Clean Air Issues
Activity Report
October 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)

• Participated in the 5th (10/22) monthly meeting of the Warren-Northampton Regional Air Quality Advisory Panel held at the Warren County Resource Recovery Facility operated by Covanta in Oxford, NJ.

  The Charter & By-Laws, Summaries of the July, August and September Panel Meetings, and details of information presented or distributed at meetings will be posted on the Chapter’s major documents website in a few days.

  As for the work of the "Issues Committee", of which I am also a member, some air quality benchmarks, specifically those established in the form of the health-based National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for criteria pollutants (SO2, ozone, fine particulates and lead) have been adopted by the panel. Benchmarks for other pollutants of concern in the Warren-Northampton area not covered by NAAQS, specifically mercury and some volatile organic compounds (VOCs) will need to be created. Chloroform, methanol, toluene, benzene and formaldehyde are examples of VOCs.

• 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 Oct 2002. With the mid-term elections behind us, I plan 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.

• 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.