BOARD MEETING DATE: August 14, 1998 AGENDA NO. 27
REPORT:
Stationary Source Committee
SYNOPSIS:
The Stationary Source Committee met Friday, July 24, 1998. Following is a summary of that meeting.
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Receive and File.
Mee Hae Lee
Chair, Stationary Source Committee
Attendance
The meeting began at 11:05 a.m. Present was Committee Chair Mee Hae Lee. Absent were Committee Members Richard Alarcòn, Ron Loveridge, Jon Mikels, Leonard Paulitz, and James Silva. Board Vice Chair Norma Glover and Board Member Nell Soto were present and were appointed to the Committee for this meeting only. Ms. Soto left at 11:30 a.m.
Summary
The Committee reviewed the items on their agenda (attached). Comments were noted on the following items:
The two types of equipment being piloted are negative air machines used in asbestos removal and charbroilers and associated control equipment. He said the benefits of the Rule 222 program are lower permitting costs and minimal recordkeeping by facilities. Annual information from the operators would be used to deploy inspection staff rather than inspecting each facility on an annual basis. Mr. Broadbent said if this new, pilot program is successful, staff would like to expand it to other types of equipment in the future.
He said staff is also proposing to amend Rule 219, which is a listing of equipment that does not need a permit. Mr. Broadbent said Proposed Amended Rule 219 goes hand-in-hand with the amendments to Rule 1401 last month. He said staff proposes to provide the same language in Rule 219, which calls for equipment to be permitted that might be emitting above the screening levels, that are defined in the guidance document for Rule 1401. Removal of negative air machines and charbroilers under Rule 222 would remove approximately 5,500 permit units. Under the remainder of the Rule 219 amendments, staff is proposing the addition of approximately 600 pieces of equipment to the permitting system, in large part, because of nuisance problems associated with the equipment. About 500 of the 600 pieces of equipment are associated with rubber manufacturing or rubber processes. Although this equipment is listed under Rule 219 and does not have to be permitted, staff recommends this equipment be permitted and in compliance to reduce their nuisance capabilities. He said the other item being recommended for addition to the permit system (and to be removed from Rule 219) is wet gate printers. These are found at motion picture processing operations. Approximately six firms use this equipment in the basin and are aware we are considering adding them to the permitting system.
Mr. Broadbent said the last proposed amended rule as part of this item, is Rule 401. This is designed to address a long-standing problem with visible charbroiler emissions in the Basin. The District has a contract with CCERT to look at controls for under-fired charbroilers. CCERT should be successful in developing technology for removing particulate matter in the next year to year and a half. In the meantime, however, it is very difficult for charbroilers to demonstrate compliance with District Rules and Regulations because they exceed the Rule 401 visible emissions limitations. What staff recommends, for a short period, is to require that charbroilers only have to meet a 40% opacity standard. This will allow them to be permitted under the District permitting system.
Mr. Broadbent told the Committee there have been several workshops and these rules will go to the Board in September.
Rita Loof of Radtech said they have asked staff to increase the current exemption for ultraviolet and electro-beam materials from 6 pounds per day to 25 pounds per day. The emissions from these materials are negligible but staff did have some concerns about the VOC emissions from the clean-up solvents that were used. They think that there could be rule language that states that the exemption applies to those operations that are using compliant solvents for cleanup. She said they think this exemption is important because they have found several companies that have District permits for zero VOC emissions. These companies are paying permit fees and annual operating fees for zero emissions. This is a concern especially to small businesses. She said from the air quality point of view, the exemption would be an incentive for companies to reduce their emissions by considering a lower VOC process.
Mr. Broadbent said staff has been working with Ms. Loof and her organization and expects to be successful in the next week or two in developing language that increases the exemption.
John Billheimer suggested that it might be informative for the District to make a tally of all permits that are in the record at or near zero emissions. He said there may have been permits issued at a time when emissions were not known and were entered as zero, which is a confusing thing to operators who say they have no emissions but have to have a permit.
Mr. Broadbent reported to the Committee that staff is developing this new rule which will replace Rule 1169 and is designed to implement the air toxics control measure (ATCM) that has been recently promulgated by the state of California to implement the federal NESHAP. EPA recently promulgated a NESHAP for hexavalent chrome operations and chrome plating. The state then adopts an ATCM and we are given 180 days to adopt the ATCM or a local regulation which is at least as stringent as the state control measure. He said this rule was designed to implement that requirement.
Stationary Source Compliance Senior Manager Ben Shaw reported the key changes to the Committee. He said the federal NESHAPs have a lot more monitoring, recordkeeping, and reporting requirements. Through a statewide effort, which included District participation and many businesses in this area that are involved with chrome plating operations, the state was able to obtain compromises with EPA that they couldn’t get through a more general process. One decision was that a rule was needed, rather than a reference to an ATCM, to make sure that sources clearly knew what they needed to do to comply. He said staff recommends eliminating the old rule and adopting, in its place, the state ATCM with a few clarifications.
Mr. Broadbent said that the Metal Plating Association is aware and supportive of this ATCM.
(This item was continued to the August meeting.)
Deputy Executive Officer of Public Affairs Lupe Valdez reported on this item. She said a six-month report has already been to the Board, but she wanted to explain to the Committee other things, which have occurred since then. She said she had spoken to the League of California Cities regarding Environmental Justice when she was in Monterey. The African-American caucus has asked us to speak about what is being done in terms of the South Coast Basin. A number of elected officials were in Monterey from both Northern and Southern California. She said they appreciated our participation with Environmental Justice and understanding the issues in Southern California. Also, we were invited to San Diego to meet with a community health coalition that works with their local air quality control board. They are interested in how we are pursuing the issues of Environmental Justice and what we are doing with the community in terms of education and communication.
Ms. Valdez said that the Committee gets updates on Initiatives Numbers 2, 8, and 10, but there are other initiatives that staff, as well as Board Members, have worked on. The Town Hall Meetings are on schedule and are held in each community once a month. She said staff has been asked back to many communities now because they feel it is important for us to hear from the community, and that it has also been important for us to have our Executive Staff and Board Members present. She said both she and Barry Wallerstein had received "thank you" letters for being out in the community and scheduling meetings at times when people can attend and also for following up on items from the meetings.
Ms. Valdez said that the City of Los Angeles probably would not be doing another Environmental Justice Forum until September or October of this year. In addition, the Task Force will be looking at Rule 1402, which a lot of people are interested in. Staff will make extra efforts to ensure the communities are involved and are able to attend and participate. She said there would be some additional outreach to make sure everyone has ample opportunity to participate. Participation has been important to many communities and elected officials.
Nell Soto said that she thinks the Environmental Justice Initiatives have increased agency credibility. She said she felt the District is sincerely trying to remedy situations brought to the agency’s attention and the Environmental Justice meetings have changed our image completely. She said she was proud of the fact that in this last year the Board, through the Environmental Justice Initiatives, is actually getting support from local government and the affected community. Ms. Soto said she is very pleased with this outcome.
Initiative #2 - Ambient Monitoring of Air Toxics: Senior Manager of Laboratory Services Rudy Eden gave an update of the Environmental Justice Initiative No. 2, MATES-II and Microscale Study. He said that Compton and Wilmington sites are now operational. The AQMD laboratory has completed all the analyses for April and May. He said we have partial data from them but are still waiting on the PAH and metals data. Under the microscale study, Torrance is now operational; the Costa Mesa agreement is in place and we are working to prepare the site in terms of fencing and power; in Norwalk and Boyle Heights we are negotiating locations in those two communities. Very good progress is being made on these programs.
Initiative #8 - Field Inspection Technology: Mr. Eden gave a status report on Field Inspection Technology. He said staff has put together a peer review group and has met with them to bring them up to speed on where the District is with respect to its capabilities. He said the consultant contract has been executed and the initial meeting was held with that contractor. Mr. Eden said the consultant, the peer review group, as well as District staff met and established the goals for the project and the means by which those goals would be met. The consultant conducted interviews of eight District inspectors. He said the work plan was due today (July 24) and the committee members as well as staff have committed to a one-week turnaround due to the short timeframe on this contract. He said the contractor was told that comments would get to them in one week so they can proceed with the work plan.
Initiative #10 - Rules 1401 and 1402:
Mr. Broadbent gave a brief update on this initiative which went to the Board at their last meeting. He said there would be another working group meeting in August or September. Issues on MATES II monitoring data will be worked on, looking at speciation of that data to find the relative contribution of sources. He said we would have OEHHA come down to talk about potential changes in risk assessment methodologies. The environmental community is very interested in cumulative risk, and would like to have weekly discussions.
Mr. Wallerstein said that the Legislative Committee asked that the LAXT issue be considered by this Committee. Ms. Coy said that LAXT had filed an application for staff to consider amending their Rule 1158 plan, which is their interim plan for controlling emissions from petroleum coke storage while constructing coke enclosures. New management representatives at LAXT told staff that because of the world economic conditions, markets are depressed for U.S. coal and coke, and that they found that the construction of the enclosure domes is going to cost more than they had anticipated. They had estimated $14 million and now they estimate the cost at $19 million. They are also concerned with a perceived equity issue, noting some existing facilities are currently operating without enclosures. (Ms. Coy noted the staff is currently working on developing proposed amendments to Rule 1158, which will come to the Board late this year and are examining whether retrofit enclosures should be required at all existing facilities.)
Ms. Coy briefed the Committee that LAXT applied to modify their interim plan and asked for expedited review on July 2. They proposed to eliminate the dome enclosures and screening facility and to increase allowable coke storage (now proposed to be in open piles) from 150,000 to 200,000 metric tons. Staff is just completing the technical evaluation. In association with this technical review of the proposal, staff examined LAXT’s monitoring data for the last six months, since LAXT initiated coke operations. Ms. Coy said staff had greatly expedited their application at the end of last year, since LAXT was in the process of negotiating contracts for coke to come to the terminal and they wanted coke on the ground by New Years Day. Since enclosed storage was being proposed, staff expedited their application and met commitments to get their permits issued quickly. The limited monitoring data available since that time has technical problems and although it showed compliant operations through the winter and spring, it raised concerns about operation under higher wind speeds. During many periods they were not able to monitor because of the rain, which also has helped control potential dust. One of the limited measurements available showed 49.1 µg/m3, which is just below the 50 µg Rule 403 limit. District monitoring experts have looked at that data and feel that the monitoring indicates the potential for future Rule 403 violations without additional dust controls. In addition, there was some on-site monitoring performed which documented on-site emissions of 42 µg/m3 across the petroleum coke pile. Staff is concerned that under higher wind conditions or increased operation this may indicate the potential for exceeding the 50 µg limit at fenceline. Ms. Coy said the technical review should be done within the next several days. LAXT is concerned that it hasn’t been completed, because the next compliance deadline in their current plan requires on-site construction of the domes to commence by Friday, July 31. Staff is trying to complete response to the application early that week.
Ms. Lee discussed the Los Angeles City Council motion to investigate alternative enclosure funding at LAXT and expressed concern that the revised plan proposes a much larger amount of petroleum coke stored in the open than would have eventually been enclosed. Staff was asked to look at whether or not there were any less expensive enclosures than domes.
Ms. Glover asked about the issue of fairness, with respect to other facilities in the Port that are not doing this. Ms. Coy said that there are currently both open and enclosed existing facilities. LAXT however is a new facility that itself proposed enclosure. Ms. Lee said she would like for the Board to be involved in this. Ms. Glover said we should provide at least as good a foundation for air quality as in the Bay Area.
General Counsel Peter Greenwald said Ms. Soto left before the discussion of this item and there has not been a quorum of the committee during this discussion. Mr. Greenwald also clarified technical evaluation of the proposed plan has been delegated to District staff who will make a decision based on the technical merits of the issue.
Ms. Coy and Mr. Greenwald summarized that if the District’s technical analysis results in disapproval of the revised plan, it means that LAXT must continue to construct the domes. The company could petition for a variance before Friday, but it does not necessarily mean they will get a hearing before that time. Unless there is a variance granted from the plan compliance schedule, the plan must be implemented and the District staff will enforce the plan. On the other hand, if staff approves the application, a new Rule 1158 plan would be issued. A number of residents are concerned that we might do such a thing and they would then have the potential to appeal the staff determination.
The meeting was adjourned at 12 noon.
July 24, 1998 Committee Agenda (without its attachments)
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