February 11, 2008
The Philadelphia Diesel Difference - Working Group Meeting
Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC)
190 North Independence Mall West,
8th Floor,
Philadelphia, PA 19106
IN ATTENDANCE:
Jim Black, Clean Air Council
Ken Brown, University of Pennsylvania
Francine Carlini, PA Department of Environmental Protection
Ed Carreras, BIO
Eric Cheung, Clean Air Council
Fred Cummings, City of Philadelphia Division of Aviation
Brett Fusco, DVRPC
Megan Goold, Environmental Protection Agency Region 3
Sean Greene, DVRPC
Glenn Havens, Engine Control Systems
Bill Jones, Environmental Protection Agency Region 3
Jack LeBeau, Citizens Advisory Committee PADEP
Lisa Magee, Philadelphia Regional Port Authority
Joanne Maxwell, Amtrak
Mike McClurkin, PA Turnpike Commission (retired)
Urszula Miezio, Johnson Matthey
Robert Neff, PA Turnpike Commission
Alison Riley, City of Philadelphia, Air Management Services
Jack Schweitzer, Amtrak
Dan Snowden, PennDOT
Barbara Wilson, Krapf Bus Co.
Dennis R. Winters, Philadelphia Clean Cities
MINUTES TAKEN BY:
Eric Cheung
INTRODUCTIONS/ANNOUNCEMENTS
With Tom unable to attend, Alison called the meeting to order and attendants introduced themselves.
Alison said there were two Mid-Atlantic Diesel Collaborative Sector Work Group calls coming up: Urban Fleets (March 5) and Construction (Feb. 27). The Urban Fleets Work Group call will feature a speaker on hydraulic hybrid technology. Alison reported that the City’s Sustainability Working Group will be meeting to report on where the City is in regards to its goals on the local action plan on sustainability. She added that Tom Weir from AMS gave a presentation to the Zoning Board explaining the harmful impact of pollution on local residences. She was happy with the turnout at the meeting.
Alison and Bill Jones met with Lisa Magee to brainstorm Port project ideas for the forthcoming Diesel Emission Reduction Act (DERA) RFP. Alison is especially interested in any project that can reduce NOx. She hopes to brainstorm additional project ideas with SEPTA, the City’s Fleet Management and MARAMA.
Alison said there will be a meeting of the Next Great City diesel retrofit subgroup at the conclusion of PDD’s meeting today and that everyone is welcome to stay after to participate.
Turning to the latest developments with City vehicles, Alison said she is working on a press event to promote the City’s receipt of AFIG funding for biodiesel. Installation of biodiesel tanks are underway and should be completed by March. Five firetruck retrofits and five waste hauler retrofits have been completed. Alison is speaking to MARAMA to put together a press event at a fire academy, since a portion of the funds for the firetruck retrofits came through the Mid-Atlantic Diesel Collaborative.
The next meeting of the Sustainable Skylines initiative is tomorrow.
Lastly, Alison reported that AMS is looking for NOx and VOC reductions in order to get additional SIP credits. AMS will be assessing retrofits that have already been done to see if SIP credits are available.
Brett Fusco from DVRPC took a few moments to invite audience members to participate in DVRPC’s web-based long range plan survey. The new long range plan is called “Connections” (www.dvrpc.org/connections). The new long range plan will connect land use, transportation, the environment and economic development. Brett said DVRPC will be hosting outreach events to increase participation in its survey. The goal of the survey is to shape a vision of the region’s future. Brett said as an incentive, there will be a random drawing for an iPod Touch for a lucky survey participant.
PHILADELPHIA DIESEL DIFFERENCE ACTIVITIES UPDATE:
Eric announced that he will be testifying in Allentown tomorrow on PADEP’s proposed anti-idling regulation for the state. He said he is working on a survey of Philadelphia fleets in PDD’s database to see what diesel retrofit projects have been completed since the formation of the group. Eric expects the survey to go out by the end of the week and it will be sent to the PDD email list as well as the original database of fleets that PDD contacted when it was first created. Information from this survey would be used to quantify the emission reductions that have come about, since PDD formed. Another mailing Eric wants to get out to the group is a membership pledge form for organizations that have not signed onto the PDD Charter and a membership dues form for organizations interested in financially supporting PDD’s work. Eric mentioned that he had talked to the Norfolk Southern representatives who spoke at the last meeting and they agreed to complete an interested fleets form. Eric participated in the Green Airport Air Quality Subcommittee with Bill Jones, Sean Greene and Fred Cummings. The one thing relevant to PDD discussed at the Subcommittee was the idea of consolidating the shuttle buses into one set of buses that serve the rental car companies and making those buses be as clean as possible, through either alternative fuels or clean diesel technologies.
COMMITTEE UPDATES:
Eric reported that the next Port Task Force meeting will be held March 6 at the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority’s office beginning 2 pm.
GRANT UPDATES:
Eric said that the Council is considering applying for Level 2 EPA CARE funding to continue its Port work. The obstacle to this proposal is that the CARE program administrators want their projects to be community-driven initiatives, which the Port project has a difficult time being, since no residential communities are situated near port facilities. Another upcoming source of financial support is the DERA funding. Eric said he will be working with Alison to look over PDD’s list of committed fleets to prepare some projects in advance.
ONE MINUTE UPDATES:
Dennis Winters said that he is still settling into his new position as Coordinator for Greater Philadelphia Clean Cities. He attended the Sustainable Biodiesel Summit in Orlando. He noted that he is looking to expand both Clean Cities’ board membership and stakeholders. Anyone interested in alternative fuels and alternative fuel vehicles should contact Dennis about being more involved with Clean Cities.
Barbara Wilson reported that Krapf is running most of its buses on biodiesel and that it will find out whether today’s intensely cold temperatures impacted operations.
Fred Cummings said that the Airport’s natural gas vehicles consumed 11,300 gasoline gallon equivalents of CNG in 2007.
Joanne Maxwell said Amtrak is working on an environmental management system. It will be looking to see what else it can do with diesel engines to reduce emissions in Philadelphia.
Dan Snowden said PennDOT is looking over Pennsylvania’s anti-idling regulation and that is also still looking over the diesel retrofit procure language for construction projects in Philadelphia. Dan said PennDOT really would like information from other governmental entities that have done this. Alison said she is talking to New York City to see if they have any reports on increases in costs for construction projects since the City started mandating cleaner diesel equipment.
Francine Carlini reiterated that PADEP is focusing on getting comments for its proposed anti-idling regulation.
Bill Jones explained that Congress authorized DERA in 2005, as a part of the National Energy Bill. It has taken until now for Congress to appropriate money for the program. Approximately $3.1 million will be available for Region 3 diesel retrofit projects. EPA Headquarters will make another $10 million available to the States under DERA. Bill expects $49.5 million to be appropriated for Fiscal Year 2009. The RFP for 2008 should be out sometime in March. EPA will have a series of conference calls through the Mid-Atlantic Diesel Collaborative and through the web to discuss the RFP. In other news Bill alerted participants of his upcoming Goods Movement Sector Work Group on February 21. Bill noted that EPA will announce its most recent Clean School Bus USA recipients this spring. He also added that the Pittsburgh region is using CMAQ funding on clean diesel projects.
Megan Goold said that her upcoming Construction Sector Work Group conference call will feature the Biodiesel Board. She is working with the IRS on incorporating clean diesel in its construction equipment for the new office at 30th Street it is building.
Sean Greene announced that he is looking at having this year’s Air Quality Partnership kick off event in the King of Prussia Mall parking lot. The event can showcase the Mall’s electric car.
Glenn Havens introduced himself as the regional representative for Engine Control Systems. He said his company has six diesel retrofit technologies that have been verified by EPA. Two distributors for the company are located in the area and they work with port facilities and fire departments.
Lisa Magee repeated Eric’s pitch for people to attend the March 6 Port Task Force stakeholder meeting to be held at the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority. She will need 24-hour notice of all individuals who want to participate or else they will not be allowed in.
Robert Neff from the PA Turnpike Commission reported that his whole fleet of vehicles throughout Pennsylvania runs on 5% biodiesel fuel.
MONTHLY PRESENTATION:
Alison explained that the Mayor’s office will not send a representative to meet with PDD until it has named its Sustainability Director. In place of the Mayor’s representative, Alison said that Sean Greene would be presenting on the Regional Air Quality Partnership.
Sean stated that the Air Quality Partnership is run by DVRPC. The Partnership provides email alerts to its members when ozone or particulate levels are high. It gears its outreach efforts towards employers. As part of its alert system DVRPC educates individuals on what precautions to take in response to air quality alert days and what things to do reduce their contribution to the air pollution problem.
Sean proceeded to go over recent air quality forecasting statistics. During the 2007 Summer Ozone season, there were 23 Code Orange action days forecasted. 76% of the forecasted Code Orange action days were actually confirmed as Code Orange or Red days after the fact. Sean said that looking back over the past several years, the Philadelphia region has been trending towards less ozone action days. He pointed out that 2003 and 2004 data, which had fewer ozone forecasts, were aberrations due to the weather that was experienced during those summers. Cool, wet summers naturally have less ozone days.
Turning to fine particulates, Sean explained that the Partnership offers forecasts year-round because the pollutant can be high at any time. In the winter time, for instance, households may use heating oil or wood-burning stoves to provide warmth, both of which could contribute to high fine particulate levels. The data collected on fine particulate also indicate a 76% accuracy in actual fine particulate levels meeting what the Partnership had forecast.
Sean said that when the Partnership needs to send out advisories they are sent directly to 290 businesses and indirectly to another 300 through the Transit Management Associations that operate in each of the counties. As part of its warning system, the Partnership reaches every school district. Sean said he is trying to reach out to school nurses too since they have firsthand experience of asthmatics reacting to high air pollution levels. In addition, the Partnership has a good working relationship with the media.
Recently the Partnership commissioned a telephone survey to determine the effectiveness of the program. 715 people participated. According to the survey 61% of individuals are aware of Code Red and Code Orange Action Days and another 25% are aware of ozone pollution even if they are not aware of Action Day forecasts. The 61% awareness is an increase from prior years. 54% of the respondents who knew about Action Days took an action in response to the forecast, but most were not sure what action they took. This is a decrease from prior years.
The Partnership did a separate survey of its members. Two-thirds of the companies involved say they encourage employees to reduce emitting activities during Action Days. All respondents felt that the Partnership provided a valuable service. 83% of recipients receive their forecasts via email.
In summarizing his presentation, Sean said that the regional trend is for fewer ozone days and lower mean ozone levels, although 2007 had slightly more ozone days than in 2006. Sean said that Penn State University researchers believe the decrease in ozone levels have to do with the implementation of NOx controls. The new more stringent ozone standard that is being prepared by EPA will likely increase the Ozone Action Days for the region. Similarly the new more stringent fine particulate standard, set to take effect in 2010, will probably triple the number of Action Days for that pollutant.
Sean mentioned that both DART and New Jersey Transit offer reduced fares on Action Days.
One last thing Sean observed is that 71% of those surveyed believe that humans are playing a role in climate change. Perhaps the Partnership can use awareness of global warming as a mechanism to urge people to take steps that will ultimately reduce ozone levels, since ozone and global warming gases share similar causes.
Barbara Wilson advised the Partnership to package its outreach in laymen’s terms in order to
reach out to the public more effectively going forward. She added that Krapf distributes a newsletter and that it would be a good idea to include an article on air quality in the May issue.
DIRECTION OF PDD
Alison opened up the floor to a discussion of what issues members want to see PDD focus on
in the future.
Ed Carreras asked if the group could do anything on indoor air quality. He noted that while ozone is a harmful pollutant outside it can be good indoors as a purifier. Bill said EPA is skeptical about indoor air cleaning devices. In addition, he noted that indoor air quality is outside the mission of PDD.
Bill suggested that PDD focus on technologies and strategies to reduce NOx, given the new 2010 highway diesel standard is looming along with a new, more stringent ozone standard. Alison agreed and thought NOx-reducing technologies would be a good topic for future meetings.
The group then proceeded to discuss the implications of a more stringent ozone standard. Sean stated that most areas along the Eastern Seaboard will be unable to meet the new standards. Urszula Miezio inquired what is the worst that could happen if Pennsylvania fails to meet the new standards. Francine Carlini said the threat to Pennsylvania is real. The state could lose its highway funding if it is unable to come up with a way to meet the new ozone levels. She added that there is very little left the State can do to reduce emissions from industrial sources and that there will be an increased need to look to the transportation sector. Bill said that more could be done with industrial sources if they were required to spend more money. Francine said that industrial sources may be willing to support voluntary efforts to reduce emissions as a way to shift focus away from them.
Jack LeBeau commented that with transportation sector emissions still very significant, PDD is more relevant than ever.
Alison requested information on the impact of fine particulate emissions on local communities, rather than just ambient air quality. She felt it would be helpful to be able to link direct fine particulate exposure to health problems. Bill replied that EPA has done such studies in California, but it cost millions of dollars. Dennis added that Pennsylvania could have received SAFETEA-LU funding to do this kind of local research on fine particulates, but PennDOT did not apply for it.
Finally, Bill commented that EPA is focusing on CO2 emissions and that there are a lot of links between CO2 reduction and efficiency.
NEXT MEETING AND LOCATION:
The next meeting will be held March 17, 2008 at DVRPC.
