Heying seconded a motion to approve the summary of WESTAR’s spring 2008 business meeting. Motion carried unanimously. Click here for a copy of the summary.

 

b.      Summary of Action Items from Spring 2008 WESTAR meeting

 

Dan Johnson provided a summary of actions taken to address action items from the previous business meeting. Click here for a copy of the summary.

 

c.       Staff Reports

 

WESTAR staff provided an overview of recent activities, and summarized current priorities and initiatives. Click here for a copy of the presentation.

 

d.      Committee Reports

 

Doug Schneider, Planning Committee chair, highlighted the Committee efforts since spring, much of it involving biomass burning such as the fuels-for-schools, Wildland Fire Policy, natural events policy implementation, as well as SIP related issues surrounding PM2.5 designations and regional haze. Click here for a copy of Doug’s report.

 

Ty Howard, Sources Committee chair, summarized the committee accomplishments and described the priority issues for the future including GHG rulemaking as it impacts permitting and emissions reporting and biomass related issues. Ty noted that the Committee will continue to serve as a forum for states to help each other solve permitting related problems. Click here for a copy of Ty’s report.

 

John Coefield, Technical Committee Chair provided an overview of current Committee projects including: workshop development on Oil and Gas and Continuous Monitoring; discussion on biomass emissions, PSD increment tracking and regional haze. Click here for a copy of John’s report. 

 

Finally, Bruce Louks, WESTAR representative on the National Ambient Air Monitoring Steering Committee, touched on the status of the National Monitoring Strategy revision and several important current monitoring issues including the soon to be promulgated lead NAAQS and the ozone monitoring rule. Ira Domsky noted that AZ has done a comparison of FRM and continuous PM10 monitoring data and concluded that there is a significant difference. ACTION ITEM: Include this topic on the agenda for the upcoming PM2.5 workshop. Click here for a copy of Bruce’s report.

 

e.       Financial Status Report

 

Treasurer Dave Klemp went through the financial status report circulated in advance of the meeting. He concluded that WESTAR is on firm financial footing. Click here for a copy of the financial summary.

                    

4. Excess Emissions

 

The issue of excess emissions, or those during start-up and shut-down of permitting facilities, was carried over from the Spring Business meeting. The roundtable discussion revealed significant variability in how states are modifying their programs, frequently in response to EPA requests to change them.  

 

5. Report from EPA Office of Air Quality Programs and Standards

 

Bill Harnett provided an overview of a variety of topics, including an update on EPA’s plans to address the vacatur of CAIR, status of the area source MACT rules, toxics, CAMR, schedule for NAAQS reviews and implementation rules, regional haze, fire policy, permitting and NSR rules, and exceptional events litigation. Click here for the OAQPS overview, here for the CAIR presentation, and here for the MACT, toxics, and CAMR presentation.

 

6. Climate Change

 

Bill Harnett gave a presentation on EPA’s regulatory efforts and current thinking with regard to regulating greenhouse gases under the current clean air act, addressing among other things, the recently release ANPR, SIPs and CO2, PSD, and Title V issues. Click here for a copy of Bill’s presentation. ACTION ITEM: WESTAR should monitor NACAA’s comments on the greenhouse gas ANPR to ensure issues of concern to western states are incorporated.

 

John Stormon a hydrogeologist at Washington Department of Ecology discussed the State of Washington’s Climate Change Legislation (ESSB 6001) which adopted emissions-reduction goals and policy recommendations.  The rule was adopted June 30, 2008.  The bill sets an Emissions Performance Standards (EPS) for existing electric utilities that cannot exceed modern natural-gas fueled power plants.  New facilities can meet the standard by sequestering (capturing and permanently storing) CO2 emissions, but not by purchasing offsets.  John discussed the WA DoE process for adopting the rule, lessons-learned, and other program standards (water quality, underground injection control) that needed to be considered during rule development. Click here for a copy of John’s presentation. 

 

Janice Adair, Co-Chair of the Western Climate Initiative, provided an overview of the September 23 release of WCI recommendations for design of a GHG cap-and-trade program to be implemented by the WCI members. These design recommendations identify policy principles about what must be the same in each jurisdiction’s emission reduction program. The individual emission reduction programs are linked to the WCI trading market, which in turn will achieve the region-wide GHG emission reduction goals. Jurisdictions must next gain legislative authority to implement their respective programs, starting with emissions reporting in 2011, and reductions starting in 2012. See the presentation at: WCI overview .

 

7. Biofuels and Ethanol

 

Nikola Davidson, Director of the Northwest Biofuels Association, described the state of biodiesel and renewable fuels in the Pacific Northwest (click here for a copy of the presentation). Paul Machiele provided an overview of EPA development of a revised Renewable Fuels Standards required as part of the 2007 energy bill (click here for a copy of the presentation). John Courtis discussed the status of the California Low Carbon Fuel standard. In response to a question, Paul indicated that EPA will release information on the air quality benefits and dis-benefits of renewable fuels in the middle of 2009 (click here for a copy of the presentation).

                    

8.  Roundtable discussion: Exceptional Events

 

Doug Schneider hosted a discussion on implementation of the exceptional events rule. Each state was asked to address a series of topics related to lessons learned over the past year on implementation of the rule. Several states offered examples of obstacles related to event documentation required by EPA regional offices before data flags would be approved, akin to prepare a SIP-like demonstration to avoid having to do a SIP. A number of states had not flagged data under the new rule. ACTION ITEM: WESTAR will host a meeting with appropriate EPA representatives to identify and resolve, if possible, implementation issues.

                    

9. Hot Topics

 

  • Bob Lebens described WESTAR activities related to biomass related emissions including (click here for a copy of the presentation):

Woodstove NSPS - EPA intends to propose a revision to the Woodstove NSPS in the fall of 2009. In a joint WESTAR/NESCAUM letter last spring and in a meeting with EPA last summer, WESTAR identified several improvements to the NSPS. Leading up to the proposal, EPA will be seeking additional input from stakeholders, including WESTAR, which will explore opportunities to work with the Hearth Products Association (ACTION ITEM).

 

Hydronic Heaters - EPA has entered into a voluntary agreement with Hydronic Heater manufacturers which include emissions limits, labeling and a model rule. Several Northeast states have made the provisions of the agreement binding on manufacturers in their states.

 

Fuels-for-Schools - Following a successful meeting last summer involving WESTAR, NESCAUM, EPA and FLMs, the FLMs are revising their outreach materials to emphasize air quality considerations, in addition to biomass utilization and re-structuring grant requirements to incorporate emission controls.  NESCAUM will release a small wood boiler control technology document soon which will be used by the FLMs in the grant program. 

 

Wildland Fire Policy - EPA intends to release a draft Wildland Fire Policy before the end of the year.  That policy will incorporate agricultural burning.  ACTION ITEM: WESTAR will reconstitute the Fire Policy Workgroup to evaluate the draft Policy and report its findings to the WESTAR Council.

 

  • Pete Lahm reported on efforts by the Forest Service on fire-related issue. He noted that this is a follow-up to discussions at WESTAR’s spring business meeting, during which Brian McManus discussed how air quality issues are addressed within the FLM’s wildfire decision-making support system. He discussed the strategies employed during the 2008 fire season, an especially bad year from the wildfire perspective. Click here for a copy of Pete’s presentation (note: over 10 MB file).

 

  • Sim Larkin discussed the emergency smoke response system employed by the Forest Service during the catastrophic southern California wildfires in 2008. The system was used in part to predict downwind smoke impacts and, because the system was able to generate the predictions in near real-time, to inform downwind communities of likely smoke intrusions. Click here for a copy of Sim’s presentation (note: over 10 MB file).

 

  • Closeout of concern that directors were not aware of a draft WRAP technical report that suggested additional Ozone monitoring was needed in rural areas throughout the west. Several directors received questions from their superiors following an article in the trade press about the report and asked that they be made aware of such work in the future. Greater involvement by the AMC in guiding future WRAP technical work should resolve this issue. 

 

10.  Roundtable discussion: Area Source MACT Implementation

 

In a roundtable format directors discussed agency plans for addressing and implementing Area Source MACTs, and how the agencies are handling the uncertainties related to allocation and management of resources necessary for program development, implementation, and enforcement and compliance.  Click here for a list of predetermined questions that were developed to help steer the session. ACTION ITEM: The Sources Committee should track and, if appropriate, explore regional approaches to implement the Area Source MACT.

 

11. Summary of action items; adjourn

  • In follow-up to discussions during the WRAP workshop which immediately preceded the WESTAR meeting, WESTAR will prepare a letter to WRAP expressing our interest in maintaining WRAP’s technical capabilities, offering comments on the proposed revised organization chart circulated during the meeting, and asking for baseline information on the costs associated with maintaining the technical systems and the incremental cost to utilize those systems for non-regional haze projects.
  • WESTAR is developing an agenda for a PM2.5 workshop this winter. The agenda should include a discussion about PM10 continuous monitor bias.
  • Some states have experienced difficulties with the Exceptional Events rule, especially with respect to providing EPA regional offices with acceptable event documentation. WESTAR should host a meeting with appropriate EPA representatives to discuss lessons learned and areas where additional implementation guidance is needed.
  • WESTAR should explore opportunities to partner with the Hearth Products Association and others to share information on the factual basis for updating, and expanding, as appropriate, the wood-burning NSPS.
  • EPA is scheduled to publish a draft fire policy later this year. WESTAR should reform its Fire Policy Workgroup to evaluate the draft and inform the air directors of any critical issues, including the manner in which EPA proposes to address agriculture.
  • The Sources Committee should track and, if appropriate, explore regional approaches to implementing the Area Source MACT.
  • WESTAR should monitor NACAA’s comments on the climate change ANPR to determine if the comments reflect issues of concern to the western states.