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Home My WebLink AboutAir Quality Advisory Board - Minutes - 07/15/2019AIR QUALITY ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR July 15, 2019 5:30 – 8:00 pm Colorado River Room, 222 Laporte Ave. 7/15/19 – MINUTES Page 1 1. CALL TO ORDER 5:35 pm 2. ROLL CALL ● List of Board Members Present − Harry Edwards − Arsineh Hecobian, Chair − Greg Clark, Vice Chair − Jason Miller − Jim Dennison − Jakob Lindaas ● List of Board Members Absent – Excused or Unexcused; if no contact with Chair has been made − Matt Tribby − Karen Artell ● List of Staff Members Present − Selina Lujan, Sr. Specialist, Environmental Services − Molly Saylor, Sr. Specialist, Environmental Services − Megan DeMasters, Specialist, Environmental Services − Lucinda Smith, Environmental Services Director ● List of Guests − Mark Houdashelt, representative of PiCA − Nick Francis, representative of PiCA 3. AGENDA REVIEW ● Approval of minutes came before public participation 4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES • Harry moved and Jakob seconded a motion to approve the June 17, 2019 minutes as revised. 3-0-3 passed. 5. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION AIR QUALITY ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 6/17/19 – MINUTES Page 2 ● Nick Francis stated that Partners in Climate Action (PiCA), a citizen action group with several sustainability and environmental interests are establishing a working group around air quality and currently in the process of developing a work plan for the group. Work plans include summarizing results of 2014, 2015 and 2016 Front Range Air Pollution and Photochemical Experiment (FRAPPE) study. PiCA has plans to present at a joint board meeting. PiCA would also like to meet with City staff to discuss air quality and a needs assessment for monitoring. PiCA believes the City could play role in the AQCC and submit requests for additional monitoring. Nick encouraged members of the board to consider joining the working group. Videos and information about the group can be found at: https://sites.google.com/view/focopica/home ● Mark Houdashelt is a citizen volunteer with PiCA. PiCA is thinking about holding a public forum to discuss the possibility of a community monitoring network for ozone. PiCA needs input from citizens on level of interest in this. Ask if board is interested in being involved in an Air Quality open house. o It was clarified that City staff resources would need to be available and the board would be able to develop agenda for a public forum. It was mentioned that the RAQC may also be a willing partner o Question for staff on if there are limitations to the AQAB partnering with an advocacy group. ▪ Staff will follow up. There is interest from the AQAB to partner on this, but they need to get clarification on their role. 6. UNFINISHED BUSINESS N/A 7. NEW BUSINESS a. Climate Inventory Update, 5:50 – 6:45 Molly Saylor from the Climate team provided the Board with an update on the 2018 Carbon Inventory. Inventory is delayed because Transportation data is getting an overhaul using DMV data. • DMV data includes community fleet average MPG which will provide localized fuel efficiency numbers and community fleet distribution. • Primary reason for the change is that state data collection practices does not align with the City’s. Taking all DMV data allows for consistency in data over time, the data is local, and relies less on third party calculations/models. • This will be a huge asset that will help with different insights including EV tracking and targeted infrastructure planning. Belief from staff that this data will allow for many new applications of data. AIR QUALITY ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 6/17/19 – MINUTES Page 3 Molly discussed the difference in different data collection practices. • Vehicles Traveled model (what the City has used previously). A benefit of this model is that it shows fleet distribution and MPG driven in the city. A disadvantage is that the data tends to be low quality data, and the reliance on third parties • Fuel Sales model: looks at state-wide volume of fuel, state-wide fuel sales ($) and local gas station sales to determine local amount of fuel sold. A benefit is that this data was high quality, publicly reported. Disadvantage is that it is a proxy for what is going on in the city, boundaries can be less clear. But for a city of this size, seems to be a reliable model. State has stopped tracking at this level. Report on partial results • Electricity use is down 17% from 2005, up 1% since 2017 and down 35% per capita since 2005. This is the lowest use per capita since 1986 and one of the highest years for absolute. • Natural gas up 13% since 2005, up 6% since 2017 and down 12% down per capita since 2005, which is the lowest use per capita since 2005. • Waste down 72% since 2005, down 6% since 2017 and down 78 percent per capita since 2005. Molly asks the board what types of data could be tracked alongside the GHG inventory that would help link climate and air quality (write feedback on sticky notes) − The Board wondered if there was a way to compare the VMT data and fuel sales data − Question about using a GHG tracker, if there was a way to identify contributors and how much they contribute to overall GHG emissions (daily, weekly, monthly). Question about how much granularity we have with this. − The board discussed how fuel use correlates with VOCs, ozone and CO2 and if the city could compare emissions in Fort Collins to other communities along the Front Range. − Question from the board on if it is possible to get time-segregated data along with spatial data. For example, if there was a time of year when there are spikes in ozone and other things because of heat, which means more people are in their cars, etc. b. Air Quality Priority Discussion, 6:45 –7:35 Arsineh summarizes the list provided by City staff on what council priorities are, some of the ongoing efforts, near team focus areas and some emerging ideas. Arsineh suggested that the Board prepare supporting documents for each of the priority areas for Council. Staff will be providing council priority updates that provide an overview of what work is being done. Lucinda added that staff is currently preparing information for Council related to the oil and gas priority. − The board discussed the value of having information readily available for a council discussion, and providing information to Councilmember Pignataro as the AQAB AIR QUALITY ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 6/17/19 – MINUTES Page 4 liaison to help bring forward the board’s priorities. − Board also discussed how funds for environmental concerns are shrinking and they want to empower staff and council to be able to make the case during BFO why there is value in supporting each of the priorities laid out. − The board decided to prepare an executive summary for each of the priority areas, with different board members taking the lead in preparing a draft for further discussion at a future board meeting. − Jakob will prepare the draft executive summary for ozone, Greg for oil and gas and Jason for particulate matter. It was mentioned that the radon memo sent to council could serve as an example of information to be included. − There was further discussion from the board and clarification on what some of the emerging ideas were. This included clarification on what monitoring enhancements for ozone meant and what it meant to do an equity analysis around PM2.5. − Staff clarified that it is looking at how programs can distribute resources more equitably. What ways are practices inequitable. Monitoring could be part of this. − Board discusses how PM2.5 in the home can be about behaviors of individuals and more clarification is needed on what the equity work will look like. − Board members express concern about community-based monitoring and what that would include. The concern is that monitoring done by citizens would not be valid. More clarification is needed. 8. BOARD MEMBER AND STAFF REPORTS Staff Reports − There has been interest in providing the AQAB with more information on outside funding sources. Nina from CityGive will come to a board meeting and give a very short presentation on CityGive. − Draft 2020 workplan due in August. Arsineh will begin a draft work plan that will be distributed prior to the August meeting for review − Overview of the Healthy Homes program and upcoming Master Home Educator training in September. Staff asks the AQAB to consider if they know anyone who would be a good fit for the program. Member Reports − Jakob noted that neither Jason or himself can attend the Bicycle Advisory Commission meeting next week, if there is any interest from another board member to attend. − Jim noted he got back from bi-annual meeting where ventilation codes are written, they are working on amendments to code. − Jakob believes there is a plan for a Superboard meeting, if there is interest from AIR QUALITY ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 6/17/19 – MINUTES Page 5 Board members in interacting. − Arisneh notes that she went to Larimer County oil and gas task force meeting. They are posting everything to a website if anyone is interested in reviewing what the task force discusses. Next meeting is Thursday July 18 at 4:30. − Arsineh noted that she has accepted a job in Houston, TX and the August meeting will be her last meeting. . 9. OTHER BUSINESS N/A 10. ADJOURNMENT 7:48 pm