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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018 - Air Quality Advisory Board - Annual Report1 Air Quality Advisory Board (AQAB) 2018 Annual Report The AQAB members discussed and addressed various topics that were related to the City of Fort Collins’ current and future air quality and community’s health. The topics recommended and discussed covered a variety of areas which included updating the land development code to protect the health of residents in newly built homes, indoor radon testing to protect the health of current and future residents of Fort Collins, regional wasteshed plans to move the City of Fort Collins on the path of better waste management practices, 100% renewable electricity and climate action program to enable the City of Fort Collins to reduce its contribution to greenhouse gas emissions and maintain a leadership position in the region for future actions related to climate change. The AQAB plans to continue working with the City of Fort Collins Staff and Council in 2019 to help set guidelines for oil and gas operations, monitoring practices, and other considerations to mitigate activities that will affect the air quality; following up our efforts in Ozone non‐attainment; better air quality to support healthy homes for Fort Collins residents, including Radon; outdoor burning guidelines; and other issues that affect City’s or regional air quality. The details of many more topics addressed during AQAB meetings and their outcomes are presented below: HIGHLIGHTS This section presents a summary of the actions taken or recommendations made by the AQAB board and their relevance to the AQAB 2018 Work Plan.  Periodic Review of Board (Work Plan Item #7)  Oil and Gas (Work Plan Items #4, #8) o Oil and gas land use: Recommended setbacks consistent with staff proposals without variances, and setback distances the same as active well for plugged and abandoned wells. No alternative compliance buffer and buffer should be from property line.  Climate Action Plan (Work Plan Item #2) o The AQAB formed a Greenhouse Gas subcommittee.  Outdoor Residential Wood Burning (Council Priority; Work Plan Item #8) o Recommended that the current policies are not adequate to address the health impacts on sensitive or affected populations. Options 2 or 3 as presented by staff should be explored further.  West Nile Virus (Work Plan Item #9) o Recommended to remove the human case threshold but maintain an index threshold of 0.75 until updated data are available.  Radon (Council Priority; Work Plan Item #5) 2 o Two members of the Board (Jim Dennison and Arsineh Hecobian) participated in radon working group meetings.  Regional Wasteshed (Work Plan Item #9) o Supported SWIMP and participation of City of Fort Collins in IGA with reservations as outlined in memo shared with the City Council.  100% renewables (Work Plan Item #2) o Recommended that the Fort Collins City Council adopt the community‐wide 100% renewable electricity goal by 2030. 3 OVERVIEW The Air Quality Advisory Board was formed in 1994. Meetings in 2018 were held the third Monday of each month at 5:30pm. Members who served in 20018 included:  Mark Houdashelt (chairperson, January – August)  Vara Vissa (vice‐chairperson, January – December; Interim Chair, September ‐ October)  Arsineh Hecobian (chairperson, November – December)  Jim Dennison  Greg Clark  Chris Wood  Harry Edwards  Matt Tribby  Karen Artell Staff and Council representatives included:  City Council Liaison: Councilmember Ross Cunniff  Staff Liaison: Cassie Archuleta, Air Quality Program Manager MAJOR AGENDA TOPICS AND INVITED PRESENTERS The table below lists the major agenda topics, presenters, and formal actions taken by the AQAB for each of its 2018 meetings. Date Major Agenda Topics (and invited presenters) Formal Action(s) Taken 1/29/18 New Member Introductions Board Orientation 2017 Annual Report Adopted 2017 Annual Report. TBL Multi‐Board Meeting (Ted Settle and Sam Solt, Economic Advisory Board) 2/26/18 Radon Project Update (Megan DeMasters, Selina Lujan, Environmental Services) Outdoor Residential Burning Update (Cassie Archuleta, Environmental Services) 3/19/18 Oil and Gas – Land Use Code (Rebecca Everette) Board Elections Mark elected as chair Vara elected as Vice Chair Greenhouse Gas Subcommittee formed 4 Date Major Agenda Topics (and invited presenters) Formal Action(s) Taken 4/16/18 West Nile Virus Adopted recommendations: remove the human case threshold, maintain an index threshold of 0.75 Oil and Gas – Land Use Code Adopted recommendation: setbacks consistent with staff recommendations without variances, the same as active well setbacks. 5/7/18* BFO process, TBL‐S process and Outdoor Burning 5/21/18 Platte River Net Zero Carbon Study (Brad Decker, PRPA) Oil and Gas – Land Use Code Adopted recommendation: no alternative compliance buffer and buffer should be from property line 6/18/18 Climate Program Update (Molly Saylor, Environmental Data Analyst) 7/16/18 Periodic Board Review Radon Project Update Jim and Arsineh volunteered for work group 8/20/18 Organic Waste (Caroline Mitchell, Environmental Services) 2019 Work Plan 9/6/18* Fee impact KFCG 2019/2020 BFO Recommendations 9/17/18 AQAB 2019 Work Plan Adopted 2019 Work Plan 100% Renewables (Lindsay Ex, Environmental Services Adopted recommendation: Fort Collins City Council to adopt the community‐wide 100% renewable electricity goal by 2030 NISP 10/15/18 Chair Elections Arsineh elected as chair Outdoor Residential Wood Burning (Cassie Archuleta, Environmental Services) Memo approved: Current policies are not adequate to address the health impacts on sensitive or affected populations. Options 2 or 3 as presented by staff should be explored. 11/19/18 Regional WasteShed (Honore Depew, Environmental Services) Memo approved: supporting SWIMP and participation of City of Fort Collins in IGA with reservations Monitoring Data Update (Cassie Archuleta, Environmental Services) Provided feedback on education material 12/17/18 Keep Fort Collins Great Tax Discussion Outdoor Residential Wood Burning City Plan *SuperBoard Meeting **Greenhouse Gas Subcommittee Meeting