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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAir Quality Advisory Board - Minutes - 06/27/2000liU Ub U�s MINUTES CITY OF FORT COLLINS AIR QUALITY ADVISORY BOARD REGULAR MEETING 281 N. COLLEGE AVE. June 27, 2000 For Reference: Eric Levine, Chair 229-5225 Scott Mason, Council Liaison 226-4824 Brian Woodruff, Staff Liaison 221-6604 Board Members Present Nancy York, John Schroeer, Eric Levine, Harry Edwards, Raymond Sons, Mandar Sunthankar, Linda Stanley, Jim Dennison Board Members Absent Chris Kavanaugh Staff Present Natural Resources Department? Brian Woodruff, Terry Klahn, Sarah Fox, and Lucinda Smith Guests Air Resource Specialists, Inc. — Howard Gebhart, Joe Adlhoch, and Jessica Bailey The meeting was called to order at 7:05 Minutes With the following changes, the minutes of the May 23, 2000 meeting were unanimously approved: Page 3, 51h bullet — Bold the sentence "I look forward to seeing the follow through." Review and Update Action List 1. Anti -smoking campaigns in other communities -Pending 2. Information on Community Dialogue - Pending 3. Poll Board members who are absent about changing the meeting time to 4:30-7:00 -- Done John Schroeer suggested moving the "housekeeping" items to the end of the agenda so presenters would not be delayed any longer than necessary. Review Council six-month planning calendar June 27: Transportation Maintenance Funding July 25: Land Use Patterns Sept. 12: Mason Street Transportation Corridor Master Plan Sept. 26: Population Growth Review Process Analysis Oct. 3: Mason Street Transportation Corridor Master Plan Oct. 24: Land Use Code Parking Requirements Edwards: Inquire about the item under July 25, Land Use Patterns. My recollection is that when we got close to the periphery we were soundly scolded and told to keep away. We were threatened with personal liability. It seems that Land Use Patterns would be of interest to the board. Air Quality Advisory Board June 27, 2000 Page 2 • Levine: The AQAB may and can have interest in Land Use Patterns. • Woodruff: I don't know what "land use patterns" refers to. I will check into that. It will be the night of our next meeting. There's nothing preventing the AQAB from getting into the issue of land use patterns. It's on the specific development reviews under the land use code where we are forbidden to venture. • Stanley: What's more important to car patterns than land use patterns? • Edwards: Can we be briefed on this in time to make a decision, if we should be represented? • Woodruff: I will find out. There are ways of getting information out between board meetings. • Stanley: As to the September 26 item, Population Growth Review Process Analysis. So much of what we look at is related to population. We should find out what the Study Session will entail. Agenda Planning July 25 and Sept. 26 — Mason Street Corridor Plan, Susanne Durkin Short Discussion Items • Change regular meeting time/place? The Board unanimously approved the following motion. Effective immediately, the Air Quality Advisory Board meetings will be held on the 4`h Tuesday of each month from 4:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. The meetings will continue to be held at 281 N. College Ave, Conference Rooms A&B. • Holnam Update - Postponed • Radon regulation re -review — Postponed Visibility Project Briefing, Howard Gebhart, Air Resource Specialists Inc. Lucinda Smith reminded the Board that in 1999 the number -one priority of the Board's work plan was looking at the visibility policy. The Board and staff agreed it's important to look at the actions of the City. Four tasks were identified for the contractor, Air Resource Specialists, Inc., to carry out: 1) reviewing the summary of existing data and making recommendations on actions, 2) improve outreach to the public, 3) review monitoring options, and 4) identify visibility conditions in the future. Gebhart stated the objectives of this project are to evaluate the effectiveness of current City of Fort Collins plans and policies toward improving atmospheric visibility, and to define what additional policies and practices the City of Fort Collins should consider for implementation. We followed the typical pattern of how visibility data are described, taking the best 20% of all days, the average of all days, and the worst 20% of all days. As the extinction coefficient number gets higher, the more visibility impairment exists. We have data at the Fort Collins site going back to 1995. Our evaluation is that there is not much trend in the data. Air Quality Advisory Board June 27, 2000 Page 3 Discussion • Schroeer: How does construction factor in, in terms of dust? In the courthouse area I would expect to see greatly higher numbers. Yes, that's accurate, however, the PM-10 data is lower. • Levine: It would be interesting to have historical PM-2.5 data. There's not enough data yet. • Edwards: Have you performed a statistical analysis on the data in figure 2-10? That has not been done. We're only looking to provide a general assessment. • Levine: Mason and Laurel, where the CO and ozone monitors are, is the 10`h busiest in town. How is distribution as far as hot spots and various concentrations? Does it mirror busier intersections, or does it tend to spread out' rather fast? We haven't looked at data front Denver to see what kind of spatial patterns there are. That would be a good place to look • Levine: It would be good data; we may need to put our monitor in a different place. • Smith: The siting requirements for CO and ozone monitors are somewhat different than for particulate monitors. • Edwards: What time of year does the visibility data represent? This is the average of all of the days. The distributions from winter to summer are fairly similar. Survey Conclusions: — Air quality appears to show improvement since 1995 (CO, ozone, and PM-10). However, the improvements in air quality have generally not been reflected in similar improvements in visibility conditions. — Visibility shows no trend since 1995. — Mobile sources are the most significant source of visibility degradation in Fort Collins. — Diesel emissions have a disproportionate impact on visibility and are considered to be a significant contributor. — Primary particles have a relatively small impact on visibility relative to secondary particles. Policy Recommendations: — Mobile Source Controls Controlling VMT growth Reducing traffic congestion Low -emitting vehicles — Diesel Vehicle Emissions Truck Bypass TransFort Fleet Construction Vehicles Light -Duty Diesel Vehicles — Stationary Sources — Episodic Controls • Stanley: Is there a relationship between carbon monoxide and NO,? If we improve one, might we make the other one worse? • Woodruff: Don't think that the two go hand -in -hand. There was a time when folks wanted Colorado to adopt the stricter California standards. But these standards are designed to improve ozone and NOx, not carbon monoxide. Air Quality Advisory Board June 27, 2000 Page 4 • Smith: The City's goal is that, by 2008, 75% of the fleet will meet standards for Ultra Low Emitting Vehicles (ULEV). The ULEV vehicles would emit 50% less NOx than a regular new vehicle • Edwards: Did you look at a truck by-pass being located along Owl Canyon Road. We didn't look at a specific location. Visibility is a regional type issue. My opinion is the major benefit of a bypass would be an improvement in traffic flow. The fact that emissions would be relocated wouldn't have a drmnatic effect on visibility. • Edwards: You're laying the responsibility for the visibility, in part, at the feet of diesel vehicles. My assessment is that diesel are a fairly significant contributor. • Edward: Do you have data that would show us a change in diesel VMT? • Smith: The best data would be provided by the state. The EPA is working to control off -road diesel emissions. • Dennison: Should we be recommending anything to Council on this? • Levine: That may be possible, this is more of a discussion. • Sons: Are there other cities with control measures on construction diesel vehicles? • Levine: I'm reading more and more about cleaner buming fuels. • Sons: We have a lot of construction vehicles, they're as visible as our buses. • Stanley: A general policy on diesels should be established. We should see what's possible. • York: What about idling City vehicles? Many of them are diesel. Is there any way we can influence some education to the Parks Department, and the community at large about the health effects? • Woodruff: The report provides information we can use to design new control programs, or improve the ones we already have. We can use it when we update the action plan also. Later this year we will begin work on the mid -course correction. If we find things of an emergency nature we can discuss them sooner. • Stanley: The fact that visibility is holding steady is good, but if we violate the standards one day out of three that needs to be addressed. • York: I'm still questioning the monitor at Laurel and Mason. In 1984 1 worked on an air quality plan for Fort Collins. One of the recommendations was to do some grab sampling around town and compare it to the Mason Street site. Second-hand Smoke Ordinance, Sarah Fox Linda Stanley questioned why we have this whole "smoking issue" going on when there are children playing in basements and breathing in radon for twenty years. Sarah Fox said the radon program is being reevaluated. Fox said staff has been asked to revisit the current smoking ordinance. We were invited to participate in Latimer County's five-year strategic plan for the tobacco settlement dollars. We went to two meetings. At the final meeting we went through the menu of activity options. These are part of the five-year tobacco plan. On Friday the final document will be ready. If you would like a copy please let its know. How much money the County will get from the tobacco settlement will be decided in the next couple of weeks. The Natural Resources Department is participating in the menu item related to eliminating exposure to second hand smoke. Air Quality Advisory Board June 27,2000 Page 5 Discussion • Edwards: What provisions will these improvements take? This is a draft front the City's perspective. The City Manager has said this is the City's responsibility. Second-hand smoke is a health hazard. We want to solve this problem. We want to reduce exposure. The County and Health District believe an ordinance is the only way to address second-hand sntoke. We're not convinced an ordinance is the only way. We'll be talking to people, especially people who will be negatively impacted. We'll be asking them what they see as a solution to reducing exposure. We would like to come up with many solutions. • Edwards: It seems the health effects case against second hand smoke is well established. There is something on the order of ten to twenty thousand lung cancer deaths annually. We can actually count the bodies. I have a certain level of passion about this. We've fallen well behind other communities and regions concerning what we tolerate in restaurants and bars. In Salt Lake City, UT there is no smoking in many places. There is a well -designed smoking area in the airport. We've fallen way behind what other communities have done. I understand that community support is needed, but how will we know when we have enough? I don't have the answer. One step that is very important is that an education piece goes out. This comprehensive plan will spend the first year doing an aggressive campaign, with a lot of data collection. • Levine: What is the County's rationale for saying an ordinance is the only solution? It seems the County is pretty determined to solve the problem through regulation. It's a discussion, they are talking about wanting to do other things, but what they really want is for Fort Collins to have an ordinance. • Edwards: The City's temerity is perplexing • Dennison: I wonder how much of our current timidity is due to the pursuit of the nuisance ordinance. I would personally like to see objective, quantitative effectiveness in other communities. I would like to see some evidence they will go a long way to solving the problem. Whatever solution we end up with, there will be some compromise. Where you draw the line will be the crux of the decision. • Woodruff: We have been focusing on second hand smoke in public places as the issue. When we started to express the problem it seemed it didn't make sense to talk about the second hand smoke issue with out addressing the larger health problem of tobacco smoking. If the City of Fort Collins goes in with the point of view that we have to do something with second hand smoke, then we have a role to play along side the Health Services District. • Levine: I totally agree with that, however, we're left with voluntary exposure. In other words, your rights end where your nose begins. • Stanley: We went through SDIC during the PLUS process. The timidity issue is a big one. You won't get complete buy -in. It will be a firestorm. The opposition always turns out. There will be some public support. But, if we study and provide education and try to get buy in forever we'll still have the same outcome. Just do it. • Edwards: Fortunately,- institutiatrs--like CSU have not been so timid. Smoking has been banned in all buildings. Restaurants that used to tolerate smoking are now converted. I don't understand why the City is being so timid. I do agree on a broad -based program with a strong City ordinance. • Woodruff: We will pursue a full SDIC program. We will bring it back to the City Council in the best form we can. It does take a long time, and that's regrettable. Air Quality Advisory Board June 27, 2000 Page 6 • Levine: It's the progressive staff that gets beat up. Some people never want to emerge from the Jurassic era. Education is fine and good. People continue to smoke. Keeping that in the public eye does a lot of good. I think the handwriting is on the wall legally. There are going to be lawsuits. • Dennison: It's never going to be illegal to smoke in your own home. Even that has come up, maybe your responsibilityfor your children outweighs your right to smoke in your home. • Dennison: What I meant about smoking in the home was that the breadth of this ordinance won't address it. There is a broad feeling among this board that the timetable is too extended. One year to come to a decision whether to pursue the ordinance, then the process of getting it approved and accepted. It sounds like this could take three years. Try to look for ways of accelerating this process. • York: As a board we can make a recommendation, and release it also to the press. That would stimulate public discussion • Levine: I was going to suggest a similar thing. It would be helpful if we had an idea about what an ordinance might say. • Edwards: That's a request I made previously. What does the state statute in California look like? There's a model ordinance from the non-smokers alliance. They're encouraging all indoor air ordinances to work on similar wording. • Fox: Let the Council members know about your interest in this. There will soon be a letter inviting the City Manager to formally join in a partnership with the health agencies. We're finishing up our SDIC plan and will be starting our outreach process. Instead of preaching to people who are already convinced, we'll focus on people who don't understand. Other Business Linda Stanley asked if there's someone who has a good relationship with Mike Byrne who might want to talk to him about the siting of public buildings. Eric Levine will contact Byrne. Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 9:45, ACTION LIST — from .Tune 27 meetinn ACTION ITEM WHO BY... DONE 1. Provide info via e-mail about the 25 July Brian ASAP Council study session on "Land Use Eric Patterns." Find a way for Board members to provide input to Council on the issue. 2. Information in packet: experience of other Lucinda July cites in controlling diesel construction vehicles 3. Information in packet on anti -smoking Jo June —campaigns in other communities Birckme er 4. Provide information on Community Dialog Brian June 5. Contact Mike Byrne about siting of public Eric July buildings. OCR -Ote-o t AIR QUALITY ADVISORY BOARD DATE: Tuesday, June 27, 2000 LOCATION: 281 North College Avenue, Conference Room A TIME: 7:00 - 9:30 p.m. 7:00 CONVENE 1. Review and approve minutes of May 23, 2000 meeting 2. Review and update action list (appended to minutes) 3. Review Council six-month planning calendar 4. Agenda planning • Mason St. Corridor concept plan (July & Sept) 5. Short discussion items • Change regular meeting time/place? Holnam Inc. — update Radon regulation re -review 7:30 Visibility project briefing, Howard Gebhart, Air Resource Specialists Inc. As the visibility project nears completion, Howard will give us an overview of existing visibility impairment and recommendations for action to protect visibility. ACTION: Information only 8:15 Second-hand smoke ordinance, Sarah Fox Sarah will brief the Board on the next steps toward revising the second-hand smoke ordinance, including public outreach and partnership with the Poudre Health Services District. ACTION: Information only 8:45 ClimateWise Campaign and "Shift Gears for Clean Air" Campaign, Sarah Fox and Aaron Fodge Sarah and Aaron will brief the Board on these major public outreach campaigns. ACTION: Information only 9:30 ADJOURN