HomeMy WebLinkAboutMemo - Mail Packet - 3/19/2019 - Memorandum From Matt Zoccali And Lucinda Smith Re: Formal Comment From City Of Fort Collins On Proposed Changes To Federal Mercury And Air Toxics Regulations1
Environmental Services
PO Box 580
215 North Mason
Fort Collins, CO 80522
970.221.6600
970.224.6177 - fax
fcgov.com
MEMORANDUM
DATE: March 12, 2019
TO: Mayor Troxell and Councilmembers
FROM: Matt Zoccali, Senior Manager, Environmental Regulatory Affairs
Lucinda Smith, Director, Environmental Services
THROUGH: Darin Atteberry, City Manager
Jeff Mihelich, Deputy City Manager
Jackie Kozak-Thiel, Chief Sustainability Officer
Kevin R. Gertig, Utilities Executive Director
RE: Formal Comment from City of Fort Collins on Proposed Changes to
Federal Mercury and Air Toxics Regulations
Staff was directed at the March 6, 2019 Legislative Review Committee Meeting to provide draft
formal comments to be included in the record for the proposed changes to the Federal Mercury and
Air Toxics Regulations. This memo provides those comments and unless directed otherwise staff
will submit these comments by March 25, 2019.
Bottom-Line
City staff has been asked to prepare formal comment related to the potential impact of the
December 27, 2018 proposal from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to
determine that it is not “appropriate and necessary” to regulate hazardous air pollutants (HAP)
emissions, including mercury, from power plants based on a cost benefit analysis. The draft City
comments urge EPA to maintain the Federal Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS).
Analysis and Background
• The EPA enacted HAP regulations under Section 112(d) of the Clean Air Act.
• The US Supreme Court ruled that the EPA must consider costs of complying with the
regulation in the 2015 Michigan v. EPA case.
• The EPA has now completed an updated cost-benefit analysis and concluded that the costs
of HAP regulations outweigh the benefits, so it is not “appropriate and necessary” to
regulate HAP.
o Coal and oil power plants, which are under HAP regulations, would remain on lists
to be regulated, though the EPA is asking if they should remove them from that list
too.
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• The EPA also looked at the standards (National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air
Pollutants) and concluded that the level of HAP is acceptable and that the current standards
provide an ample margin of safety to protect public health.
Proposed Formal Comment for Consideration
Staff proposes the following comment for consideration:
The City of Fort Collins urges the United States Environmental Protection Agency to maintain the
Federal Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS).
The City of Fort Collins is a municipality located in Larimer County, Colorado. Situated along the
Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, Fort Collins is home to 170,000 citizens and a thriving,
diverse economy that relies on clean water and air. We are fortunate in that requirements found in
State-level regulations for air emissions are more stringent than those found in the MATS rule.
Additionally, the local power generation provider, Platte River Power Authority, who is a political
subdivision of the State of Colorado owned in part by the City of Fort Collins was among the first in
the Country to monitor and control mercury emissions and has stated that they have no plans to
change their approach to continued operation of beneficial pollution reduction technologies.
While we recognize that the State-level standards afford us regional air and water quality protection,
mercury from the air is a local, regional, and global pollutant that affects our ecosystem and public
health. The potential exists for this proposal to weaken the legal foundation upon which the
standards are built and result in diminished emissions requirements for new electrical generation
units (EGUs). We are acutely aware of the possibility that newly constructed power plants in
upwind locations could impact regional air and water quality through deposition of HAPs from
interstate air pollution.
Additionally, it is a concern that this action is proposing to find that “residual risks due to emissions
of air toxics from this source category are acceptable and that the current standards provide an
ample margin of safety to protect public health”; The proposal could undermine future standards for
other pollutants if a precedent is set that analyses including the Residual Risk and Technology
review (RTR) should exclude the consideration of co-benefits of certain technological
improvements. The City of Fort Collins believes that the CAA-required RTR provides an important
continual improvement and assessment step to ensure that EGUs are routinely evaluating whether
technologies are truly achieving the highest emissions reductions possible.
The City of Fort Collins has multiple policies in place that underscore the City’s interest in
protecting our natural environment and human health including:
2019 Legislative Policy Agenda:
• Supports programs and policies that improve public health and air quality
• Supports reductions in environmental damage caused by energy extraction and production.
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2018 Community Strategic Plan:
• Improve indoor and outdoor air quality
• Sustain and improve the health of the Cache la Poudre River and its watershed
Again, for the reasons stated above, the City of Fort Collins urges the EPA to maintain the MATS
for water and air quality, and human health benefits.
CC: Chris Wood, Environmental Services Manager, Platte River Power Authority
Carol Webb, Utilities Deputy Director - Water Resources and Treatment Operations
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