Memorandum

City of Lawrence

City Manager’s Office

TO:	David L. Corliss, City Manager
FROM:	Jonathan Douglass, Assistant to the City Manager
CC:	Cynthia Boecker, Assistant City Manager Diane Stoddard, Assistant City Manager
DATE:	December 2, 2008
RE:	Ozone Standards Update

This memo is a report on the Health Department’s Air Quality Advisory Committee meeting of November 12 , 2008. The main topic of discussion at the meeting was the new ozone standards established by the EPA, and their potential effects on Lawrence and Douglas County.

Summary

To summarize, nothing is settled, but it appears that there is a good chance EPA will consider Douglas County part of the Kansas City non-attainment area in March 2010. If this occurs, KDHE would develop a mitigation plan and submit it to EPA in 2013. The likely environmental controls could include implementation of RACT (Reasonably Achievable Control Technology) rules for industry, mandated low vapor pressure gasoline blends and new rules for power plants. RACT rules may have a relatively minor effect on Douglas County (relative to the rest of the greater Kansas City area at least) given the lower amount of manufacturing that takes place here, but this topic needs more analysis than I have yet undertaken. Low vapor pressure gas blends currently cost between $0.13-$0.26/gallon more than standard blends. I understand that Westar is already working on some emissions reduction projects with KDHE.

Background

KDHE should be publicly releasing their recommendations to the Governor within the next few weeks. The recommendations will be open to public comment until early 2009, at which time the Governor will adopt some form of the recommendations and forward them to EPA. EPA will consider the KDHE recommendations in formulating their own findings, which will be open to public comment for some period of time in 2009, with a final designation from EPA in March 2010.

KDHE will likely be recommending that Douglas County be considered an “Unclassifiable Attainment” area. The term “unclassifiable” is used to note that key data (in this case ozone readings from Douglas County since the measuring station was removed) are missing. KDHE still estimates ozone readings for Douglas County using data from surrounding counties, but does not have actual current data from Douglas County. 

KDHE’s current recommendation is likely to be that only Wyandotte and Johnson counties be included in the Kansas City non-attainment area, but they expect the EPA to disagree and say that Miami, Leavenworth and Douglas counties should be included also. The rationale for including these counties is that they contribute to the ozone problem in Kansas City, whether their ozone levels are compliant or not. The argument for including Douglas County specifically would be that there is a growing population, a power plant, and a large number of commuters driving into Kansas City every day. A recent MARC study indicated that 18,000 daily commutes originate in Douglas County, which is the highest number from any of the counties surrounding the Kansas City area.

The question of whether Douglas County will get back an ozone monitoring station is probably irrelevant at this time. The number of commuters from Douglas County to Kansas City alone is likely to result in Douglas County being considered a contributor to non-attainment in Kansas City, thus included as part of the non-attainment area. If we did get a monitoring station back, chances are good that it would show Douglas County as violating the ozone standard anyway. Only an unseasonably cool summer in 2004 kept the latest three-year ozone readings (the measuring unit for attainment designations) below the new standard. While 2008 was also unseasonably cool, we are so close to non-attainment that it is really only a matter of time before a violation would be officially confirmed.

The Air Quality Advisory Committee is likely to forward a draft letter for signatures from City and County officials to the Governor recommending that Douglas County not be included in the Kansas City non-attainment area. There is really nothing else for the City and County to do at this time regarding the issue of ozone, except possibly to initiate public education efforts encouraging people to change their driving habits and home energy use. The Committee may request an opportunity to present to the City and County commissions in the spring of 2009 regarding this.

I will continue to monitor this issue. Staff from the MPO is also participating on the Air Quality Advisory Committee.