E3 Energy, Environment and Economy Meeting Summary 11/01/06 R. Kristene Fields JCCI Community Planner kris@jcci.

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In attendance: Committee Members: Quinton White (Chair), Don Anderson, Sarah Boren, David Boyer, MaryLouise Boyer, Clanzenetta Mickee Brown, Roger Chubin, Phil Condon, Cara Connelly, Deanne Crookham, Leslie Detlefsen, James Geller, Bert Gianozza, Jennifer Gornto, Gabe Hanson, Mary Hayford, Wayne Hogan, Owen Holmes, Bruce Humphrey, Jill Johnson, Karen Kempf, Berdell Knowles, Bill Larson, David McClintock, Mark McCranie, Quilla Miralia, John Otterson, Steve Pace, Cheryl Pearson, Sudhir Prabhu, Eric Smith, L. J. Solomon, Paul Steinbrecher, Michael Stuck, Allen Tilley, Lori Tilley, Peggy Tilley, Christi Veleta, Stephen Wilson, Staff: Samantha Allick, Chandra Echols, Kris Fields, Skip Cramer, Cheryl Murphy, Steve Rankin, Ben Warner [Staff note: If your name is not listed, please advise staff.] Meeting Time: 8:15 9:45 a.m. Speaker: Steve Pace, Environmental Engineering Manager, City of Jacksonville Air and Water Quality Division Discussion: Quint opened the meeting by welcoming the members of the study committee back again. The committee received both the meeting summary and the group process check for 10/25/06. The committee also approved the 10/18/06 meeting summary before moving directly into the introduction of Steve Pace. Questions provided to resource speaker prior to the meeting What has been Jacksonvilles air quality experience over time? What are some of the key events in our air quality history? How are we doing relative to national clean air acts and environmental protection standards? What types of air pollution are considered most significant for Jacksonville and Northeast Florida? Why is air quality a topic of concern now, versus ten years ago or ten years from now? What do we need to be doing differently to more positively affect changes in air quality? Which communities should Jacksonville learn from in their approaches to improving air quality? Steve: As far back as 1815 with the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia and the resulting temperature changes as far away as New England, people began to realize that natural events and the resulting pollution could have significant impacts on their environment and quality of life. In the early 1960s, Jacksonville was a complex mix of commercial, industrial and residential areas. In 1961, pollution levels were so great that Jacksonville began to experience vegetation damage, and pollution at the shipyards caused Jacksonville to be in non-compliance by more than twice the acceptable level. As ships would come into port they would blow soot off their tubes for steam transfer. The soot would land on the cars of judges and attorneys in the parking lot of the courthouse and subsequently eat a hole in the cars paint. This vegetation and soot damage, along with complaints from the legal community became a significant concern of the public and the government, and forced the EPA to perform studies to determine the source of the pollution and subseqently take legal action. Due to increasing concerns over air pollution the City and local industry, coupled with the Universities created the Duval Air Improvement Authority in 1965 and in anticipation of the Federal Clean Air Act, in 1970 the City created the Environmental Protection Board (EPB). The EPB consists of a 9 member board that can create local environmental rules, some of which are unique to Jacksonville. The EPB has the authority to fine companies and JACKSONVILLE COMMUNITY COUNCIL INC.
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individuals up to $10,000 for air pollution violations. In order to deal with local issues, such as odors, the EPB used its authority to create unique odor regulations to improve the quality of life for the citizens of Jacksonville. This local approach to local issues included the Mayor assisting the EPB by assigning four full-time attorneys to help bring facilities into compliance and improve Jacksonville s environment. Further the City and the EPB established via additional funding of the Air Pollution Program, 24/7 coverage of odors to address and respond to citizens odor complaints. Initially, three chemical plants and two paper mills had odor problems and were frequently cited due to numerous odor complaints. However, due to the creation and enforcement of local odor rule the number of citizen complaints dropped from 5000 to only 200 per year, during the period of 1995 to 2006. Many clients are encouraged by their own counsel to settle and fix the problem rather than dragging out the process and being uncooperative. Currently there is one full-time and two part-time attorneys on call. In addition, the city also has use of additional attorneys as necessary. Jacksonville has had problems with Particulate Matter, Ozone and Sulfur Dioxide. However, through an ambient air monitoring program coordinated with the air pollution source permitting program, the City has been able to effectively resolve these air pollution issues. Growth of residential areas and increased trip time are now the most pressing issues. When you consider the growth and demand of the area, even though Jacksonville is a large city with numerous industrial and commercial air pollution sources, it is currently in compliance with all National Ambient Air Quality Standards. There remains a need to get ahead of the problem, however. (Also see disk of PowerPoint presentation) Questions & Answers How can we get ahead of the problem? It will be difficult to implement stricter air pollution regulations as Jacksonville is already meeting national standards regarding air quality. Jacksonville city officials will want to see the value of more stringent air quality standards in relation to the cost of enforcing them. However, any such action would be expensive to approve at this time, given the technical data required to justify it. In addition, there is the fact that Jacksonville City Council passed an ordinance stating that local environmental rules cant be more stringent than the states rules. This is designed to prevent a negative impact on new businesses relocating to Jacksonville. Is there a plan to add monitoring stations at the beach? Even though in 1997 Jacksonville began adding more air quality monitoring sites, that has stopped now and it is next to impossible to add new sites at this point. The major focus now is on maintaining the sites currently available. It takes anywhere from $2,000 to $10,000 to run each of the current sites. Furthermore, at this time the EPA is changing the policy on ambient air monitoring and is moving in a direction to utilize Super monitoring sites, where many parameters are measured at fewer sites. This would be funded almost entirely by state contracts. Jacksonville has gone to a 24-hour standard of monitoring There is no screening in place for Carbon Dioxide, as it is a non regulated air emission. There are few regulation standards today for monitoring every aspect of ambient or outdoor air quality. Carbon Monoxide is being measured. There is no screening in place for Carbon Dioxide. Ozone is monitored better because it is easier to measure, As an air toxin, Benzene is being measured at levels that exceed the Florida Air Reference Concentration. Currently, open burning in Jacksonville goes directly into the air. Today, the EPA considers "uncontrolled combustion," including open burning of household trash, agricultural burning and landfill fires, to be the largest unaddressed sources of dioxin in the environment, accounting for an estimated 57% of total releases.

How can we help the city go after the leading causes of air toxins? Any suggestions made must be tempered with the probability of receiving funding for the program, the potential for continued success of the program and
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probability of growth and change, given that there are very few regulations regarding air toxins. Unfortunately, probability of adjustments in standards is low when the suggestions are being made about air toxins. This could easily become a tremendously expensive program Comments (What did the committee learn today?) When city leaders come to these meetings they may have to be careful of what they say. Therefore, in looking at what Steve is saying, we have to also look at what he is unable to say. Even though Jacksonvilles air quality is acceptable now, that is subject to change without intervention. Fewer complaints are taken to court, because they are settled prior to further legal action. Two part-time attorneys are not equivalent to four full-time attorneys.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 a.m.

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