WESTAR Technical Committee conference call notes

May 25, 2005

Members present:

John Coefield MT Co-chair

Brock LeBaron UT Co-chair

Alan Shuler AK

Bob Lebens WESTAR

Jason Knapp SD

Mike Sundbloom AZ
Mike George NPS

Mike Ragan WA

Patrick Barrickman UT

Phil Allen OR

Scott Archer BLM

Steve Arnold CO

Spring WESTAR Business Meeting report

Brock reported that the committee report received a good reception at the meeting in Juneau and the Air Managers reinforced the need for the continued operation of the committee. The Air Managers tasked the committee with taking up the PSD increment tracking issue again now that the policy group has finished up their initial work and the WESTAR recommendation had been issued. The council would like the committee to start working on some of the technical issues of increment consumption that had been discussed at the September 2003 PSD workshop. Bob Lebens asked for the formation of a sub-committee to take up that task and the members of the group will be:

PSD-technical subcommittee roster

John Coefield MT

Brock LeBaron UT

Phil Allen OR

Scott Archer BLM

First conference call was scheduled for Wednesday June 1 at 3PM PDT.

Brock said that climate change was also discussed at the Business Meeting and two invited scientists in the field made presentations. Several states discussed what they were doing to address green house gas emissions.

Modeling conference report

Alan Shuler presented his report on the Federal/State/local Dispersion modeling conference. (See Alan’s report at WESTAR.org) Of note: There was a presentation of the North Dakota PSD issue made by Kevin Golden and the Regional Modelers are not generally supportive of the approach taken.

Alan’s written summary of the conference is available on the WESTAR web site in the Committee documents.

WESTAR representative to the OAQPS modeling work group.

Bob Lebens reported that OAQPS was requesting participation in a replacement for SAMWG and that the issue would be on the agenda for the Air Directors in the June conference call.

Nomination of a new co-chair

John Coefield thanked Brock LeBaron for his two year’s service to the committee and asked for nomination for a new co-chair to serve for the next two years.

Phil Allen was nominated by Brock and accepted with some reservations about his availability. The committee unanimously confirmed him.

Workgroup reports:

Ozone: Steve Arnold had taken over the lead of this group from Mary Uhl, who has taken on new responsibilities as the NM acting chief. Steve reported on the previous day’s conference call and work on a RFP for a contractor. The final RFP will be ready for the Air Directors’ June Call. Bob Lebens will carry the issue to the council. The initial cost ceiling is $20k but the RFP will request a supplementary project proposal for additional work if more $$ becomes available, possible from SEP money in Colorado.

GIS: Patrick Barickman reported that the deadline for answers to the survey posted on the WESTAR web site was May 27 and that staff from Arizona will be summarizing the answers in a spreadsheet format. The next meeting will be in July with some recommendation based on the survey results expected by the end of summer.

WRAP Forum reports:

In/Near: John Coefield said that the forum was reviewing SIP plans for non-attainment areas near Class I airsheds. Emission Inventory: Brock said that they were in the final review phase of the EDMS system and that fire emissions were going in now.

Other:

Jason Knapp asked about a USFWS project to create a 5 year MM5 data base for the Continental US at a 36 KM grid size. Mike George will follow up.

The next call will be June 29th at 2:00 MDT