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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAir Quality Advisory Board - Minutes - 05/18/2009AIRQUALITY ADVISORY BOARD REGULAR MEETING MINUTES May 18, 2009 DATE: Monday, May 18, 2009 . LOCATION: 215 N. Mason Conference room ]-A TIME: 5:30 -8:00 P.M. Dinner is served starting at 5:15 For Reference: Eric Levine, Chair - 49376341. David. Roy, Council Liaison - 407-7393 Brian Woodruff, Staff Liaison - 221-6604. Board Members Present: Eric Levine, Hugh MacKay, John Schroeer, Katrina Winbom, Kip Carrico, Dennis. Georg, Dale Adamy, Greg McMaster Absent: Dave Dietrich Call meeting to order Eric Levine called the meeting to order at 5:40.p.m.. Introduction of Guests — none Agenda Review none Public Comments - none Review and Approval of Monday, April 20, 2009 Minutes: • Dale Adamy thought, at the April meeting during the Mountain Vista presentation, there had _been a discussion regarding a City environmental study on cold air lying in the Mountain Vista basin. ' He felf the AQAB should answer this question for the Mountain Vista group that presented atthe last meeting. . o Brian Woodruff pointed out there has never been a City study designating which areas in the City might be more prone to pollution than others. The entire town has the Poudre river flowing through it causing air, to flow towards the river. The claim that Mountain Vista is uniquely located in a bowl is not the case. o Dennis. pointed out the citizen group's main issue was to not have a truck bypass in their area and an entrance onto the interstate. He and felt those.fears were addressed to the meeting. o .Kip Carrico suggested, if John Volkins gets funding for his air quality study, he could answer the question. o Brian suggested addressing this at the July, 2009, meeting. Dennis Georg moved and John Sheerer seconded a motion to approve the April 20, 2009, minutes as presented. Motion approved unanimously Climate Action Plan.. Brian Woodruff pointed out the AQAB's assignment for this meeting was to review the Addendum to the Climate Action Plan (CAP). Staff is now not sure whether to do anything about the Addendum at this time. :..... e. _. :. .. The Addendum was requested by Council since the CAP measures would not achieve their goals. The Addendum was to:address this. shortfall. Staff hired a consulting company to, do a third -party review of measurement methodology (how we calculate greenhouse gas emissions) and to be sure we have the latest measurement methods. They made the following recommendations: o Include recycling, which is a large greenhouse gas reducer, in the Climate Action Plan. o They were concerned that we were taking credit for the energy embedded in the recycled materials. This is problematic because we aren't including the embodied energy in everything. o It is also recommended to add airline miles that Fort Collins citizens fly. o One-half the vehicle miles travelled outside the Fort Collins management area should also be included. Once these changes are made we will be changing the baseline and future point. This may change the gap the Addendum is trying to address and, therefore, it doesn't make sense to look at the Addendum right now. The City Manager is checking with Council to see if they agree to the delay. Reasons are: o We want to be transparent in our measurements. o We want to be appropriately accurate and consistent with the way. greenhouse gases are calculated in the Chicago Climate Exchange and international accountability mechanisms. o We want to keep up with changing methodologies. o The Council is focusing on implementation of policies already in place rather than more planning. Brian pointed out there is a report due at the end of June that will cover the 2008 inventory. and quantified reductions. He will keep the board informed of any further developments and suggested they discuss this at their July, 2009, meeting. Discussion • Greg McMaster suggested the board should continue to work on the Addendum anyway and outline additional measures to meet the goal because waiting to respond to dated assessments will just delay the process of meeting the gap. He would also like Council to know there are dangers in.waiting to_implement the Addendum. o Eric stated the Sustainability Group also wants contingency measures in place so that when every element in the program doesn't achieve success we'll have things ready to implement and won't have to start from zero. o Brian stated staff is also concerned about having enough measures in the pipeline. However, the City has limited resources in budget and staff right now. • Dennis suggested the AQAB review this at their July meeting.. He stated by doing we Iearn and by learning.we will find out how far the policy is off. We're better of doing with the staff we have. John Schroeer added his opinion that technology is changing all the time and we need to get started now. • Eric would. like to review the current proposal and get a rough idea of what is happening now and what to implement. The accounting will change over time and he would like the City to give a hierarchical approach to some of the measures. Board process check. The issue here is to determine how the Board is doing on process, goals, making recommendations prior to Council work sessions. and effective communication with City Council. • Eric Levine stated he and Brian discussed how to develop a template the board could use to get recommendations to.Council:in a.more efficient manner. . • Brian Woodruff suggested the Board might want to assess how they're doing relative to the goals they set in 2008. The 2008 goals stated the AQAB wanted to focus on submitting recommendations at Council work sessions where they could be most effective and to work on how to get information to Council in addition to, the letters the AQAB writes. The Board also wanted to get feedback from Council how they're doing and if their communication is effective. o . Eric Levine stated, to date, he has not gotten any feedback from Council regarding any recommendations -the AQAB has ever submitted.. • Eric suggested. that the Board should craft.their.recommendations in the earlier part of the meeting rather than at the end. Even better would be if the AQAB could get a copy of staff's information, i.e. a Power Point or report, a month before they are asked to make a recommendation. This.way they could discuss it thoroughly at the first meeting and then craft their recommendation at the second meeting. This would help make the AQAB more productive. This would also allow.the AQAB to see. comments from other boards. • Dennis also suggested that during the meeting board members should write down.their suggested recommendations in motion form, along with talking points to help speed up the finalization of it recommendation. Also,.the AQAB.should be careful to make recommendations that aren't too far out and should focus on what we can do today. He would also like staff to focus their presentations on how their issue impacts air. quality. • Brian pointed out that City Council also wantsthe minutes to reflect the rationale of those who are not in favor of the board's recommendation. • John Schroeer suggested that AQAB have a template of a board recommendation ready so they canadd specifics at the meeting for each recommendation. • Eric was not sure too much should be discussed outside the public arena since many Power Points presentations are very helpful. However, he pointed out the board is often asked to make a recommendation with a very short timetable. Brian pointed out often the Power Point presentations are usually not ready until the issue goes to Council. Eric suggested the board have some written information before the presentation to help them plan. • Greg McMaster and -John Schroeer suggested staff focus, their presentations on air quality and the AQAB's work plan. Also, presentations: should have time limits so the. board has time to discuss — perhaps.30 minutes for.presentation and 20 minutes for discussion. Greg emphasized the board needs to. be succinct and focused. John. Schroeer volunteered to be AQAB time keeper for the meetings:.. • Dale suggested when the AQAB asks for a presentation that they give suggestions to staff . regarding what the board is looking for and what they would like to do with it. • Brian suggested the Board address the presenters' before they present by:saying they have looked at the material staff had previously sent and would like to. know about. certain issues from the presentation. • Brian Woodruff summarized the discussion:. o Do two cycles on an issue if possible. o Staff can prepare straw man motions for the board's consideration. o Board members should get in habit of writing motions. o Send information ahead of meeting. o Presentations should focus on air quality. o : Don't spend time on back.issues not relevant. Brian will advise presenters what board wants to focus on. o Short time line — less is more — skip through slides Trash update. Brian Woodruff stated the AQAB recommendation in 2008 supporting trash districting. Council recently adopted some changes to the ordinance that regulates trash hauling to increase the recycling rate. • Council has also passed a resolution directing the City Manager to develop a pilot trash hauling project that selects an area of town to experiment with the one -hauler approach. The intent is to show how it works and how it affects the various types of trash customers and find out if recycling rates improve because of it. • Brian suggested if the AQAB wanted to revisit this issue to determine if this is a good thing for air quality, it would be appropriate to discuss at the AQAB 's June and July meeting since Council will be voting on it July2l. Comments from the trash haulers at the Council meetings are on the City's website. • Brian summarized the regulatory changes to trash districting: o Made changes to Pay=as=you Throw to implement pure volume pricing for trash. o Create a rate formula for haulers to use for prepaid bag service. o Require haulers to offer 65/ga1= 95/gal polycarts for single stream recycling upon request. o Allow haulers to move to twice -monthly recycling service once the polycarts have been provided. Would reduce number of truck trips. o 'Added' data reporting requirements from residential haulers. o Increased annual license fee. o Added a provision of group accounts such as HOAs. o Some housekeeping changes. Budgeting for Outcomes • : Brian Woodiuff stated the AQAB has been asked to comment on the Environmental Health Requests for Results (RFR) and advise Council if that is a good basis on which to begin the budgeting process. Discussion: • Dennis stated his feedback is mainly on purchasing strategy. He felt the RFR had incorporated issues in the: Climate Action Plan and most of it holds up well against the AQAB's work plan. However, he does not think the purchasing strategy: for continuous improvements will get the results they want. He suggests removing the wording," a balanced emphasis on step -wise improvement and continuous improvement' • Dennis also suggested, under Purchasing Strategy #2, to remove the words, "that cuts across department lines": He thought they should favor the best offers; not just those that cut across different' departments. • Dale Adamy suggested offers that implement the Climate Action Plan be aggregated for the purposes of review. • Dennis stated the RFR for Transportation is looking for bold and creative ideas, i.e. Innovation. He suggested under #3 Transit Mobility, to also measure an effective reduction in greenhouse gasses: • Dennis also suggested, under #4, insertion of an additional indicator to measure the number of miles of bike paths and bike lanes added. The infrastructure of bike lanes to support bike trips is important. • Brian suggested there be a transportation demand -management program that would not only provide walking and cycling infrastructure, but offer inducements to use transit such as no more free parking. • Dennis suggested the BFO give preference to those strategies that would be capital -efficient in meeting transportation needs. Hugh gave the example of Tulsa looking at four 10-hour work days for city staff to reduce YMT. • Dennis also suggested, under "Safe Community" that streets and parking lots be "effectively and efficiently" lit with lower cost lighting and more efficient lighting, avoiding over - lighting. • Dale suggested the AQAB have a future discussion of a transportation -demand strategy. • Brian stated the offers are due June 1. They will be reviewed by the results teams and then sent back for improvement. Then they will be prioritized. Brian will get any cohesive sets of offers relating to air quality as soon as they are available. • Dennis wants to see which offers fit into the AQAB work plan such as trash hauling, indoor air quality, Climate Action Plan, energy use, etc.. If they aren't in the BFO, it makes no sense to put them in the AQAB's work plan. Brief updates• • Brian gave an update on the new air quality monitoring site. This is a project that came out of a Natural Resources BFO offer resulting in the City Council asking staff to buy this equipment. The purpose was to have better information about Fort Collins' air quality, particularly to help people with asthma and pulmonary disease. o It is located on the CSU Foothills Campus on the roof of the facilities building and is now up and running. o It gives hourly readings of PM 10 and PM 2.5. It is a federal reference method comparable to air quality standards o It gives hourly readings in almost real time and results are available on the internet at www.aimow.gov - click on Fort Collins/Greeley for local data. ■ Air Now came about because of ozone events to help adopt stronger regulations regarding ozone. o In conjunction with this, the state Health Department forecasters are making generalized forecasts for Fort Collins and Greeley. o Staff is planning a publicity. campaign to encourage citizens to use the forecasting system. Citizens can sign up for email alerts if the ozone forecast is above a certain level so they can plan their activities. Greg McMaster submitted notes from the May 11, 2009, Bicycle Advisory Committee for the Board's information. Eric. Levine handed out several articles regarding emission testing and the North Front Range Transportation and Air Quality Council. He would like the AQAB to discuss this at the June meeting. Adjourn Kip Carrico moved and John Schroeer seconded a motion to adjourn. Eric Levine adjourned the meeting 8:35 p.m. Submitted by Alexis Hmielak Administrative Secretary I i Approved by the Board on , 2009 Signed,. �+ 6 /5.- D Administrative ucrdairy I Date