BOARD MEETING DATE: August 1, 2003
AGENDA NO. 11

Recognize and Appropriate Grant Funds from U.S. EPA for Boiler Tune-Up Outreach Program

SYNOPSIS:

U.S. EPA has awarded the AQMD $100,000 in Section 103 Grant funds to implement a multi-agency program to assist small businesses in performing regular boiler tune-ups. AQMD will work with U.S. EPA and the small business assistance programs in Hawaii, Nevada, and Arizona to develop and implement the program using grant funds.

COMMITTEE:

Stationary Source, July 25, 2003

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

1. Recognize $100,000 in revenue from U.S. EPA Section 103 Grant funds for the Boiler Tune-Up Outreach Program.
    
2. Upon receipt of the grant, appropriate $100,000 from the Undesignated Fund Balance to the Public Affairs FY 2003-04 Budget.

Barry R. Wallerstein, D.Env.
Executive Officer

Background

In 1990, Congress enacted amendments to the Federal Clean Air Act, including Section 103 Small Business Ombudsman/Small Business Technical Assistance Programs (SBO/SBTAP), which seeks to support states in providing outreach and technical assistance to help small businesses comply with clean air regulations. All outreach programs share a common need for meaningful performance measurement, so that participants can objectively evaluate the return on investment in various educational approaches. In the case of compliance education and technical assistance, there is a need for flexible assessment tools which can measure the degree of positive outcomes (such as behavior changes and resulting emission reductions) across a variety of technology sectors.

In response to this need, Congress authorized the U.S. EPA to expend a total of one million dollars nationwide to assist SBO/SBTAPs to develop and implement technical outreach projects and to measure their performance outcomes. The U.S. EPA is providing $100,000 to AQMD to lead a project to reduce emissions from boilers in coordination with other small business offices from Arizona, Hawaii, and Nevada (fellow Region 9 states who have similarly expressed interest in participating in this project).

AQMD has been selected to lead and manage this project. The total cost of the project is expected to be $195,000, including U.S. EPA’s $100,000 grant and $95,000 in staff resources or in-kind contribution from participants.

Objectives:
The purpose of this joint project is to quantify emission reductions and energy savings resulting from a program of outreach, technical assistance, and education to businesses with water heaters and boilers.

Most small business assistance programs provide sources with education on ways to reduce their emissions of air pollutants, on ways to comply with existing regulations, and on ways to change their processes to cleaner ones. There is a need for objective and transparent measurement of the effectiveness of these communications on emission reductions, in the short and long term.

Boilers and water heaters are significant sources of uncontrolled NOx emissions. Many small businesses have these types of boilers and heaters, including commercial buildings, schools, food processors, and many types of manufacturers. These emissions could be dramatically reduced (by 10% or greater) by helping small businesses perform and track regular tune-ups of their boilers and heaters.

By implementing the project, the validity of the overall outreach and education strategy can be demonstrated and data captured for ongoing strategic planning.

Implementation:
U.S. EPA grant funds will be used for all project costs except salaries and benefits which participants are providing as an in-kind match.

The project will be implemented in four phases:

1. A pre-outreach survey to identify typical boiler and water heater users and current practices regarding tune-ups of this equipment.
    
2. An educational outreach effort that will include a 10-month outreach process where business will receive fact sheets on cost savings from boiler tune-ups, information on health effects of air pollution, information on small business monetary and technical assistance resources, help-line assistance and EPA’s NOx brochure, and information on a temporary offer of reimbursements for boiler tune-ups.
    
3. Reimburse invoices for tune-ups upon receipt of proper documentation.
    
4. A post-outreach survey that will evaluate and quantify the behavior and operational changes implemented by the businesses and quantify the emissions reduced.

The project concept was previously approved by the Board but was delayed due to other program priorities. It is necessary to recognize and appropriate the U.S. EPA grant in the FY 2003-04 Budget to implement the program as intended. An extension beyond the September 2003 sunset date will be required from U.S. EPA, who has agreed to provide such an extension provided a good faith effort is evidenced to complete the project in the near future.

Fiscal Impacts

These grant funds are a supplement to the FY 2003-04 Budget, and as such, have no negative impact on the Budget. Adequate staffing resources are available to implement the project as presented.

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