WHAT’S EXCEPTIONAL? STATE EFFORTS TO MEET CLEAN AIR STANDARDS THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 2020 3:00 PM ET / 2:00 PM CT / 1 PM MT / NOON PT
2020 SPRING WEBINAR SERIES Hosted by NCSL’s Natural Resources and Infrastructure Committee Who Decides a State’s Energy Mix? New WOTUS Rule & States Response to Jurisdictional Changes Solar on Agricultural Lands – Preserving Pollinator Habitat and Soil Health State Legislative Trends: Traffic Safety What’s Exceptional? State Efforts to Meet Clean Air Standards For more information on the webinars, and how to view past webinars visit NCSL’s Webpage
SPEAKERS Mike Koerber Beth Palma Mary Uhl Brad Busby Deputy Director of Group Leader for Executive Director, Air Monitoring and Policy, Office of Air Geographic Strategies Western States Air Assessment Manager, Quality Planning and Group, Office of Air Resources Council Arizona Department of Standards, U.S. Quality Planning and Environmental Quality Environmental Standards, U.S. Protection Agency Environmental Protection Agency
Overview of the Exceptional Events Program Beth Palma U.S. EPA Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards National Conference of State Legislatures June 18, 2020
5 Co Contents • Exceptional Events • 2016 Exceptional Events Rule Revisions • Exceptional Events Process • Exceptional Events Update • Key Messages For illustration and discussion purposes only
6 Excepti tional E Events ts • Unusual or naturally occurring events that can affect air quality but are not reasonably controllable using techniques that tribal, state or local air agencies may implement to attain and maintain the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) • Must cause an exceedance or lead to a violation of a NAAQS; and • Affect a regulatory determination For illustration and discussion purposes only
7 Examples of Exceptional Events
8 2016 Ex Exce ceptional E Events R Rule Revi visions • On September 16, 2016, the EPA finalized the 2016 Revisions to the Exceptional Events Rule , which address issues raised by stakeholders to reduce unnecessary burden and increase the administrative efficiency of the exceptional events demonstration process • Overarching goal was to improve the demonstration development and review process by improving communications, providing recommendations for demonstration narrative and analyses to include in demonstration packages, providing needed clarity in the rule and increasing administrative efficiency of demonstration submittal process • https://www.epa.gov/air-quality-analysis/treatment-data-influenced-exceptional-events • General Exceptional Events Rule Overview • Establishes procedures and criteria for identifying and evaluating air quality monitoring data affected by exceptional events • Provides a mechanism by which air quality data can be excluded from regulatory decisions and actions • Applies to all criteria pollutants and NAAQS and all event types to which the rule applies • Applies to all state air agencies, to (delegated) local air agencies, to tribal air agencies that operate air quality monitors that produce regulatory data and to federal land managers/federal agencies if agreed by the state • Affects design value calculations, NAAQS designation decisions, attainment determinations, and State/Tribal/ Federal Implementation Plan (SIP/FIP/TIP) development For illustration and discussion purposes only
9 Excepti tional Events ts P Process Event occurs that leads to Air agency notifies If EPA concurs, data exceedance or EPA and works with receive EPA reviews the violation of NAAQS EPA Region to concurrence flags demonstration AND has regulatory prepare/submit in the Air Quality significance - data demonstration System database flagged For illustration and discussion purposes only
10 Ex Exce ceptional Events U Update • EPA has concurred on 34 state demonstrations that were submitted since EPA revised the Exceptional Events Rule in September 2016 • Guidance documents to help right-size demonstrations and facilitate the exceptional events process: • Wildfire Guidance (September 2016) • Stratospheric Ozone Intrusion Guidance (November 2018) • Updated High Wind Dust Event Guidance (April 2019) • Clarification Memo on Data Modification (April 2019) • Prescribed Fire Guidance (August 2019) • Electronic tracking and submission system for exceptional events demonstrations is under development with deployment planned in Summer 2020 • EPA’s exceptional events webpage provides additional resources, including example demonstrations for Ozone and PM • https://www.epa.gov/air-quality-analysis/treatment-air-quality-data-influenced-exceptional- events For illustration and discussion purposes only
11 Key ey M Messages es • EPA’s intent with the 2016 revisions to the Exceptional Events Rule was to address issues raised by stakeholders and reduce the burden of the demonstration process while continuing to protect public health • Early coordination and communication between EPA and air agencies is critical to ensure that benefits of the rule are achieved • EPA continues to seek feedback and opportunities to streamline the implementation process – our goal is continuous improvement • EPA’s exceptional events webpage provides key resources and will be updated as new materials become available For illustration and discussion purposes only
12 Question ons Denise Scott scott.denise@epa.gov (919) 541-4280 Beth Palma palma.elizabeth@epa.gov (919) 541-5432 For illustration and discussion purposes only
Exceptional Events in the West Mary Uhl, WESTAR NCSL Webinar June 18, 2020
WESTAR and WRAP region
What is important to know about Exceptional Events? • Clean Air Act and EPA regulations rely heavily upon monitored air quality data to characterize the attainment of National Ambient Air Quality Standards. • The Clean Air Act recognizes that some monitor data may not be appropriate to characterize the air quality of a city or region when that data is influenced by “exceptional” events that are not otherwise controllable. Events may be human-caused or natural. • EPA has developed a regulation specifying how states may identify monitor data influenced by exceptional events, exclude that data and protect public health from unhealthy levels of air pollution during these events.
State/Tribal/Local Air Agencies and Exceptional Events in the West • Typical Exceptional Events in the west include wildfire, prescribed and agricultural fire, stratospheric ozone intrusion and high wind dust events • Air agencies have to make decisions about what days to request to exclude based on the nonattainment status of the area, regulatory impact, agency resources available and whether there is sufficient evidence • Multiple state impacts from exceptional events are possible; coordination of state demonstrations is complex • Exceptional event demonstrations are becoming a larger part of the workload for state/local/tribal air agencies for a number of reasons
Wildfire Ozone Exceptional Event-Enumclaw, WA- July 5, 2015 Boulder Creek Fire Elaho Fire Impacted Ozone Monitor
February 12, 2018 Western Governors’ Association letter to EPA Asst. Admin. Bill Wehrum – Exceptional Events “Exceptional event demonstrations are resource-intensive, costly and place a significant burden on strained state resources, especially when EPA does not review these state submissions in a timely manner. EPA should streamline the process for exceptional event demonstrations, provide additional technical tools for states and allocate resources to review state demonstrations.”
Western Technical Needs for Exceptional Events Patterns and Impacts Tracking and of Global Air Analysis of Pollution Transport Fire and Smoke to the West Impacts Patterns and Tracking and Impacts of Analysis of Dust Stratospheric Emissions due to Ozone a Changing Intrusions Climate 20
Technical Needs for Understanding Global Transport and Western Impacts WRAP Ozone/multi-pollutant studies and Patterns and Impacts Regional Haze planning of Global Air Pollution Transport to the West 21
Technical Needs for Fire and Smoke Impacts Western regional analysis Fire Emissions Tracking System Tracking and WRAP Fire Tools Analysis of Fire and Smoke Impacts 22
Technical Needs for Ozone Intrusion Impacts Western regional meteorological analysis WRAP Ozone transport and modeling studies Patterns and Impacts of Stratospheric Ozone Intrusions 23
Technical Needs for High Wind Dust Events Tracking and Analysis of Dust Western regional analysis Emissions due to Regional Haze planning studies a Changing Climate 24
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