BOARD MEETING DATE: January 5, 2007
AGENDA NO.5

Amend Contract with Ecotek, MST Solutions, Inc. for Privatization of Portions of Annual Emissions Reporting Program

SYNOPSIS:

In January 2005, the Board approved a contract with Ecotek, MST Solutions, Inc. for continuing the privatization of portions of the Annual Emissions Reporting (AER) Program.  Ecotek has developed, maintained, and updated the emissions reporting software, produced and distributed reporting materials (forms and instructions); provided public outreach and assistance; collected and compiled reported data; and conducted data quality control.  Based on Ecotek’s responsiveness and satisfactory performance, this action recommends exercising the second of three one-year renewal options in Ecotek’s contract.  This action also recommends increasing the annual contract from $340,000 to an amount not to exceed $365,000.  The increase is needed to handle additional programming to reflect rule requirements and other necessary changes.

COMMITTEE:

Administrative, December 8, 2006.  Less than a quorum was present during the discussion of this item; those Committee Members who were present communicated their concurrence.

RECOMMENDED ACTIONS:       

1. Approve the transfer of $125,000 from the Air Toxics “Hot Spots” Fund to the General Fund.
2. Recognize $125,000 of revenue in the General Fund and appropriate $125,000 from the Undesignated Fund Balance to the Planning, Rule Development, and Area Source Professional and Special Services Account.
3. Authorize the Executive Officer to amend the existing contract with Ecotek, MST Solutions, Inc. in an amount not to exceed $365,000 to exercise the second-year renewal option for privatization of portions of the 2006-2007 Annual Emissions Reporting Program, which reflects an increase of $25,000 from the previous funding level.

Barry R. Wallerstein, D.Env.
Executive Officer

Background

Under AQMD’s Annual Emission Reporting (AER) Program, approximately 2,700 facilities report their emissions annually and pay emission fees in accordance with Rule 301(e) requirements.  Privatization of portions of the AER program in the past eleven years has significantly enhanced the overall program efficiency; has improved services to the facilities as well as the data quality; and has also enabled AQMD staff to more effectively conduct engineering audits of the annual emission reports and provide support for other AQMD programs.  The portions of the AER program that have been privatized include: 1) revision of emission and fee reporting forms and instructions,
2) providing software and paper forms reporting options, 3) preparing and distributing emission reporting packages to facilities subject to the program, 4) providing public outreach and assistance in filing the annual emission reports, 5) receiving the reports and compilation of emission and fee data files, 6) conducting data quality control, and
7) transferring data files to the District for inclusion in the District’s central database.  Actual collection of annual emission fees, billing adjustments, and auditing the reported data continue to be handled by AQMD staff.

Beginning with the year 2000-2001 reporting cycle, the AER program has also incorporated the toxic emissions reporting requirements of the Air Toxics “Hot Spots” (AB 2588) program to further streamline the reporting process.  As such, Ffacilities subject to the AB 2588 program are required to submit their quadrennial toxics emissions inventory report under the AER Program.  Consolidation of the AB 2588 toxics emission inventory reporting requirement into the AER program has improved the toxics emissions data quality and minimized the required resources by both facilities and the AQMD.

During the last eleven years, Ecotek, MST Solutions, Inc. has successfully performed all the required tasks as specified in the contract.  The updated reporting software, developed by Ecotek to accommodate the consolidated toxics/criteria reporting, has been well-received and has been utilized by more than 90% of all subject facilities.  The reporting software has greatly reduced reporting errors and improved data quality.  In addition, Ecotek has utilized and developed software and data base systems to support the software reporting system (i.e., data-entry software for entering, managing, and checking reported data as well as export utilities to generate databases for AQMD use).  Ecotek has also suggested and incorporated several improvements to the program every year based on lessons learned from the previous year, provided excellent customer service for the reporting facilities, and maintained a good working relationship with AQMD staff.

In January 2005, in response to competitive biddings, the Board awarded a new contract to Ecotek for continuing the privatization of portions of the 2004-2005 AER Program.  Under this contract, AQMD reserves the right to renew the contract for three additional one-year periods and to renegotiate the contract amounts for the optional years based upon changed requirements and/or approved funds.  This action authorizes the Executive Officer to exercise the second -year of three one-year renewal options.  This action also recommends increasing the contract for this year from $340,000 to an amount not to exceed $365,000.  The increase is needed to handle additional programming to reflect rule requirements and other necessary changes.