Using 1 gas mower for 1 hour is equivalent to driving 1 car 140 miles.

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CLEAN AIR MATTERS

Summer 2003 Edition

In this issue:

Lawmakers get A+ for passing school-bus legislation
Lawmakers extinguish wood-smoke bill
Construction industry’s dust bites the dust
Accomplishments of FY2003 and plans for FY2004
Smog: The downside of summer sunlight
Hot partnerships hose down illegal outdoor fires
News in brief: New e-mail service brings more choices

Lawmakers get A+ for passing school-bus legislation

The future of yellow school buses is green.

They will become low-polluting and air-friendly for children who take the bus to school, thanks to funding approved by the state Legislature in April and signed by the Governor in May.

The funding for cleaning up diesel school buses statewide will come from existing sources of state revenue to be dedicated to this purpose.

"Scientists have discovered that diesel soot from school buses significantly threatens the health of our kids," said Dennis McLerran, executive director of the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency. "And Washington's school bus fleet is one of the oldest and dirtiest in the nation. That's why we went to the legislature with a proposal focusing on school buses."

With this new program, buses will be equipped with exhaust treatment devices or use cleaner fuels. Unhealthy exhaust will drop by 50 to 90 percent.

The program will build on "lessons learned" (pun intended) during the first two years of the Clean Air Agency's innovative, voluntary Diesel Solutions program for transit buses, trucks and school buses.

Two school districts with early pilot programs have retrofitted 30 buses with emission control devices and converted to ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel. This is in addition to the clean fuel and retrofit programs in place for the City of Seattle, King County Metro, the Boeing Company and other non-school partners in the Diesel Solutions program.

Retrofit devices cost from $1,500 to $8,000 per bus. Without this funding, we expected it would take 20 years for school bus fleets to completely replace old, dirty buses with clean ones. Further, the funding will make it easier to get grants from the federal government and other sources.

Rep. Ed Murray, Sen. Jim Horn go to head of the class

Rep. Ed Murray, chair of the House Transportation Committee, championed the funding bill through the complex legislative process. His support and expertise helped ensure the proposal would pass. Other key players were Sen. Jim Horn, Senate Transportation Committee Chair, the American Lung Association of Washington and many other supporters.

Over a five-year period, about $25 million will be available to the state Department of Ecology and local air agencies. We should receive about $8.5 million, or $1.7 million annually, which will go directly to equipping school buses with new equipment and cleaner fuels.

In 2008, the law "sunsets" (automatically ends unless reauthorized by the legislature). The full text of the bill is available online.

Centralization, group buying power will stretch program dollars

To reduce administrative costs, Ecology and local air agencies are working with the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. The office already is involved in centralized school bus purchasing and will help implement the clean school bus program efficiently.

In addition, Ecology and the local air agencies expect to benefit from multi-year, statewide purchases, perhaps through a state contract.

Here's why diesel soot is bad for school kids

Diesel exhaust is linked to cancer, particularly lung cancer.
Diesel exhaust can trigger or worsen asthma attacks. It impairs the lungs and aggravates lung and heart ailments.
Children are more susceptible than adults to those effects because they are smaller and breathe faster. In addition, exposure to exhaust early in life can lead to chronic health problems later.

Lawmakers extinguish wood-smoke bill

The Clean Air Agency's legislative proposal for wood-smoke education passed the House early in the session and was "burning hot" … until it failed to pass out of a Senate committee.

The bill would have required sellers to disclose the presence of uncertified wood stoves or uncertified fireplace inserts on the Real Property Transfer Disclosure Statement. The intent was to educate home buyers about the health effects of such devices.

Since we have the support of interested and affected groups, including realtors, hearth products businesses and other partners, we will try again next year.

Construction industry’s dust bites the dust

Dust. Dust in the air. Dust in the lungs. Dust in the eyes. Dust on cars. It’s history. Or, to be more accurate, clouds of dust from major construction are history.

Contractors for large highway projects in this region have substantially reduced dust in the last five years. Complaints to the Clean Air Agency have dropped dramatically. Citations for violations are also way down.

“This is a huge success story,” said Rick Hess, agency supervising inspector. “State agencies and contractors have willingly partnered with us to keep fugitive dust, as it’s called in the industry, from getting into the air.”

Extensive training, improved planning, better clean air rules and better equipment have all contributed to the successful effort:

Thousands of construction employees have attended dust-control training in the past three years.
Most plans, including those for state Department of Transportation (DOT) projects, now include dust-control budgets. Also, discussion and planning for dust control during the pre-construction phase occurs more often.
In 1999, we made the Clean Air Agency’s rules about dust more clear-cut.
“Improved design of equipment, like advances in wet street-sweepers, has helped,” said Mike Fallon of Wilder Construction.

Dust control training has played a key role. A one-hour class on controlling dust is part of every two-day course on erosion and sediment control delivered by the Associated General Contractors of Washington (AGC). The association designed the project under a contract with DOT.

“In the last three years, Clean Air Agency inspectors have taught more than 50 classes about dust control to more than 2,000 people working on DOT and other related projects,” said Hess. “These classes have dramatically increased the industry’s awareness of fugitive dust.”

Dust control saves money (as one contractor said, dusting out a car dealership and then paying for washing every car on the lot is fiscally imprudent and fails in the good-will category…). Dust control prevents traffic hazards from impaired visibility. Dust control protects the health of both construction workers and neighbors. Kudos to the AGC, DOT and major contractors for their successful programs.

KLB Construction keeps down dust, keeps up fun

One construction firm contributing to the dust control success story is KLB Construction — and they’ve had fun doing it. For example, when KLB President Kelly Lynn Bosa needed a graphic design for a new water truck, she turned to an elementary school charity auction. The highest-bidding parents won the right for their child’s class to create the design.

A bold idea? Not for KLB. “We go wild with graphics. This is our trademark,” said Ryan Ruble, safety director for KLB. In fact, each of KLB’s 15 water trucks, used to hold down construction dust, has an original mural its side: Scooby-Doo, the Yellow Submarine (above), tropical fish, seahorses and more.

FY2003 Accomplishments and FY2004 Plans

Looking back: FY2003 accomplishments

Obtained funding to clean up school buses statewide. Over the next five years, thousands of diesel buses will be equipped with exhaust treatment devices or use cleaner fuels. Unhealthy exhaust will drop by 50 to 90 percent.

Prepared a strategic plan to determine which programs should be sustained, made more efficient, eliminated, or funded only if additional resources were found. Used that plan and “return on investment” criteria as we wrote our FY04 work plans. Adopted FY04 budget with reduced staffing and without increasing the local per-capita assessment.

Improved asbestos outreach by obtaining agreements from the region’s largest building departments to hand out a flier about agency asbestos requirements to their applicants for demolition and building permits.

Partnered with the Port of Seattle at Sea-Tac Airport and the Puget Sound Clean Cities Coalition on the Port’s program to implement an anti-idling program, purchase natural-gas vehicles, open a publicly accessible natural-gas fueling station, install a system to eliminate exhaust from idling jets and more.

Partnered with American Lung Association of Washington on our clean school bus initiative and their State of the Air in Washington 2003 report.

Maintained partnerships with gasoline refiners and suppliers to keep providing low-evaporation gasoline in summer to reduce ozone; Puget Sound Clean Cities Coalition (a public-private consortium) to promote clean fuels and vehicles; Commuter Challenge to promote alternatives to single-occupancy driving; and Northwest Natural Yard Days to promote nonpolluting yard equipment.

Completed indoor-burning stakeholder process resulting in four key recommendations on how the agency should encourage replacement of wood-burning stoves and fireplaces with natural gas or propane devices.

Enhanced air monitoring: added new equipment to monitor diesel exhaust (the top air-toxic concern in this region), saved money by cutting back on labor-intensive monitors, and increased emphasis on newer computerized equipment that provides useful real-time data for forecasters and the public.

Added new Diesel Solutions partners — school districts, tribes, military bases and government agencies — who are cleaning up unhealthy soot from diesel trucks, ferries and buses.

Looking ahead: FY2004 plans

The big picture: Diesel exhaust is a significant source of fine-particle pollution and air toxics.

FY04 plans: Implement the new school bus cleanup program. Expand the Diesel Solutions program by adding more voluntary public and private partners who will retrofit their fleets' diesel exhaust systems and use ultra-low sulfur fuel and bio-diesel. Design and implement a voluntary program to reduce non-road diesel pollution from ships, locomotives and construction equipment.

The big picture: Smoke from fireplaces and uncertified wood stoves is a significant source of fine-particle pollution and air toxics.

FY04 plans: Ask lawmakers again to support wood-smoke education by requiring disclosure of uncertified wood stoves and fireplaces at the time homes are sold. Full story

Ask lawmakers to modify the burn-ban trigger by basing it on fine-particle levels (PM2.5) instead of coarse particles (PM10), to better protect public health. See Spring 2003 issue for more details.

The big picture: Outdoor fires cause half of summertime fine-particle pollution — but we expect to reduce it over the next five years.

FY04 plans: Consider further prohibitions of land-clearing debris, as required by state law, in areas where disposal alternatives are available.

Continue encouraging cities and counties to expand alternatives to outdoor burning such as curbside collection.

The big picture: This region remains close to violating federal health standards for ozone each summer — and gas stations, cars and SUVs are the largest sources.

FY04 plans: Complete a project to improve gas station compliance with our requirements for recovering gasoline vapors from motor-vehicle fueling by clarifying the rules, training station operators and auditing gas station performance.

Continue a partnership with gasoline refiners and suppliers to provide special low-evaporation gasoline in summer. Continue partnerships with organizations encouraging people to buy fuel-efficient cars such as hybrids.

The big picture: Reducing greenhouse gases also reduces fine particles, carbon monoxide, air toxics and other pollutants.

FY04 plan: Continue to develop a greenhouse-gas reduction program by convening a stakeholders group to develop recommendations for a regional goal for greenhouse-gas reductions and local strategies to achieve that goal.

The big picture: Regulating industry takes a big chunk of the budget to ensure continued success (industry now contributes less than 5 percent of air pollution).

FY04 plan: Complete a review of the registration program that asks: "Are we regulating the right businesses and industries? Do we need to add categories and eliminate other categories that are no longer a significant problem?" We will then make program changes to improve effectiveness and service to our customers.

Smog: The downside of summer sunlight

Hot summer days combined with heavy traffic can lead to ozone, the primary component of smog. Ozone hurts everyone’s health and especially hurts children, senior citizens, people with lung ailments and outdoor exercisers. Also, we remain close to exceeding the federal health standard for ozone, which could trigger expensive regulatory requirements and affect economic growth.

The biggest cause of ozone: gasoline-fueled vehicles. They emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs), the main ingredient in ozone formation. The other top contributors are fumes from paint and exhaust from gasoline-fueled yard equipment such as mowers, trimmers and leaf blowers.

When our air forecasters predict summertime air pollution rising to unhealthy levels, we issue a Smog Watch through the Clean Air Network (go to http://www.pscleanair.org/news/agencynews.aspx to subscribe). The Smog Watch is a call-to-action encouraging individuals, businesses and local governments to reduce their smog-producing activities.

How businesses, cities and counties can help during a Smog Watch

Encourage ridesharing, carpooling and telecommuting.
Postpone jobs using small gasoline-powered equipment, especially two-cycle equipment such as leaf blowers, edgers and trimmers.
Encourage drivers to avoid engine idling.
Post signs at motor pool, parks maintenance and other sites about vehicle use and refueling.
Fuel vehicles and equipment in late afternoons and early evenings. [When gasoline vapors are released early in the day, they are “cooked” in the sunlight and turn into ozone/smog. Sunlight is less intense by early evening, so vapors don’t turn into ozone.]
Avoid painting until the heat wave breaks.

How individuals can help during a Smog Watch

Drive less, link trips, ride your bike, carpool or bus to work, or work at home if possible.
Refuel in the cooler evenings.
Avoid spilling gasoline whenever you refuel.
Wait until the heat wave breaks to use gasoline-powered mowers, edgers, trimmers and other yard equipment.
Let us know if you see gas-station pumps that spill gasoline or release vapors.
Avoid painting until the heat wave breaks.

What would you say is the #1 cause of smog?

[ ] A. factories—— [ ] B. wood smoke—— [ ] C. cars

The answer is C. Gasoline-powered passenger vehicles account for one third of smog-forming pollution in this region. Fortunately, technology offers some solutions and alternatives.

Gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles* have been getting a lot of press lately, and thankfully so. They boast many of the same amenities and features of your average compact car, while producing just 10 percent of the emissions.

Ranked highly by Car and Driver, the Toyota Prius and Honda Civic Hybrid are popular models you can find at dealers today. Finally, both air-friendly emissions and a stylish ride are possible.

— Richard Wisti

Online resources:

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/question262.htm
http://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles

Hot partnerships hose down illegal outdoor fires

FIRE!!! Who do you call for help? The fire department. And if it’s an outdoor fire, you are actually reaching both the fire department and the Clean Air Agency with one call.

One call does it all because the Clean Air Agency and most fire departments have been working together on outdoor burning issues for more than ten years. Guiding the partnerships are signed-and-sealed agreements about responsibilities in the areas of public education, permitting and enforcement.

The agreements say that fire departments issue most outdoor-burning permits (usually for rural areas only) and educate the public about illegal practices. If things get out of hand, fire crews investigate. If “out of hand” means illegal, the fire crew explains state regulations or gives a verbal warning. If the fire department thinks a situation is really out of hand and more is needed, it asks a Clean Air Agency inspector to step in and issue a written warning or Notice of Violation of clean air standards. The notice can lead to a fine. And, of course, if an outdoor fire gets way out of hand, firefighters respond.

Fire departments like this approach because the agreements

keep them in the driver’s seat for managing outdoor fires.
let them decide who should get warnings or penalties based on their knowledge of their own communities.
allow them to request reimbursement from the Clean Air Agency for expenses associated with investigating illegal fires.

The Clean Air Agency likes this cooperative approach because the agreements

expand its presence “in the field” — fire departments provide quick, round-the-clock responses to smoke complaints or illegal fires.
have resulted in fewer illegal outdoor fires than in the past.
keep the agency from being an intermediary between the public and fire departments (we continue to handle agricultural burning, firefighter training burns and other special permits).

The latest product of these working partnerships is a colorful brochure about state regulations. Key points: outdoor burning is illegal in many areas; fines are up to $13,000 a day for illegal fires; using a burn barrel, burning banned materials or smoking out neighbors are all illegal; and the local fire department must always be contacted before lighting any outdoor fire.

Visit http://www.pscleanair.org/actions/outdoorfires/default.aspx to read or download a PDF version of the brochure.

News in Brief: New e-mail service brings more choices

We’ve upgraded our e-mail news services. You now can go to one page and sign up for one to five topics: the Clean Air Network (air stagnation, burn ban and Smog Watch notices), the online version of this newsletter, burn ban notifications, regulation updates and permitting updates. You can also change your interest areas. Visit http://www.pscleanair.org/news/agencynews.aspxl for details.

Go online and tell us how to improve our Web site

The Clean Air Agency is embarking on a project to upgrade its Web site. We invite you to give us feedback by surfing to [Sept. 30 update: survey is closed] and filling out the brief questionnaire. We’ll also conduct focus groups and get suggestions from our Board of Directors, Advisory Council and staff as we look for ways to make the Web site more useful to our customers.

Partnership leads to first “State of the Air” report about Washington

We partnered with the American Lung Association of Washington to produce its first State of the Air in Washington report on May 1. It focused on the top issues in this state — fine particles and toxics — to provide a broader perspective when the National Lung Association issued its annual state-of-the-air report, also on May 1. That report focused just on ozone data that is several years old.

ALAW’s report used 2002 data collected from the state Department of Ecology and local air agencies. The report received widespread print and broadcast coverage. Visit www.alaw.org to learn more or download the report.

About the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency

The mission of the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency is to ensure that people in King, Kitsap, Pierce and Snohomish counties have clean, healthy air to breathe. Our job is to provide air quality management services on behalf of cities and counties for their citizens. We do this by adopting and enforcing air quality regulations, sponsoring voluntary initiatives to improve air quality, and educating people and businesses about clean-air choices. To learn more about our work, visit us at www.pscleanair.org.