BOARD MEETING DATE: August 1, 2003
AGENDA NO. 31

Mobile Source Committee

SYNOPSIS:

The Mobile Source Committee met Friday, July 25, 2003. Following is a summary of that meeting.

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Receive and file.

S. Roy Wilson, Ed.D., Chair
Mobile Source Committee

Attendance

The meeting started at 9:10 a.m. Present: Committee Chair Roy Wilson, Committee Vice Chair Jane Carney, and Committee Members William Craycraft and Jim Silva. Absent: Committee Members Fred Aguiar and Ron Loveridge.

ACTION ITEM:
 

1)

Rule 2202 – AQIP Proposal of Recommendations for 4th Quarter of 2002 Staff’s presentation to the Committee for its consideration included: emission reduction targets, project selection process, summary of available funding; proposals received – 17 proposals in total; and analysis of proposals received. Staff recommends that 3 contracts be awarded as follows: To: OceanAir Environmental, in the amount of $600,000, for repowering of 4 pre-1988 crane engines with Model Year 2003 compliant low-emission engines and upgrading 3 locomotive engines; To: SuperShuttle, in the amount of $220,000, for the purchase of 20 CNG vans; To: Pick Your Part Auto Wrecking, in the amount of $800,000, for old vehicle scrapping program under Reg XVI. Staff’s recommendation also calls for increasing the maximum allowable assistance level for purchase of natural gas vehicles for taxicab services to a maximum of $16,000 per vehicle for the remaining balance of $340,540 contracted with Cabco Yellow Cab Company and Enterprise Finance, Inc., originally approved by the Board on February 1, 2002. Committee Member Jim Silva moved to recommend approval of this item to the Governing Board and Committee Member Jane Carney seconded. The motion was passed unanimously.

INFORMATION ITEMS:
 

2)	Ozone Air Quality in 2003 Basin ozone air quality through mid-season (July 24th) was analyzed. The analysis indicated an increase in the number of days one-hour average ozone concentrations exceeded both the federal standard and ozone health advisory episode thresholds. In addition, the first Stage-1 episode was attained since 1998. Severe weather conditions observed since the beginning of smog season (May through October) has contributed to the upswing in exceedance days and are the primary cause for the return of the Stage-1 episode. Other factors such as anticipated reductions not realized, higher emission growth, may also affect the ozone formation. Staff is evaluating several hypotheses that may have led to increased emissions and changes in the regional emissions patterns.
3)	Recommendation Regarding Comments to U.S. EPA on Proposed Rule to Implement the 8-Hour National Ambient Air Quality Standard for Ozone Dr. Elaine Chang, Deputy Executive Officer, Planning, Rule Development and Area Sources, provided a summary of District staff's proposed comments on the U.S. EPA's proposed rule to implement the 8-hour National Ambient Air Quality Standard for Ozone. The proposed standard was promulgated by the U.S. EPA in 1997. The Supreme Court decision in 2001 upheld the proposed standard and required the U.S. EPA to develop a new approach to implement this new standard. In crafting the proposed comments, staff has sought to ensure that: 1) expeditious progress is made toward achieving clean air and meeting the one-hour ozone standard; 2) state and federal agencies meet their prior SIP commitments toward reducing emissions from sources under their jurisdiction; and 3) control requirements around the country are not rolled back (because of lower classifications) causing potential competitive disadvantage to sources in the Basin (in terms of developing and commercializing new technologies). Key issues with the proposed rule are: Attainment Classification, Attainment Dates, Revocation of 1-hour Standard, and Rate of Progress Requirements. Under the proposed rule, the South Coast Air Basin will be classified as Severe-17, requiring an attainment demonstration plan within 17 years of the designation date of the eight-hour standard (i.e., 2004). Staff believes that this classification is acceptable provided that the application of 182(e)(5) measures (i.e., measures based on the anticipated development of new technologies or improvement of existing technologies), currently allowed for "extreme" non-attainment areas for the one-hour ozone, would also be allowed for "severe" non-attainment areas classified under the eight-hour ozone standard. In addition, staff proposes that non-discretionary measures developed and included under the one-hour ozone classification be retained after attainment of the standard. With respect to the attainment date of 2021, staff believes that the proposed date is supportable as long as expeditious progress is maintained by implementing the control measures in approved SIPs (unless they are found to be infeasible or impractical or interfere with progress toward achieving the eight-hour ozone standard). Staff strongly objects to the revocation of the one-hour ozone standard proposed by U.S. EPA and recommends that this standard be retained since aggressive controls are needed within the next seven years to achieve the federal health-based one-hour ozone standard (as proposed in 2003 AQMP). Also, in order to achieve the necessary reductions from mobile sources (i.e., slow turn-over rate) by 2010, long lead time is required to develop and implement state and federal programs. Staff also expressed concern that the revocation of the one-hour ozone standard should be done through the action of Congress and not through EPA rulemaking since these standards were initially established by Congress. In terms of the proposed minimum rate of progress (ROP) requirements, staff supports the proposal provided that the ROP commitments under the one-hour ozone standard are retained and 1990 is used as the baseline year to demonstrate the rate of progress in lieu of using 2002 as the baseline year. Staff also provided a graph to illustrate that the use of 1990 as base year would help maintain the current progress in future years.
4)	Status Report on 2003 Air Quality Management Plan Dr. Laki Tisopulos, Assistant Deputy Executive Officer, Planning, Rule Development and Area Sources, provided a status report on the Draft 2003 AQMP, highlighting key policy issues including, black box reductions, attainment demonstration options, transportation conformity budgets, and District staff’s recommended control strategies and concepts for state/federal sources. The 2003 ozone season has begun and recent air quality data has shown that the Basin has already exceeded the federal one-hour standard 42 days this year. On July 11, 2003, the Basin experienced its first Stage 1 in several years. This recent air quality data re-emphasize the need to develop a Plan which addresses the Basin’s air quality problem. There are several policy issues facing the Board including the assignment and size of the so-called black box reductions, transportation conformity budgets and growth forecasts, and attainment demonstration options. District staff is recommending that under the two proposed scenarios for assignment of the black box reductions, Scenario 1, which assigns the required emission reductions to the responsible agencies now rather than later, be adopted by the Board. CARB has recommended that agency commitments be established through a public review process by 2007. In addition, two attainment demonstration options are presented in the Plan. Option 1, which is recommended by District staff, assigns reductions to federal sources, while Option 2 includes a demonstration of the 1-hour ozone standard by 2010 without federal source emission reductions. The Plan includes both options in case U.S. EPA fails to approve Option 1. As required by federal law, the Plan includes the transportation conformity budgets for all transportation-related emissions. Unlike previous Plans, the budgets in the 2003 AQMP do not include emission reductions that rely on long-term measures. This approach is recommended by CARB and agreed to by U.S. EPA and SCAG. However, because of District staff’s concerns, under the Resolution commitment, District staff proposes to continue to work with other agencies to revise the methodology to address potential air quality impacts of transportation projects and actively participate in the development of the 2004 RTP. The size of the black box (i.e., 265 t/d of VOC and 181 t/d NOx) has increased dramatically over that of the previous Plan. Main factors include increased mobile source emissions inventories estimates, lower carrying capacity due to updated modeling, CARB and U.S. EPA not meeting their prior commitments (i.e., by 118 t/d of VOC reductions), and lack of adequate commitments by these agencies in the Plan. Because of the size of the black box, District staff is proposing that the Board adopt a Resolution that recommends CARB seriously evaluate a list of control strategies and concepts proposed by District staff that have the potential to reduce emissions from mobile sources and consumer products. The list of proposals include strategies where the technology currently exists for the most part and that affect light & medium duty vehicles, heavy-duty vehicles, recreational marine, construction and industrial equipment, residential lawn & garden equipment, consumer products, ships, aircraft, and trains. For each of the specific measures listed, an estimate of the emission reductions and timeframe for adoption and implementation are provided. Furthermore, District staff is proposing additional control concepts for CARB's consideration that do not have specific reductions or timeframe for adoption and implementation specified. The concepts address feasible control strategies from both on-road and off-road sources as well as new approaches to control the emissions from consumer products such as demand-side strategies. District staff is also proposing that CARB offset an increase of an additional 6 t/d of SOx/PM10 emissions in the first six months of 2006 due to CARB’s recent low-sulfur regulation which delays these reductions. An additional recommendation is for CARB to work with U.S. EPA to adopt a 40 mpg CAFÉ standard. Committee member Craycraft asked whether any testimony will be provided at CARB’s adoption hearing of the 2003 AQMP in September. Barry Wallerstein, Executive Officer, indicated that staff will attend CARB’s hearing and provide testimony on the Governing Board’s recommendations. Committee member Craycraft also suggested that District staff and Board members should conduct briefings to applicable legislators and other elected officials on the seriousness of the air quality problems in the Basin and the need for aggressive action to remedy the problem. Bob Wyman, a member of the public, provided testimony on how the business community is encouraged by the District’s aggressive proposals for state and federal sources in reducing the size of the black box.
5)	2003 Coachella Valley PM10 State Implementation Plan Dr. Laki Tisopulos, Assistant Deputy Executive Officer, Planning, Rule Development and Area Sources, reminded the Committee Memebers that the Committee was briefed on the draft 2003 Coachella Valley PM10 State Implementation Plan (CVSIP) last month. When the Board approved the 2002 CVSIP in June of 2002, they directed staff to revise the emission inventories and transportation budgets when the latest CARB emission factors and other local planning assumptions were finalized and approved. In the 2003 CVSIP staff has updated the emission inventories, modeling demonstrations, and transportation conformity emission budgets for Coachella Valley. There are no changes made to the control strategy or its implementation. Dr. Tisopulos informed the Committee that no new comments were received on this item and no controversy is anticipated.
6)	Annual Update on Rule 2202 Due to time limitations, this item is being continued to next month.
7)	U.S. EPA Reports Fewer Recouped Emission Reductions Than Anticipated Under Heavy-Duty Diesel Consent Decrees Dr. Elaine Chang, Deputy Executive Officer, Planning, Rule Development and Area Sources, gave a brief presentation regarding the emissions associated with heavy duty diesel engine "defeat devices." Seven engine manufacturers sold 1.3 million 1993 – 1998 model year heavy duty diesel engines that contained an illegal computer defeat device that allowed the engines to pass the U.S. EPA emissions test, but then turn off the emission controls during highway driving thus emitting up to three times allowable emissions. Under the "Low-NOx Rebuild Program" required by a federal Consent Decree and similar state Settlement Agreements, manufacturers are required to provide engine dealers with low-NOx software kits which correct the defeat device. The software is to be installed at the time of engine rebuild. Since engine rebuilds is a slow process due to the life of heavy duty diesel engines, only 4 – 5% of applicable engines have had the software installed to date. It is estimated that the defeat device has resulted in additional emissions of approximately 19 tons per day of NOx in 2003. CARB’s proposed 2003 SIP control measure ON-RD-HVY-DUTY-3, currently proposed to be adopted in fall 2003 and implemented in 2004, will require mandatory installation of the low-NOx software kit. This proposed control measure is expected to reduce 11 tons per day of NOx in 2010.
8)	Rule 2202 Activity Report Rule 2202 Summary Status Report submitted, no comments.
9)	Monthly Report on Environmental Justice Initiatives Item #4 – CEQA Commenting: a. CEQA Document Commenting Update: Written report submitted, no comments.
10)	Quarterly Status Report on Mobile and Area Source Credits for RECLAIM Written report submitted, no comments.
11)	Other Business None.
12)	Public Comment None.

The meeting adjourned at 10:32 a.m.

Attachment

Attendance Roster

SOUTH COAST AIR QUALITY MANAGEMENT DISTRICT
MOBILE SOURCE COMMITTEE

JULY 25, 2003

ATTENDANCE ROSTER
 

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