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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAIR QUALITY ADVISORY BOARD - MINUTES - 06/17/20241 06/17/2024 - Minutes Air Quality Advisory Board REGULAR MEETING Monday, June 17, 2024 – 5:30 PM 222 Laporte Avenue, Colorado River Room 1. CALL TO ORDER: 5:32 PM 2. ROLL CALL • Board Members Present – • Mark Houdashelt (Chair) (arrived late) • Dan Welsh • Matt Ayres • Michael Cheesman • Michael Johnson • Jeremiah Gorske • Adam Schmidt • Maria Moore (arrived late) • Board Members Absent – • Kaori Keyser • Staff Members Present – • Selina Lujan de Albers, Staff Liaison • Cassie Archuleta, Lead Air Quality Specialist • Guest(s) – • Tami Bond, CSU Professor 3. AGENDA REVIEW Welsh stated the agenda will be shifted to place Cassie Archuleta’s presentation first to allow for Chair Houdashelt to possibly attend. 4. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION None. 5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Members discussed the May minutes and completed missing information as to who was speaking. Schmidt made a motion, seconded by Welsh, to approve the May minutes as amended. The motion was adopted unanimously. 2 06/17/2024 - Minutes 6. PREVIOUS BUSINESS Chair Houdashelt stated the joint meeting with the NRAB will likely be moved to August 19th as budget offers still are not public. Chair Houdashelt noted the agenda remains in flux; however, the focus will likely be on climate-related items. Lujan de Albers noted the meetings will be transitioning from a Zoom platform to Teams. 7. NEW BUSINESS a. Air Quality Overview – Cassie Archuleta Cassie Archuleta, Air Quality Specialist, noted air quality consists of gases and particles, including greenhouse gases. Archuleta discussed the reasons to care about air quality, including the fact that our region is an ozone non- attainment zone and respiratory health in terms of environmental justice. Archuleta discussed the City’s Air Quality Plan, the history of the air quality program, and the other plans that relate to the Air Quality Plan, including City Plan and Our Climate Future. In terms of the Air Quality Plan, Archuleta provided information on monitoring and data collection, and outlined the information that is displayed on the City’s website. In terms of particulate matter, Archuleta noted standards were recently lowered. Michael Cheeseman asked how exceptional events reporting will change with the lowering standard and whether that will place a burden on local regulatory agencies. Welsh replied that is a possibility. Archuleta discussed the EPA’s website related to monitoring particulate matter and also discussed the City’s visibility monitoring cameras. Archuleta discussed the newly formed Air Quality Monitoring Advisory Committee (AQMAC) which consists of Dan Welsh from this Board, a representative from the County, a representative from the Regional Air Quality Council, and others. Archuleta stated the AQMAC is the result of a $500,000 grant received from the EPA to focus on air toxics monitoring. Archuleta discussed a newly installed ozone monitor at Fossil Creek Reservoir and briefly mentioned the air quality items that can be controlled. Specifically, a municipality can influence vehicle emissions through road planning, promoting transit, and promoting electric vehicles, and can lead by example in terms of small engine items. Michael C asked if there is an inventory of things like dust emissions for agricultural sources. Archuleta replied in the affirmative and noted construction dust and agricultural dust contribute to particulate matter and 3 06/17/2024 - Minutes there are some regulations around fugitive dust for construction. Archuleta commented on resilience and being a ‘smoke-ready’ community, including proactively preparing for wildfire smoke events, implementing measures to protect public health and maintain air quality, and ensuring access to real-time information and resources for residents. Gorske noted the Roosevelt Arapaho National Forest is now a Wildfire Crisis Strategy area, which will include more vegetation work and prescribed burning in the winter. Gorske asked if there is any collaboration between those running the Wildfire Crisis Strategy program and local air quality staff, particularly if there is going to be an increase in winter burns. Welsh commented on his work with CDPHE and noted there are smoke management specialists who process prescribed fire permit applications. Additionally, it is up to the burner to meet meteorology thresholds, smoke management thresholds, and community messaging requirements. Welsh also noted fires are shut down if there is any potential to impact the Northern Colorado air shed and it is an ozone action day. Welsh stated he is unaware if there are consequences for a prescribed burn causing large smoke and air quality impacts; however, the smoke management specialists will monitor the burns when they are taking place. Archuleta commented on the local impacts of ditch burning, which do not receive CDPHE permits. Welsh noted there are no regulations over agricultural burning. Moore asked about backyard burning. Archuleta replied the Board was very involved in forming backyard burning regulations a few years ago and the result was time of day restrictions; however, there is some interest in a complete ban. Additionally, compliance officers will report based on complaints; however, that remains reactive. Archuleta discussed the Healthy Homes indoor air quality program which has been growing and has been able to provide more resources for lower income residents. Archuleta discussed work on updating the Air Quality Monitoring and Messaging Strategic Plan. Schmidt asked what type of feedback is being sought from the community. Archuleta replied people who are already interested in monitoring want to have a more regulatory discussion about industrial emissions and most community interest is around industrial sources. Welsh questioned what could be done if research or modeling could conclusively show that Weld County, for example, is the heart of the air quality problem. Archuleta replied Boulder has explored legal action and stated Fort Collins, as a municipality, would have more input in legislative 4 06/17/2024 - Minutes processes and through advocacy. Ayres suggested getting involved with Larimer County to help advocate on behalf of cities. Archuleta noted the County has become more involved in the air quality conversation and there is currently a weekly meeting with the County representative to discuss alignment opportunities. Johnson asked if Weld County is also part of the non-attainment area. Welsh replied in the affirmative and noted the zone also now extends to the Wyoming border. Tami Bond, CSU Professor, asked about community input from concerned residents living closer to emissions. Archuleta replied the oil and gas development brings a great deal of revenue to Weld County and the citizen voices are not as loud there. Additionally, Weld County’s new air quality staff member is only allowed to discuss air quality and not climate. Cheeseman asked if the recommendation would be for more disbursed monitoring or a single more comprehensive site if a grant were received for increased monitoring. Archuleta replied there were a couple priorities that were top of mind: a new regulatory site and more air toxics, which were both wrapped up with previous grants. Staff is not actively seeking another grant, though the recommendation in the hypothetical case would be more investment in super sites. b. Board Elections – All Welsh stated he is open to taking the Chair position. Maria Moore made a motion, seconded by Matt Ayres, to nominate Welsh as Chair. The motion was adopted unanimously. Adam Schmidt made a motion, seconded by Welsh, to nominate Houdashelt as Interim Vice Chair. The motion was adopted unanimously. c. Budgeting for Outcomes Overview – Chair Houdashelt Chair Houdashelt provided an outline of the Budgeting for Outcomes process in 2022, which included separating the budget offers into seven strategic outcome areas: Neighborhood Livability and Social Health, Culture and Recreation, Economic Health, Environmental Health, Safe Community, Transportation and Mobility, and High Performing Government. Chair Houdashelt reviewed an example of a budget offer and discussed the offer types: ongoing, continuing enhancement, one-time enhancement, and new. Chair Houdashelt further detailed the steps in the budget process and stated the Board could provide recommendations to Council either before or after the City Manager’s recommended budget comes out, or both. Additionally, 5 06/17/2024 - Minutes the Board will need to consider how it wants to coordinate with the NRAB. Chair Houdashelt discussed the process the Board undertook for making recommendations on the previous budget and provided the memo the Board sent to Council. Additionally, he noted the climate tax will provide an additional source of funding. Lujan de Albers noted all offers must be connected to an existing performance metric that is associated with a strategic objective. Michael C. asked if there are publicly available reports that analyze how past budgets have met their projected performance. Lujan de Albers replied there is a dashboard on the website; however, it does not include performance standards at the offer level. Moore suggested all members look through the offers individually once they are made public to prepare for the Board discussion. d. Updating Board Bylaws – All Chair Houdashelt commented on the Board’s functions which seem to include the ability for the Board to engage in education and outreach efforts and asked if additional language would be needed. Davina Lau, City Clerk’s Office, noted bylaws were eliminated from all Boards and Commissions in 2019. Lau stated the language allowing education and outreach is not included for this Board and City Code would need to be changed via ordinance before City Council in order to change the list of the Board’s functions. Welsh asked if members support the initiative of enabling the Board to be allowed to engage in public outreach and education efforts. All members replied in the affirmative. Members discussed possibly reaching out to another Board that already has the ability to engage in public outreach and education efforts. Moore suggested the formation of a subcommittee to research options for getting the City Code language adjusted. Moore and Schmidt committed to looking into options. Members had a discussion about open meetings laws and whether a meeting of various Board Chairs only would require public notice. 8. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS Chair Houdashelt reported on attending the recent Super Issues meeting and noted the Board will be receiving a presentation and providing input on the Trails Plan and the Natural Areas Plan. Additionally, two taxes will be placed on the fall ballot for renewal, one for street maintenance and one for capital projects. 6 06/17/2024 - Minutes Chair Houdashelt noted Bike to Work Day is June 26th and the Larimer Alliance for Health, Safety, and the Environment is having an air quality forum at the Old Town Library on June 28th. He also outlined upcoming Council items, including a discussion of NISP and initial budget discussions. 9. ADJOURNMENT • 8:07 pm Minutes approved by a vote of the Board on 07/15/2024