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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAir Quality Advisory Board - Minutes - 04/17/20231 04/17/2023 - Minutes Air Quality Advisory Board REGULAR MEETING Monday, April 17, 2023 – 5:30 PM 222 Laporte Avenue, Colorado River Room 1. CALL TO ORDER: 5:30 PM 2. ROLL CALL a. Board Members Present – • Greg Boiarsky • Wayne Chuang • Greg Clark • Mark Houdashelt (Acting Chair) • Sandra LeBrun • Gavin McMeeking b. Board Members Absent – • Dan Welsh c. Staff Members Present – • Cassie Archuleta, Staff Liaison • Jason Komes, Senior Specialist, Air Quality d. Guest(s) – • John Perzow • Bruce Macdonald 3. AGENDA REVIEW 4. CITIZEN PARTICIPATION a. John Perzow and Bruce Macdonald attended as they are thinking about applying for AQAB and wanted to see what the meetings were like. 5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES a. Greg B moved and Greg C seconded a motion to approve the March minutes, as amended. Motion passed unanimously 6-0. 6. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. AQAB Recruitment • Recruitment is open. AQAB has two open positions and will be accepting applications until April 28th. b. Oil and Gas Updates 2 04/17/2023 - Minutes • Council decided to adopt the zoning and setback updates to the Land Use Code. They were clear that they are treating zoning/setbacks and operational standards as separate streams of work and wanted to get something in place. Staff will be going back to Council to discuss operational standards in June. Kirk Longstein will be bringing reverse setbacks to Council in June as well. • The State denied Prospect Energy’s (the operator’s) financial assurance plan. The City and County sent letters requesting them to deny it. The state scheduled a hearing in June. Cassie will have more information on that after June. • Mark shared that Larimer Alliance met with the Mayor and Councilmember Ohlson to address their concerns around oil and gas. He stated they want to schedule a future meeting between multiple parties to talk more about oil and gas regulations. • Mark also shared an Oil Change International report that found 22 oil and gas wells in Colorado monitored by Project Canary where emissions were detected by Earthworks staff but not by the onsite monitoring. It appeared that these emissions may have been blowing around, above or in the opposite direction of the fence line monitoring. c. Lawn and Garden Electrification Update • The RAQC’s Mow Down Pollution Program is currently active and accepting applications. • RAQC is also proposing legislation for usage and retail sales of gas- powered equipment and are asking municipalities for feedback. It sounds like it could be adopted as soon as next year. They are looking at restricting sales of items with 25hp or less, and there would also be a use restriction between May and September. Jason stated the City of Fort Collins is in pretty good shape as they have about 56% electric equipment and hoping to move that to 80% in the next two years. 7. NEW BUSINESS a. Board Priorities for 2023 • The Board reviewed the 2023 work plan and discussed preferred air quality focus areas. (Discussion) • Some of the topics of interest that were expressed by Board members were natural gas; monitoring of ozone precursors; vehicles and other emissions; wildfire adaptation and preparedness; Healthy Homes; indoor air quality; indoor filtration and ventilation; land development and Land Use Code; idling and incentives; operational standards for oil and gas; perimeter monitoring; electric mobility/cars; alternatives modes of transportation; ozone issues; public outreach; environmental justice; and hazardous spills. Cassie also asked about West Nile spraying, but the Board was only interested if there were going to be changes to the current requirements. • The Board also discussed where they thought they had some of the biggest impact in the past or what they were most proud of that was accomplished or influenced by the Board. Some of the answers involved indoor air quality, fugitive dust manual, transportation air quality impacts guidance manual, outdoor burning, fireplaces, the EV 3 04/17/2023 - Minutes readiness roadmap, and oil and gas. They were not sure how much of an impact they made. The Board expressed they would be interested in having a bigger impact on budget and what got funded. They also would like more feedback on how much their recommendations influence Council’s decisions. b. Elections • The Board nominated and considered candidates for Board Chair and Vice-Chair. (Action) • Sandra nominated Mark for Chair. Mark was voted for chair unanimously 6-0. • Sandra nominated Greg C for vice chair. Greg C was voted for vice chair unanimously 6-0. • Mark nominated Greg B for the Bicycle Advisory Committee which passed unanimously 6-0. Sandra will remain as back-up. c. Air Quality Data Update • Cassie Archuleta, Air Quality Program Manager provided an air quality update including trends through 2022. (Informational) • Cassie touched on air pollution and its component gases and particles; different types of AQ monitoring in and around the City; ozone and precursors; attainment standards; the air quality index and what can affect it; ozone nonattainment area in Colorado; and national ambient air quality standards for ozone and the issues for this area. She also stated that we don’t currently have NOx monitoring in Northern Colorado but will. • Cassie mentioned a new regulatory monitoring site they are working on with CDPHE and Natural Areas that will go in the Fossil Creek Natural area. They are hoping the County will do maintenance and the state will handle the data collection. The City will share that data on their website. She also spoke on the CSU/Fort Collins/Larimer County collaborative grant for air toxics monitoring and the associated Regional Monitoring Board. • The Board asked about VOC monitoring in the new site as well, and Cassie stated that there is no money in place for that right now, but the City is pushing continuous tracing of VOCs. • The Board also discussed fence line monitoring, leak detection and what the state will and will not accept regarding monitoring and detection for regulating oil and gas sites. Cassie mentioned the state has legislative priorities to set air toxics concentration standards. The Board also discussed the importance of a regional effort for the ozone nonattainment area. 8. BOARD MEMBER REPORT a. Greg B shared an update from the Bicycle Advisory Committee (BAC). They have been meeting with the Transportation Board and have some events coming up including a film about a model city in Europe. They also have a working group committee to look at specific areas in Fort Collins and how to change them. Potholes, sewer covers, etc. can be problematic in bike lanes right now. The bike path to connect towards Greeley should be done sometime in October. BAC is also considering changing its name to include other types of micro mobility. The Bike Co-op is seeing a record number of 4 04/17/2023 - Minutes people coming to get bikes or get their bikes repaired. Electric biking is also on the rise. b. Mark reminded the Board it is volunteer week. The City is asking Board members to send in pictures for badges, or they can have someone attend the next AQAB meeting to take pictures. There is an area on the 2nd floor of 215 N Mason where volunteers can reserve rooms or use a workspace for Board- related work. There are also some events going on for volunteers right now. Mark also mentioned there is a lot of outreach going on regarding the Land Development Code. 9. STAFF REPORTS 10. OTHER BUSINESS a. 6 – Month Calendar Review and Agenda Planning • Some upcoming topics were sustainable revenue, land use, 1041 regulations, wildfire preparedness, oil and gas, state legislation on air quality, Healthy Homes overview, and Ozone Sip update. • Planned Agendas for Next AQAB Meeting: • May – Badges, sustainable funding update, oil and gas operational standards • June – Indoor air quality grant update, Healthy Homes, and CSU smoke ready. • The Board stated they want to be proactive when it comes to topics. 11. ADJOURNMENT a. (8:11pm) Minutes approved by a vote of the Board on 5/15/23