BOARD MEETING DATE: November 11, 2005
AGENDA NO. 7

Amend Rule 2202 AQIP Award for Leaf Blower Exchange Program

SYNPOSIS:

At its September 9, 2005 meeting, the Board awarded a contract to Pacific Stihl for the exchange of 600 leaf blowers meeting CARB's voluntary “Blue Sky Series” engine standard. Staff believes there is an opportunity to exchange a greater number of units at upcoming events. This action is to provide an additional $135,000 for an addi-tional 900 leaf blower units as part of the original award for a total of 1,500 units from the Rule 2202 AQIP funds. Sufficient funds are available from the first semi-annual period of CY 2005 Rule 2202 AQIP. Emission reductions associated with the Leaf Blower Ex-change Program will be credited to the Rule 2202 AQIP.

COMMITTEE:

Technology, October 28, 2005. Less than a quorum was present dur-ing the discussion of this item; the Acting Chairman communicated his concurrence and recommendation that this item be forwarded for Board consideration.

RECOMMENDED ACTIONS:

Authorize the Executive Officer to amend the Rule 2202 Air quality Investment Program (AQIP) award to Pacific Stihl for the Leaf Blower Exchange Program for an additional 900 units for an amount not to exceed $135,000. The total award is for 1500 units at a cost not to exceed $225,000 from the Fund.

Barry R. Wallerstein, D.Env.
Executive Officer

Background

Rule 2202 AQIP allows subject employers to participate by electing to invest in an AQMD-administered restricted fund. Investment can be either $60 annually per em-ployee reporting to the worksite during the 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. peak window, or $125 triennially per employee. The restricted monies are to be used by the AQMD to fund pro-posals that achieve mobile source emission reductions that would otherwise have been achieved by implementing a rideshare program. This Board letter contains a discussion regarding the disbursal of some of the funds from the AQIP compliance option for the fourth quarter of 2004.

Upon registering under this option and submitting the designated investment amount, an employer is considered to be in compliance with the Rule and there is no need for the em-ployer to take further action to reduce mobile source emissions. The collected monies are used to fund alternative mobile source emission reduction strategies that reduce mobile source emissions at a more cost-effective rate which could potentially result in greater overall emission reductions.

Proposal

At its September 9, 2005 meeting, the Board awarded a contract to Pacific Stihl for the exchange of 600 leaf blowers meeting CARB's voluntary “Blue Sky Series” engine stan-dard for an amount not to exceed $90,000. Staff believes there is an opportunity to ex-change a greater number of units at upcoming events. Staff recommends that an addi-tional amount of $135,000 be used to generate emission reductions by exchanging 900 additional two-stroke backpack blowers with new low emission four-stroke backpack blowers from the Rule 2202 AQIP funds. An unspent amount of $115,245 is available from the second semi-annual period of CY 2004; an additional amount of $1,876,500 is available from the first semi-annual period of CY 2005 Rule 2202 AQIP. Cost-effective emission reductions associated with the Leaf Blower Exchange Program will be credited to the Rule 2202 AQIP.

Leaf Blower Exchange Program

The primary goal of this project is to replace existing backpack blowers currently used by commercial landscapers/gardeners within the South Coast Basin with Stihl BR500 back-pack blowers which have significantly reduced emission levels. The current CARB Tier II emission standard is 72 grams of HC + NOx per kilowatt hour; the CARB voluntary “Blue Sky”” standard is 17 grams; the BR500 has been certified by CARB at 15 grams. The cost-effectiveness of this project $0.40 per pound ($800/ton.)

Resource Impacts

Total cost of expenditure for the proposed project with this amendment shall not exceed $225,000 from the Rule 2202 Air Quality Investment Program Special Revenue Fund.

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