Clean Air Issues
Activity Report
November 2002

• Continued to monitor and/or participate in several ListServs. Selected items are forwarded to SC-NJ Cons-Com and Loantaka Ex-Com to keep members advised of developments, related legislation, actions recommended, etc. The ListServs are as follows:
  • New Source Review (NSR)
  • air-mail (many different air quality and energy related issues)
  • RefineryReform (mainly re: NSR)
  • Hg-WG (Mercury Work Group)
  • compliance_alliance (re: Title V Operating Permits)

• Participation in the 6th (11/26) monthly meeting of the Warren-Northampton Regional Air Quality Advisory Panel held at BASF's Automotive & Industrial Coatings Plant in Belvidere, NJ.

  Major topics covered during the November meeting included the following:

  • An overview of the BASF plant^Òs products, operations, and safety and compliance programs.
  • Establishing benchmarks for Air Toxics.

  • I joined the representatives for EPA Regions 2 & 3 in recommending that an air toxics inventory be developed based on PADEP and NJDEP air emissions information management systems and on the VOC's listed on Title V Permits for the two counties in the region. That inventory then to be compared with the list of VOC^Òs being monitored.

  • An overview of the Warren County Asthma Epidemiology Study

    I expressed strong concerns that the study as currently planned would not track the incidence of asthma attacks during the summer months when ground level ozone peaks throughout the state, when emissions from electric power plants reach peak levels due to peak demands for air conditioning, and when the levels of ozone and small particulate (PM 2.5) in the region being studied are further exacerbated by the frequent operation of large numbers of diesel powered farm machinery.

  • Preliminary results of the Warren County Air Monitoring Program (WCAMP)

    Complete Summaries of the Panel's October and November Meetings, and details of the information presented or distributed at meetings should be available and released for posting on the Chapter^Òs major documents website in January 2003.

• Clean Car Campaign - working to have NJ adopt the [more stringent] CA LEV II (Low Emission Vehicle) standards as now exist in NY, MA and VT. This effort takes on even greater importance than when first proposed as a result of the U.S. Senate's failure to approve any increase in the federal CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards earlier this year.

  No activity on this by me during November. With the mid-term elections behind us, I am trying to coordinate my work and that of any other members with Drew Hudson, the NJPIRG Clean Air Associate, to have the NJ Legislature pass the Clean Car bills S121 & A409 which authorize and direct DEP to implement Phase II of the California Low Emission Vehicle program in the State beginning in calendar year 2006. Loantaka Group may have a Clean Car presentation at their February 12, 2003 General Meeting.

• Now that the mid-term elections are over and despite the result, I plan to seek meetings with Rep. Mike Ferguson, NJ District 7, and Senators Corzine and Lautenberg to encourage them to support the bills in the House, HR 1256, the Clean Smokestacks Act of 2001, and the Senate, S.556, otherwise known as the 4 Pollutant Bill, which call for establishing limits on the emissions of CO2 (the major greenhouse gas contributing to Global Warming) from electric power plants as well as on SO2, NOx and Mercury and for compliance by 2007. The Clear Skies Initiative (CSI) proposed by Pres. Bush does nothing regarding the emissions of CO2 from power plants and does not require full compliance until 2020!

• I am still seeking to recruit volunteers from each NJ Group to review some of the Title V Operating Permit applications received by NJDEP from companies that are major sources of emissions in each County, especially those not yet approved by NJDEP and EPA Region II. Detailed lists of companies by county were provided to several groups earlier this year.

• Other contacts/inquiries needed or received and needing reply or more detailed follow-up:
  • Urban Air Pollution, Paterson: Dan Rosen, Sierra Student Coalition, Ridgewood H.S.
  • Hudson County resident, Carly Berwick
  • Try to find/contact and recruit/organize authors of Star Ledger LTE's re clean air issues