BOARD MEETING DATE: November 6, 2009
AGENDA NO. 26
REPORT:
Stationary Source Committee
SYNOPSIS:
The Stationary Source Committee met Friday, October 16, 2009. Following is a summary of that meeting. The next meeting will be November 20, 2009 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 10:40 a.m. Present were Dennis Yates, Bill Campbell (attended by videoconference), Dr. Burke (attended by videoconference), Josie Gonzales and Jane Carney. Absent were Ronald Loveridge and Michael Cacciotti.
Mayor Yates announced that item #2 has been removed from the agenda. Committee Member Josie Gonzales left the meeting during agenda item #1.
INFORMATIONAL ITEM
Rule 1112.1 – Emissions of Particulate Matter from Cement Kilns
Dr. Laki Tisopulos, Assistant Deputy Executive Officer with the Office of Planning, Rule Development and Area Sources gave the staff presentation. Staff is developing an amendment to Rule 1112.1 to provide the one grey cement manufacturing facility in the Basin (currently operating under a variance) with an alternative CO emissions limit that is more flexible than the limit currently in effect. Staff informed the committee that while the NOx emission reduction strategy employed by the facility to comply with the RECLAIM emission reduction targets also helped reduce CO mass emissions, it does result in short-term sporadic CO concentration spikes exceeding the current 2,000 ppm limit. The proposed amendment, intended to provide a more flexible CO limit, is a reasonable trade-off because it will help secure emission reductions in NOx, a precursor for ozone and PM. The Basin is in non-attainment with regards to ozone and PM and needs reductions in ozone and PM precursor emissions a lot more than it needs reductions in CO for which the Basin has already reached attainment. The proposed amendment will reduce the current CO concentration limit from 2,000 ppm averaged over 15 minutes to 1,900 ppm averaged over 8 hours. The proposed increase in the averaging time will provide the desired flexibility. Staff’s very conservative air quality modeling analysis indicates that the proposed amendment will not result in any exceedance of the State and federal emission thresholds and will not jeopardize attainment in any way. Following the staff presentation, a representative of California Portland Cement, the company that will be impacted by the amendment, commented in support of the amendment.
Committee Member Josie Gonzales returned to the meeting.
Status of Lead Attainment Designation
This item was continued.
Update on Proposed Amended Rule 1111 – NOx Emissions from Natural-Gas-Fired, Fan-Type Central Furnaces
Joe Cassmassi, Planning Manager, updated the Committee on the modifications to Proposed Amended Rule 1111 that had taken place since the September Stationary Source Committee meeting. The proposal was modified to remove the alternative compliance option that would have provided additional time to manufacturers but would have involved a mitigation fee. Staff cited that the regulated industries’ response to the proposal was unenthusiastic and that they were not in favor of the mandatory reporting requirements. In addition, Mr. Cassmassi briefly discussed the District proposals to create an incentive program to bring compliant units on line faster and to fund (up to one million dollars split among four potential bidders) research and development of a 14 nanograms/joule burner technology. Staff clarified the proposal for incentives indicating that high-efficiency furnaces would be qualified to receive a higher incentive for early compliance than normal-efficiency units. Supervisor Campbell inquired as to the annual turnover for furnaces in the Basin to which Mr. Cassmassi replied that the annual estimate was between 180,000 and 200,000. Mr. Cassmassi added that the cleaner units would provide an estimated 2.5 tons per year NOx reduction in 2023 but the impact would be doubled for reducing PM2.5 precursors since the furnaces would operate essentially fall and winter quarters when particulate levels were highest. Mr. Cassmassi stated that discussions with the Task Force and individual manufacturers would continue over the following weeks.
Rule 1145 – Plastic, Rubber, Leather and Glass Coatings
Dr. Laki Tisopulos, Assistant Deputy Executive Officer with the Office of Planning, Rule Development and Area Sources gave the staff presentation. He reminded the Committee that in July staff had presented a proposal to amend Rule 1145 to establish a new category for Refrigerated Glass Door coatings to assist one company with their niche application. In response to conflicting information presented by representatives of the UV industry and the company relative to the performance and viability of a UV-curable product, the committee had recommended that one more test be performed using a third-party laboratory.
Staff informed the Committee that Professor Bud Jenkins of Cal Poly Pomona was selected to conduct the third-party laboratory testing. For comparative purposes, in addition to the testing of glass substrates coated with the UV-curable product, staff also tested glass substrates coated with the product that the company is currently using. Staff informed the committee that due to the high performance needs of the product, the company has set very stringent performance criteria, including a 100 percent adhesion, and is also seeking a long-term product warranty in an effort to avoid significant financial losses due to recalls that it experienced several years ago while experimenting with powder coatings.
The test results revealed that while the UV coating performed well and would meet most aesthetic or cosmetic applications, it did not perform as well as the current coating utilized by the company or meet the performance standard set by the company. Based on the test results, staff reported to the Committee that they were inclined to go back to the original staff proposal providing the company with relief.
During the public comment period, following the staff presentation, a representative of the UV industry commented that the adhesion specification and the long-term performance warranty were not reasonable, that they were just made aware of the 100 percent performance requirement, and that the UV products could be reformulated to meet 100 percent adhesion. Staff commented that the 100 percent adhesion specification was forwarded to the UV vendor prior to the testing in August and that staff has e-mails from the vendor acknowledging receipt of the specifications. A representative of the company also commented disputing many of the arguments made by the UV industry representative and reminded the Committee that they had experimented with multiple coatings but were not able to identify one performing to their specifications. He acknowledged that the powder coatings which they had previously experimented with and which resulted in multi-million dollar loss due to recalls had actually performed better than the UV coating in question and asked for relief along the lines offered by the original staff proposal. The Committee expressed support for the staff proposal.
WRITTEN REPORTS
All written reports were acknowledged by the Committee.
PUBLIC COMMENTS
During the public comment period Mr. Curt Coleman expressed concerns regarding their inability to participate by phone during the meeting which took place the previous week regarding Proposed Rule 1155 - Particulate Matter (PM) Control Devices due to AQMD not providing an adequate number of phone lines, even though the AQMD had announced that phone participation will be provided. In response, Dr. Barry Wallerstein agreed to provide another opportunity for public participation prior to this item being brought to the Board for consideration.
Steve Bledsoe commented in regards to Proposed Rule 1155, suggesting that a positive incentive be developed for this rule and encouraged staff to consider this.
Mayor Yates announced that the next Stationary Source Committee meeting will be on November 20, 2009.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:25 a.m.
Attachment (DOC, 64k)
Attendance Roster