BOARD MEETING DATE: May 1, 2009
AGENDA NO. 30
REPORT:
Stationary Source Committee
SYNOPSIS:
The Stationary Source Committee met Friday, April 17, 2009. Following is a summary of that meeting. The next meeting will be May 22, at 10:30 a.m., in Conference Room CC8.
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Receive and file.
Dennis Yates, Chair
Stationary Source Committee
Attendance
The meeting began at 10:30 a.m. Present were Dennis Yates, Dr. Joseph Lyou, Jane Carney and Josie Gonzales. Absent were Ronald Loveridge and Michael Cacciotti.
INFORMATIONAL ITEMS
- Reg. III - Fees
Dr. Laki Tisopulos, Assistant Deputy Executive Officer for Planning, Rule Development & Area Sources, gave the staff presentation on proposed amendments to Regulation III. Staff is not proposing any CPI increase for the next fiscal year. The staff proposal includes, however, a few cost recovery recommendations that will help the District recover its cost of implementing certain programs and several administrative changes and clarifications with minor or no fiscal impacts. Supervisor Gonzales commented that requiring the new owner of an operation to pay past due fees from the previous owner may be too harsh and suggested that perhaps requiring an owner to submit a bond may be a preferable approach to the current practice. Staff clarified that this was an existing requirement that staff was attempting to clarify and that due to the complexity and the differing number of permits that a facility may have, implementing the bond approach may not be too practical. Public comment from Bill La Marr, Small Business Alliance, reflected appreciation and support for not having an across-the-board CPI increase for the next fiscal year.
- Rule 1401 – New Source Review of Toxic Air Contaminants
Susan Nakamura, Planning & Rules Manager, provided a summary of proposed amendments to Rule 1401 which would add a new cancer potency value for ethyl benzene to the current list of toxic air contaminants. AQMD staff explained that adding ethyl benzene is expected to have minimal impacts on facilities subject to Rules 1401 and 1402. Supervisor Gonzales asked if the facilities that may exceed ten in one million cancer risk because of ethyl benzene emissions would receive notice in advance. Staff explained that the six identified facilities that may exceed ten in a million are in the AB2588 Toxics “Hot Spots” program and had been notified to submit toxic emissions inventories. Dr. Lyou asked if soil vapor and extraction equipment used to clean up contaminated soil and groundwater would be subject to the new ethyl benzene cancer potency value. Staff responded that the equipment is subject to the new value for ethyl benzene when issuing permits for the soil vapor extraction equipment.
- Rules 1146 and 1146.1 – Portable Monitoring Protocol Implementation Update
Joe Cassmassi, Planning & Rules Manager provided a brief update on the development of a monitoring protocol for the hand-held NOx analyzer technology and the efforts to conduct training for compliance with Rules 1146 and 1146.1 l. Overall, there will have been 11 training secessions on the monitoring equipment usage prior to the July 1, 2009 implementation date. Staff will finalize the monitoring protocol, incorporating comments received at the task force meeting and through the public comment period (which closes April 22nd), by May 1, 2009.
- Rule 433 – Natural Gas Quality
Dr. Laki Tisopulos, Assistant Deputy Executive Officer with the Planning, Rule Development and Area Sources gave the staff presentation on Proposed Rule 433. The objective to the proposed rule is to monitor the natural gas quality imported and distributed within the District. With the completion of the LNG terminal in Baja, Mexico, and other pending/completed projects off the coast of California and other states, there is a distinct possibility that the South Coast Air Basin may soon start receiving LNG-derived natural gas that may have a heating value that is higher compared to natural gas currently supplied domestically. Natural gas with higher heating value burns richer and may adversely impact NOx emissions from a variety of different combustion equipment as indicated by recent testing. The proposed rule will require entities distributing natural gas in the District to submit a monitoring plan to monitor the quality of natural gas utilized in the District and also prepare a roll-out plan that will indicate the outreach, testing and mitigation efforts that will be undertaken by the operators. During the public comment period, Lee Wallace of the Gas Company pointed out that one of the equipment in staff’s presentation that indicated elevated levels of NOx emissions was from a faulty equipment and commented that his company is willing to cooperate with the District on this issue but would have preferred an MOU or a joint study rather than a rule. Chairman Yates responded that based on the District’s past experience an MOU approach would be highly undesirable.
WRITTEN REPORTS
Dr. Joseph Lyou inquired as to why agenda #5 – Twelve-Month Rolling Price of 2008-2009 Compliance Year RTC prices are going down. Mohsen Nazemi explained that it’s due to the economic down turn resulting in fewer RECLAIM facilities.
Dr. Lyou referred to agenda #8 – Notice of Violation Penalty Summary and asked about the Southern California Edison (SCE) project. Dr. Wallerstein commented that SCE is working on a generating facility on Catalina Island which they are putting in micro turbines. Mohsen Nazemi added that SCE is also putting in a battery which can be charged at night.
All written reports were acknowledged by the Committee.
PUBLIC COMMENTS
There were no public comments.
Mayor Yates announced that the next Stationary Source Committee meeting will be on May 22, 2009.
The meeting was adjourned at 12:00 p.m.
Attachments (DOC, ~59k)
April 17, 2009 Committee Agenda (without its attachments)