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COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

2

3 In the Matter of: )

)

4 PUBLIC HEARING ON PROPOSED )

REVISIONS TO THE NATIONAL )

5 AMBIENT AIR QUALITY STANDARDS )

FOR OZONE )

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7

8

BEFORE THE EPA PANEL MEMBERS:

9

William Niebling

10 Mark Hansen

Heather Simon

11 Scott Jenkins

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23 Pages: 1 through 351

24 Place: Arlington, Texas

25 Date: January 29, 2015
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COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 INDEX

JANUARY 29, 2015

2

Proceedings .......................................... 8

3

Opening Statement by Mr. Niebling..................... 8

4

5 LIST OF SPEAKERS: PAGE

6 Lyndsay Moseley .......................................13

7 Ted Steichen ........................................ 16

8 Nicole Downey .........................................20

9 Luke Metzger ..........................................26

10 Neil Carman ...........................................30

11 Sharon Wilson .........................................33

12 Trisha Sheehan ........................................36

13 Wendy Bredhold ...................................... 40

14 Molly Rauch ......................................... 43

15 Frank O'Donnell .......................................47

16 Lindsay Pace ..........................................50

17 Melanie Oldham ........................................53

18 Elena Craft ......................................... 55

19 Jacob Arechiga ...................................... 59

20 Sarah Davenport ..................................... 63

21 Christian Stumpf ......................................66

22 Patricia Brown ...................................... 68

23 Keith Annis ......................................... 71

24 Rebecca Wooten ........................................74

25 Cherelle Blazer ..................................... 75
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COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 INDEX (continued)

2 Lynn Weathersby .......................................78

3 Ingrid Kelley .........................................79

4 Joan Sandstrom ........................................81

5 Christina Wisdom ......................................84

6 Christine Guldi ..................................... 88

7 Richard Guldi .........................................89

8 Susybelle Gosslee .....................................91

9 Zac Trahan ............................................95

10 Corey Troiani .........................................99

11 Susan Pacheco ........................................103

12 Hector Rivero ........................................107

13 John Kissel ..........................................110

14 Virginia Fugman .................................... 114

15 Madison Griffin ......................................115

16 Liz Wally .......................................... 118

17 Rachel Baker Ford ....................................121

18 Laura Paul ...........................................125

19 Tyler Paul ...........................................127

20 Juan Ramirez .........................................129

21 Stephen Webster ......................................134

22 Jim Schermbeck .......................................137

23 Sarah Sharif ....................................... 141

24 Grace Darling ........................................143

25 Helen Bush ...........................................143
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COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 INDEX (continued)

2 Berta McLemore ..................................... 147

3 Andy Wilson ..........................................149

4 Mary Goodman .........................................151

5 Susan Cooper ....................................... 152

6 Lawrence Goodman .....................................155

7 Al Braden .......................................... 156

8 Tom Smitty Smith .....................................162

9 David Brymer ....................................... 165

10 Robert Harris ........................................170

11 David Martineau .................................... 173

12 Susan Lippman ........................................177

13 Antonio Gonzalez .....................................178

14 Darel Smith ........................................ 180

15 Alice Canestaro-Garcia ...............................181

16 Steve Everley ........................................184

17 Dona Upson ...........................................188

18 Whitney Pearson ......................................193

19 Kamene Domubai-Ogidi ............................... 194

20 Molly Rooke ........................................ 198

21 Robert Haley ....................................... 199

22 Don Jaquess ..........................................203

23 Jeralynn Jackee Cox ..................................207

24 Susan Brown ........................................ 209

25 Ken Sambell ..........................................211
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COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 INDEX (continued)

2 Caroline Vornberg .................................. 212

3 Byron Mathis ....................................... 213

4 Sandra DenBraber .....................................218

5 David Griggs ....................................... 221

6 Erin Monroe Wesley ................................. 224

7 Sue Pope .............................................228

8 Eileen Brown ....................................... 231

9 Sara Campbell ........................................233

10 Reggie James ....................................... 236

11 Faith Chatham ........................................240

12 Margaret DeMoss .................................... 245

13 Harriet Irby .........................................248

14 Kim Feil .............................................251

15 Zachary Craft ........................................255

16 Scott Johnson ........................................259

17 Bob Fazen .......................................... 262

18 Sandra Breakfield ....................................265

19 Linda Cooke ........................................ 266

20 Sharon Glenn Speiss ..................................268

21 Jim Moffett ..........................................270

22 Tammy Carson ....................................... 273

23 Bob Fusinato ....................................... 275

24 Elizabeth Hendler ....................................277

25 Terry Burns ........................................ 281
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COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 INDEX (continued)

2 John MacFarlane ......................................284

3 Mahdi Ahmadi ....................................... 287

4 Anne Morton ..........................................291

5 Sister Elizabeth Riebschlaeger .......................292

6 Sonja Arnquist ..................................... 298

7 Shammara Norris .................................... 302

8 Jane Lynn ............................................306

9 Scott Berthel ........................................309

10 Sally Berthel ........................................312

11 Marshall Smith ..................................... 313

12 Becky Bornhorst .................................... 316

13 Carol Soph ...........................................317

14 Ed Soph ..............................................319

15 Ranjana Bhamdari .....................................320

16 Wendi Hammond ........................................323

17 Calvin Tillman .......................................327

18 Christine Walker .....................................329

19 Rita Beving ..........................................332

20 Tane Ward ............................................335

21 Terence Thorn ........................................337

22 Kim Limberg ..........................................340

23 Dwayne Quertermous ................................. 345

24 Jimmy Hosch ........................................ 347

25 John Burton ..........................................349
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COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 INDEX (continued)

2 Reporter's Certificate ...............................351

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COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 P R O C E E D I N G S

2 (On the record at 9:02 a.m.)

3 MR. NIEBLING: Good morning, everyone.

4 Welcome. My name is William Niebling, and I am the

5 chair of today's public hearing. Thank you for coming

6 today. It's 9:00 o'clock. I think we're going to get

7 started. On the panel here today are Scott Jenkins,

8 Heather Simon, and Mark Hansen, all of us from the EPA's

9 Office Air Quality Planning and Standards.

10 We're here today to listen to your comments

11 on proposed revisions to the National Ambient Air

12 Quality Standards for Ozone. (Placing microphone in

13 front of him.) Is this a little better? We're here

14 today the listen to your comments on proposed revisions

15 to the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone.

16 EPA announced this proposal rule on November 25, 2014

17 and published it in the Federal Register on December 17, 

18 2014.

19 EPA's proposal is based on extensive

20 scientific evidence about ozone's effects on public

21 health and welfare. The proposed updates will improve

22 public health protection, particularly for children, the

23 elderly, and people of all ages who have lung diseases

24 such as asthma as well as improve public welfare

25 protection, particularly related to ozone-sensitive
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1 trees and other plants in protected forested ecosystems,

2 such as national wilderness areas.

3 We have proposed to strengthen both the

4 primary ozone standard to protect public health, and the

5 secondary ozone standard to protect public welfare. We

6 are proposing to set the levels of the primary and the

7 secondary standards in a range from 65 to 70 parts per

8 billion. These standards would be met when the

9 three-year average of the annual fourth-highest daily

10 maximum eight-hour average ozone concentration is at or

11 below the new level.

12 The proposal would also extend the ozone

13 monitoring season for many states and update the Air

14 Quality Index to ensure people are informed about their

15 air quality. These proposed standards do not establish

16 emission control requirements for any particular

17 industry. Each state, as needed, will determine how to

18 best meet the standards in a way that makes the most

19 sense for that area. States will have time to develop

20 and implement plans to meet revised standards. Existing

21 and proposed federal rules will help the vast majority

22 of areas meet the proposed standards by 2025.

23 I'd like to thank you for taking time out

24 of your day today to join us and share your comments.

25 We will accept comments on all aspects of the proposal,
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COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 including on retaining the existing standards. Before

2 we get started, I'd like to go through a few

3 housekeeping items and ground rules that will help make

4 today's hearing run smoothly.

5 First, please be sure you have checked in

6 at the registration desk even if you're not planning to

7 speak today. And if you signed up to speak online or by

8 phone but haven't told us that you're here, please step

9 out to the registration desk and let the EPA staff there

10 know that you've arrived.

11 So here's how today's hearing will work:

12 I'll call speakers up the pairs. When your name is

13 called, please come to the table at the front of the

14 room and remain at the table until both speakers have

15 completed their comments. When I call on you to speak,

16 please state your name and spell it for the court

17 reporter. Your comments will be transcribed and

18 included in the official record of comments or docket on

19 the proposed rule. The spelling of your name is very,

20 very helpful for our court reporter, so please remember

21 to do that.

22 Each speaker will have five minutes to give

23 your comments. We have a light here to help you know

24 how much time you have left to speak. When the light

25 turns from green to yellow, that means you have one
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COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 minute remaining. When it turns red, that's a signal to

2 wrap up your testimony. The light will flash red and

3 beep when you have spoken for five minutes and it is

4 time to stop. When you have finished speaking, please

5 remain at the table until the person next to you has

6 completed his or her testimony. We're here to listen to

7 you today; however, a panel member may ask questions to

8 clarify your comments. After you completely finished

9 speaking, I will then call up the next person and so on

10 and so forth.

11 If you have a written copy of your

12 testimony, please give it to the staff at the

13 registration desk before you leave today. We'll put any

14 written comments submitted today in the official docket

15 for the proposed rule. If you have any additional

16 comments you would like to make, you can submit them in

17 writing until March 17, 2015. Instructions for

18 submitting additional written comments are available at

19 the materials table near the registration desk.

20 The scheduled hearing will continue until

21 7:30 p.m. tonight. We will take a lunch break around

22 1:00 p.m. and then will continue straight through until

23 7:30. In addition, we may take occasional short breaks

24 throughout the day. We will keep you posted as the day

25 goes on. If you have any questions during the day,
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COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 please see the staff at the registration desk and

2 someone will try to help you.

3 Finally, I'd like to ask each of you to be

4 respectful of everyone who speaks today. We have people

5 with a wide variety of views in the audience, and we

6 want to hear from all of you. So we can do that, and to

7 be fair to everyone, we ask that everyone listen

8 quietly. Even applause can slow things down, and we

9 want to hear from everyone who has signed up to speak.

10 If you have signs, please stand at the back of the room.

11 So with that, thank you again for taking

12 the time today to share your comments. We'll get

13 started. The first two people I'd like to call up are

14 Lyndsay Moseley and Ted Steichen. Thank you.

15 THE REPORTER: I'm sorry, can I ask you a

16 question? So are you-all going to be speaking a lot

17 throughout today because I can barely hear you.

18 MR. NIEBLING: No, we are not.

19 THE REPORTER: Okay. I just wanted to ask.

20 MR. NIEBLING: I'll try to get closer to

21 the microphone.

22 THE REPORTER: I didn't know that y'all

23 were going to -- she just told me that it was going to

24 be that desk (pointing) and everybody would be going

25 over there. I didn't know you were going to have your
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COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 back to me.

2

3 names.

4

5

MR. NIEBLING: No. We're just calling

THE REPORTER: Okay. Thank you.

MS. MOSELEY: Good morning. Thank you for

6 the opportunity to speak today in support of a stronger

7 National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone. My

8 name is Lyndsay Moseley Alexander. I'm the vice

9 president, assistant vice president, and national

10 healthy air campaign director for the American Lung

11 Association.

12 The American Lung Association is the

13 nation's oldest voluntary organization. Our mission is

14 to save lives by improving lung health and preventing

15 lung disease. Strengthening the ozone is our standard

16 to the most protective level recommended by the

17 scientists would bring about significant decreases in

18 asthma attacks, coughing and wheezing, missed school and

19 workdays, and more.

20 When smog triggers asthma attacks, it sends

21 children and adults to the emergency department. The

22 sad truth, some of them don't make it home. Newer

23 evidence warns that inhaling dangerous smog worsens

24 heart disease and causes harm to the central nervous

25 system and increases the risk of low birth weight in
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COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 newborns. With health risks like these, it's no wonder

2 that, during this period, you will hear from doctors,

3 nurses, and other health professionals, as well as

4 parents concerned for the health of their kids.

5 Around noon today, you will hear from

6 Tyler, a 12-year-old boy. He has asthma, and he wants

7 you to understand what it's like when he can't breathe

8 on bad air days. You will also hear from his mom about

9 how frightening it is to rush him to the hospital.

10 They've learned to manage their asthma the best they

11 can, and what they can't control is outdoor air

12 pollution which triggers asthma attacks.

13 I urge you to listen to these stories and

14 remember their faces. These are the people Congress had

15 in mind when they wrote a past Clean Air Act. I also

16 urge you to listen to the scientists. The Clean Air Act

17 requires you to set air quality standards that protect

18 health with a margin of safety and keep those standards

19 up to date with regular scientific reviews. You know

20 that, this is why we're having this conversation.

21 When the independent health experts on your

22 Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee wrapped up their

23 most recent review of more than 2,000 studies, they

24 concluded unanimous that the current standard for

25 75 parts per billion is inadequate and must be
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COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 strengthened. The scientific message was clear, that

2 you must set a standard between 60 and 70 parts per

3 billion, but more specifically, I call your attention to

4 this comment from CASAC. The recommended -- to lower

5 that from 60 parts per billion would certainly offer

6 more public health protection than levels of 70 or

7 levels of 65 and would provide an adequate margin of

8 safety.

9 Based on the scientific evidence and the

10 requirements of the law, the American Lung Association

11 strongly urges EPA to adopt the most protective standard

12 recommended by the scientists of 60 parts per billion.

13 By EPA's own analysis, a standard set at 60 will prevent

14 up to 7900 premature deaths, 1.8 million asthma attacks

15 in children, and 1.9 million missed school days each

16 year.

17 Congress wisely required the EPA to set the

18 quality standards with this one purpose: To protect

19 public health with an adequate margin of safety. The

20 clear intent of congress, the standard be based on

21 health protection has been affirmed by the unanimous

22 decision of the Supreme Court. The health-based

23 standard is a cornerstone in the Clean Air Act, and it

24 grants every person in this room and every person across

25 this nation the right to know the truth about the air
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COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 quality and whether or not it's dangerous when we inhale

2 it.

3 To set the standard based on any other

4 criteria such as cost or feasibility is not only

5 illegal, but it would result in a standard that misleads

6 the American people and provides a false sense of

7 security that the air they breathe is safe when it might

8 not be. With the more protective smog standard, the sky

9 is not falling, as some might have you believe today.

10 On the contrary, the sky is clear and American families

11 across the country will breathe easier.

12 On behalf of the American Lung Association,

13 thank you again for the opportunity to speak. I urge

14 you to heed the scientific consensus, follow the law,

15 and deliver the long overdue public health protections

16 we deserve. Anything less short-changes our health and

17 the health of our children. Thank you.

18 MR. NIEBLING. How's that?

19 THE REPORTER: I can't hear. It could be

20 louder. That would be great if they can speak into the

21 mike.

22 MR. STEICHEN: All right. Good morning.

23 I'm Ted Steichen, and that's S-T-E-I-C-H-E-N, and I'm

24 the senior policy advisor with the American Petroleum

25 Institute. API has over 625 oil and natural gas
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COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 companies, leaders in technology-driven industry, that

2 supply most of Americans energy supporting 9.8 million

3 jobs, 8 percent of U.S. economy, and since 2000, nearly

4 2 trillion dollars in U.S. capital projects depends all

5 forms of energy through the alternatives.

6 API's member companies are in all aspects

7 of the oil and gas industry and operate facilities and

8 produce products that are impacted by these regulations.

9 The oil and gas industry has made significant

10 contributions to cleaner air. Since 1990, the oil and

11 gas industries invested more than 284 billion dollars in

12 improving products and processes. The American's

13 abundance supply of natural gas contributed to lower

14 criteria and greenhouse gas emissions.

15 A combination of cleaner gasoline and

16 diesel fuels, modernized equipment and facilities, and

17 more fuel efficient vehicles have helped reduce

18 submissions of air pollution by 62 percent between 1980

19 and 2013 even as vehicle miles traveled over 95 percent.

20 Progress is clear, ozone concentration is -- under the

21 current rules have dropped by 18 percent since 2000.

22 These improvements are impressive and will continue.

23 In 2008, the ozone standards were set at

24 the most stringent levels ever, and these standards are

25 only now being implemented by states and businesses.
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COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 Ironically, some of the guidance to meet those 2008

2 standards is still under review by the Obama

3 Administration's Office of Management and Budget and has

4 not been released to help the states meet those current

5 standards.

6 Nonetheless, EPA has now proposed to

7 tighten those standards. Okay, thank you. Looking to

8 tighten those standards -- if the EPA chooses to

9 unnecessarily lower the ozone standards, hundreds of

10 billions of dollars of annual U.S. economic output in

11 millions of jobs could be lost. The degree and range of

12 potential impacts from any change in the standards

13 highlight the need for robust debate about the science

14 to be used and justified in these standards.

15 Regarding the proposal, EPA offers four

16 points that we believe should guide the EPA

17 administrators' decision-making process. First, new

18 ozone standards are simply not needed. A careful

19 analysis of the health studies indicates the current

20 standards at 75 ppb are working to protect air quality

21 and public health. We urge the agency to carefully

22 review our detailed comments that will be submitted in

23 writing during this period. We're going to highlight

24 the limitations and the lack of significance in those

25 health studies.
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COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 Second, the 2008 standards have not been

2 met across a vast portion of the country. From a public

3 policy perspective, it makes no sense to impose new

4 requirements on states and businesses until further

5 progress is made towards achieving compliance with these

6 present standards. Third, the negative environment --

7 the negative economic effects of a lower ozone standard

8 could have such an effect on business and families that

9 the EPA would be doing more harm than good in adopting

10 them.

11 Depending on the level selected, decreasing

12 the ozone standards would put almost the entire country

13 out of compliance. Specifically, standards at 65 ppb

14 would lead to potential nonattainment areas in 45 of the

15 lower 48 states. Furthermore, tightening the standards

16 could meet and cause our economy to nosedive and people

17 to lose their jobs.

18 Fourth, such standards could be virtually

19 unattainable, given the high levels of background ozone

20 which can approach 70 ppb. As proposed, the new

21 standards would impost unachievable emission judgment

22 requirements on many parts of the nation in rural and

23 undeveloped areas. Even pristine areas with no

24 industrial activities such as national parts would be

25 out of attainment. Unattainable standards are not smart
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COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 public policy or good government.

2 Together, we have made good progress in

3 cleaning up the air, and we will continue to do so with

4 the existing ozone standards. Any option to tighten

5 these standards and impose additional burdens on states,

6 localities, and businesses should be rejected. The EPA

7 administrator has a discretion to affirm the current

8 standards, and we strongly urge her to do so.

9 EPA STAFF: The mike wasn't even on.

10 MS. DOWNEY: Okay. I think the mike is on

11 now. My name is --

12 MR. NIEBLING: Can you get closer?

13 MS. DOWNEY: Okay. My name is Nicole

14 Downey. My last name, D-O-W-N-E-Y. I'm a consultant

15 for Earth System Sciences in Houston, Texas. I want to

16 thank you, EPA staff, and everyone here for taking the

17 time to organize this meeting and to hear our public

18 comments. I'm going to start out by talking a little

19 bit about background ozone. The proposed revised ozone

20 act is approaching the level of ozone that would exist

21 in the United States if all indigent sources are

22 eliminated. This means we've done a really good job of

23 cleaning up the air in our country, and now we're at the

24 point where we're mentioning the terms and we're

25 reaching the point where background ozone is going to
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COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 become a real issue in the implementation in going

2 forward with this standard.

3 The background ozone varies regionally and

4 is highest in the western United States where global

5 chemical models indicate that (inaudible) can exceed 60

6 parts per billion. Background ozone is formed by a

7 combination of natural emissions and international

8 transport. Over time, background ozone has increased

9 due to increases in the international submissions.

10 Ordered states such as Texas and California have the

11 highest impact on international emissions, and these

12 emissions are not controllable by U.S. policies.

13 It will be disproportionately difficult for

14 the ordered states in areas with high background ozone

15 to achieve lower ozone standards due to the relatively

16 smaller increment between background ozone and the ozone

17 standard. Lowering the ozone standard below 75 parts

18 per billion will, for the first time, make many rural

19 areas go into nonattainment. Throughout the ozone NAAQS

20 review cycle and in the proposed rule, EPA has argued

21 that background can be dealt with during implementation

22 and should not be considered in the NAAQS setting

23 process.

24 The EPA suggests that the current

25 provisions in the Clean Air Act can be invoked to
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COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 alleviate the burden associated with background ozone.

2 These include the exceptional advance rule, the rule

3 transport rule, and the international transport rule.

4 The EPA process to identify, flag, and ultimately

5 approve an exceptional event is time consuming and

6 burdensome to the states. With a lower NAAQS for ozone

7 standard, there will be more (inaudible) due to nonlocal

8 sources, and they essentially increase exponentially as

9 you move towards 60.

10 The number of exceptional events or

11 international transport events will increase

12 significantly, thereby increasing the burden on both the

13 states and EPA. Current state of the science modeling

14 technology is not refined enough to provide accurate

15 source proportion of the ozone per background for

16 natural and international sources. For example, there

17 is significant uncertainty in the relationship between

18 wild fire emissions and ozone attacks and different

19 parameterizations and wild fire emissions produce direct

20 -- drastically different ozone impacts. Either you can

21 have a wild fire and have zero ozone impact or a wild

22 fire and a hundred parts per billion ozone impact.

23 That's the kind of model variability that we're talking

24 about and the uncertainty that we're talking about here.

25 Stratospheric intrusions or small
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COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 tropospheric folds directly transport ozone into the

2 troposphere and many chemical transport models

3 underpredict the magnitude of the stratosphere

4 (inaudible) into the troposphere. Lighting production

5 of NAAQS is poorly understood and poorly constrained in

6 chemical transport models but can produce very large

7 increases in surface modeled ozone as has been shown in

8 several recent papers.

9 NAAQS yields in a vertical distribution of

10 NAAQS and the atmosphere remain key uncertainties here.

11 The quality of international emission inventories is

12 generally lower than domestic inventories and it is not

13 uncommon to see a factor of two uncertainties in the

14 emissions estimates. Taken together the uncertainties

15 and modeling background ozone, sources will, in part,

16 significant uncertainty on determining whether events

17 are due to background ozone. This is not a solved

18 scientific problem. It's not going to be easy to do

19 this because the science isn't there yet.

20 In the Western U.S., background ozone is

21 persistently high and (inaudible) of a lower ozone

22 standard may not be solely due to a large single source

23 event such as a stratospheric intrusion, but it will be

24 due to a combination of background sources that will not

25 be easily identifiable or distinct. The exceptional
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COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 events policy states that an exceptional event must be

2 associated with a measure of concentration in excess of

3 normal historical fluctuations, including background,

4 which will prohibit states from excluding events that

5 are above the standard but not in excess of normal

6 historical fluctuations, including background.

7 In a case of international transport,

8 significant impact remains undefined and will determine

9 whether the international transport rule will be useful

10 in addressing background ozone. In short, background

11 ozone likely will not be easily addressed during

12 implementation, and that's what I'll talk about next, it

13 should be considered in the NAAQS setting process and it

14 should be considered in the calculation of risk.

15 The RAA discusses source proportion models

16 (inaudible) that describe the relationship between

17 background ozone and ambient ozone. EPA has argued that

18 source proportionate base modeling is more appropriate

19 than the zero-out modeling that was in the ISA because

20 of background ozone because zero-out modeling results in

21 artifacts where the model background ozone is higher

22 than observations.

23 There are, however, cases where

24 anthropogenic emissions in NAAQS result in depressed

25 ambient ozone levels due to the destruction of ozone by
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COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 NAAQS. So you have a case where your modeled background

2 ozone is actually higher than your observed ozone, and

3 it's been argued that this is an artifact of the

4 zero-out modeling. In these cases, the anthropogenic

5 emissions were removed ambient ozone due to background

6 would be higher than recent conditions. This is a real

7 feature of ozones highly not -- chemistry and is not an

8 artifact of zero-out modeling. Background ozone changes

9 dynamically as it interacts with anthropogenic precursor

10 emissions.

11 Source proportionate modeling is useful to

12 estimate the fraction of current ozone due to particular

13 sources such as background. I'm almost done. As an

14 anthropogenic --

15 MR. NIEBLING: We're having to

16 accept (inaudible) --

17 MS. DOWNEY: Oh, okay. Okay. Background

18 ozone changes dynamically as it interacts with the

19 anthropogenic precursor emissions and source

20 proportionate modeling is useful to estimate the

21 (inaudible) current ozone due to particular sources such

22 as background. Zero-out modeling is useful to estimate

23 ozone levels in absence of anthropogenic emissions, but

24 these are two fundamentally different quantities. The

25 question becomes, how does one best estimate the risk in
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COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 excess of background ozone?

2 To estimate the risk in excess of

3 background, it is most appropriate to use a zero-out

4 modeling run because this represents the minimum risk

5 that is achievable by U.S. regulatory policy. The

6 analysis summarized in the fractional contribution of

7 background to observe ozone is not an appropriate

8 analysis to estimate the fraction of risk due to

9 background. EPA should conduct mortality, morbidity,

10 and welfare modeling using a time series of background

11 ozone from a zero-out run. Thank you.

12 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. And you can give

13 those to facts to the registration desk, we'll --

14 MS. DOWNEY: Okay. Thank you very much.

15 MR. METZGER: Good morning, my name is Luke

16 Metzger. I'm the director of Environment Texas. We're

17 a statewide advocate for clean air, clean water, open

18 spaces. I'm here today to urge the EPA to help protect

19 Texans' health by reducing the ozone pollution standards

20 to 60 parts per billion. Cleaning up our air is a

21 priority for Environment Texas. Our thousands of

22 members and activists around the state are threatened by

23 ozone pollution, and it's also important, personally, as

24 a dad.

25 My son, Gus, turns nine this year, and as a
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COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 dad, I want to do everything I can to make sure that his

2 health is protected, especially when he goes out and

3 plays outside. Unfortunately, two of our biggest cities

4 in Texas, Dallas and Houston, are on the top ten worst

5 cities in the country for smog pollution. According to

6 the American Lung Association, 21 of our 30 biggest

7 counties received grades of F for poor air quality, and

8 my hometown of Austin routinely experiences levels of

9 ozone pollution that the current scientific consensus

10 concludes is dangerous to our community.

11 Inhaling smog pollution is like getting a

12 sunburn on your lungs and can lead to immediate

13 breathing trouble. Long-term exposure to smog pollution

14 can -- is linked to chronic asthma and lung respiratory

15 illnesses, reproductive developmental harm, and

16 premature death. My son, Gus, spends pretty much all

17 summer long outside, so I'm running around playing

18 soccer and baseball and just being a kid. But according

19 to a study from my alma mater, USC, kids that spend --

20 in smoggy cities, active in sports activities, are three

21 times more likely to develop asthma than children living

22 in cleaner areas, and that really worries me and angers

23 me that simply going outside can lead my son to develop

24 a chronic and serious health condition.

25 Over half a million kids in Texas have
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COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 asthma, and it's the number one health cause for missed

2 school days. Those are action days. Children with

3 asthma are often forced to stay inside in order to avoid

4 aggravating their conditions, and it's not just kids and

5 the elderly people with asthma who are effected. Add a

6 smoggy day to the -- on top of the aggravation of

7 ragweed and other allergens, then you have a whole lot

8 of miserable people in Texas. Healthy Texans should not

9 be coughing and wheezing on their way to work because of

10 poor air quality.

11 The risk and exposure assessment estimates

12 that a new standard of 60 parts per billion would reduce

13 exposure to detrimental air pollutants by 95 to a

14 hundred percent compared to the current standard. It's

15 the 20 percent, so we can and should adopt a 60 parts

16 per billion standard, and I know we can do it. I mean,

17 we have. We've seen different reviews -- pollution in

18 Texas over the last decade, and we've barely scratched

19 the surface of our potential. It would not create undue

20 burden on Texas or other states to achieve the standard

21 because the technology and the funds are available,

22 including the air. We just need to use them.

23 For example, Texas power plants are the

24 national leader in nitrogen oxide pollution, but

25 cost-effective emission controls like selective
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COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 catalytic reduction and switching to cleaner forms of

2 energy like wind and solar power can reduce pollution.

3 Texas's main oil refineries and chemical plants are also

4 major sources of VOCs. And my organization, Environment

5 Texas, goes to the Sierra Club to three of these

6 facilities for violations of the Clean Air Act, and our

7 litigation has proven that these companies can

8 dramatically reduce air pollution but they'll only do so

9 when forced to have to do so. And unfortunately, the

10 state of Texas has failed to make that happen, so we're

11 really counting on the EPA to do it.

12 Oil and gas drilling is also a major source

13 of ozone pollution. A study by researchers of the

14 University of North Texas found that, while ozone

15 emissions overall are declining, near 15,000 active oil

16 and gas wells here in the DFW area, ozone emissions are

17 increasing at a much more rapid rate than areas without

18 oil and gas. We can also do more to produce pollution

19 from mobile sources. Texas' Driving a Clean Machine

20 program helps Texans repair or replace old cars that

21 don't meet emission standards.

22 In the last decade, the program has helped

23 to repair or replace about 57,000 cars and trucks, but

24 meanwhile, another 58,000 eligible vehicles have applied

25 for not received funding that could help clean up. In
30

COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 addition, the Texas legislature has left unspent about

2 $878,000,000 collected for the Texas Emission Reduction

3 Plan program. Simply spending that money would help us

4 go a long way toward achieving the 60 parts per billion

5 standard.

6 And according to the EPA, the standard

7 would annually prevent approximately 1.8 million asthma

8 attacks, 1.9 million missed school days, and prevent

9 6400 premature deaths across the country. And by

10 cleaning up or coal plants, getting rid of old cars,

11 strengthening our clean air programs, and switching to

12 cleaner energy and solar power, we can give my son and

13 sons and daughters across Texas a better shot at a

14 healthier future. Thank you.

15 MR. NIEBLING: Neil Carman and Sharon

16 Wilson.

17 MR. CARMAN: Neil Carman. I'm the clean

18 air program director for the Sierra Club chapter here in

19 Texas. We have members who have been looking for clean

20 air. We're mostly based in Dallas, Fort Worth,

21 Arlington, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, the cities with

22 the worst smog problems in the State of Texas.

23 I have a Ph.D., and I know that smog is not

24 just ozone. To deal with it, obviously, we don't go

25 after ozone. We go after all the chemicals which are
31

COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 toxic in city, gases and particles in the human lung.

2 So, I wanted to thank the EPA for being here, holding

3 this hearing, and the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex

4 because this is one of the smog capitals of Texas, along

5 with the Houston-Galveston-Missouri Area.

6 Each of those areas has about 7 million

7 people, so that's a combined population in the

8 Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex and

9 Houston-Galveston-Missouri areas of over 14 million

10 people. That's over 50 percent of the Texas population,

11 and those large urban areas have been, you know, trying

12 to deal with dirty air for over four decades. And even

13 though we've made progress, the latest medical science

14 shows that the current standard does not protect public

15 health.

16 But I do want to thank EPA for the fact

17 that the Clean Air Act is clearly working, as we see

18 reductions in Texas and across the nation and not just

19 ozone, but all the six criteria pollutants. So I think

20 this is very significant that, even with significant

21 investments in clean air technology, as Luke was

22 mentioning, that we see these dramatic declines across

23 the country. But still, we haven't gone far enough.

24 The ozone standard should have been set by

25 the former Bush EPA in 2008 at 70 parts per billion, but
32

COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 it wasn't. They went for 75 parts per billion for eight

2 hours, which is the current standard. But we know from

3 thousands of medical studies in the peer reviewed

4 scientific literature that 75 parts per billion does not

5 protect public health.

6 As a long distance athlete, I used to run

7 marathons here in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and around

8 the country and do a lot of road racing. I quit because

9 of the fact that my lungs were suffering from breathing

10 the dirty air in places like Dallas and even in the

11 wintertime, because even though there weren't ozone

12 exceed limits at that time, all of the smog forming

13 chemicals were in the air attacking my lung tissues in

14 the three hours that I was running 26.2 miles, and I

15 heard the same reports from other endurance athletes,

16 cyclists, runners, and so forth.

17 So anyway, I think we need a stricter

18 standard down to 60 parts per billion per eight hours

19 with an adequate margin of safety to protect the

20 sensitive, our children, the elderly, those with lung

21 disease, because I hear from a number of moms in the

22 Dallas area, Houston, Austin, that on high ozone days,

23 it may be -- the air may be too dirty for their children

24 to be able to play outside without having to get their

25 asthma inhalers out. And these medications that these
33

COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 children have to take can be very damaging.

2 Some of them contain hormones that can

3 actually reduce the child's growth, and so some of these

4 kids actually wind up with somewhat stunted growth in

5 order for them to be able to breathe on bad air days.

6 So, the EPA needs to adopt a much stricter standard

7 because the benefit of clean air clearly outweighs the

8 costs by a large factor, and even though industry likes

9 to complain that it's going to cost so much money, once

10 we achieve cleaner air, they brag about how well it has

11 worked. So, thank you very much.

12 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you, Neil. Sharon.

13 MS. WILSON: I'm Sharon Wilson, organizer

14 with Earthworks' Oil and Gas Accountability Project.

15 Thank you for this opportunity to speak with you today

16 about the proposed changes in the ozone standards.

17 Earthworks' Oil and Gas Accountability Project is a

18 nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people who

19 are suffering through impacts of energy extraction. Our

20 members often live within a few hundred feet of drilling

21 operations and infrastructure. I am a certified optical

22 gas imaging thermographer, and I have been using a GF320

23 camera to document -- it's not working -- to document

24 volatile organic compounds and emissions from oil and

25 gas facilities in several states.
34

COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 Ground level ozone is made when VOCs and

2 nitrogen oxides combine in sunlight. In the San Juan

3 Basin where a Delaware-sized methane cloud can be seen

4 from space, every facility I visited with the FLIR

5 camera was venting and/or leaking VOCs. In Colorado,

6 the release you see here was from a (inaudible) facility

7 adjacent to Northridge High School in Greeley.

8 The emissions are from an open storage tank

9 hatch while an oil truck was being filled. The

10 operator's explanation? That's part of the industry.

11 For that 20 to 30 minutes it takes to load a truck, the

12 hatch is open. The state regulatory agency said this

13 falls into the allowable activity category. How often

14 during the day and from how many facilities does this

15 allowable activity occur?

16 New research from the University of North

17 Texas found long-term negative effects of oil and gas

18 production activities on local and regional ozone

19 pollution. The study also found that ozone distribution

20 has been disproportionately changed and appears to be

21 linked with Barnett Shale production activities and the

22 ozone levels produced in the off season are increasing.

23 This research will be presented later today.

24 Investigations in the Eagle Ford Shale,

25 including over two years of FLIR videos, show these
35

COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 emissions are significant and ongoing. Last year, on

2 March 6th and 7th, I videoed a significant release at

3 the Marathon East Sugarloaf Eagle Ford Shale collection

4 facility in Karnes County. This facility has been a

5 chronic offender and the source of many health

6 complaints from residents who live nearby.

7 Both days, I called the Texas Commission on

8 Environmental Quality and expressed concern about the

9 magnitude of this event. The San Antonio region air

10 section refused to conduct an investigation of the

11 release, saying the agency is not required to

12 investigate a complaint from a nonresident.

13 However, (inaudible), a chemist and

14 professor at Texas A&M who can fingerprint hydrocarbons

15 that show up on the TCEQ air monitors, contacted me

16 about the videos, because he identified a hydrocarbon

17 spike on March 6th and 7th on the TCEQ air monitor in

18 Florenceville, Texas, which is 20 miles downwind from

19 the facility.

20 This puts San Antonio easily within the

21 range for impacts from Eagle Ford Shale production, and

22 we know that San Antonio already has ozone containment

23 issues. Emissions have been ongoing through the Barnett

24 Shale. This is the reason that after five years of

25 trying to get help from the State with no success,
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COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 Denton residents felt forced to ban fracking to protect

2 their families' health.

3 As these examples show, we need an ozone

4 standard to protect public health that is based on

5 science and not influenced by political pressure. EPA's

6 own science says public health will be greatly improved

7 by a 60 parts per billion ozone standard. My experience

8 with the infrared videos has shown me that states are

9 not protecting our health when it comes to air

10 emissions.

11 It is clear that accurate gauging of actual

12 emissions from -- of methane and VOCs from these

13 facilities is needed. We are depending on you to

14 protect public health fully by mandating and enforcing a

15 60 parts per billion ozone standard. And I've put about

16 60 videos and much more information on a USB that was

17 submitted. Thank you very much.

18 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you very much. Next,

19 we'd like to call Trisha Sheehan and Wendy Bredhold.

20 MS. SHEEHAN: Good morning, everyone. My

21 name is Trisha Sheehan, and I'm the northeast regional

22 (inaudible) manager with Moms Clean Air Force. We are

23 an organization of over 410,000 members nationwide,

24 united to fight to protect the air that children breath.

25 I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you today.
37

COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 I come to you not only as a representative

2 of an organization that is united to fight to protect

3 our children's health, but also as a concerned mother, a

4 mother who has watched her oldest son gasp for air

5 (inaudible). I've watched him struggling to breathe.

6 When he was one, I sat next to him in a hospital bed,

7 just prior to (inaudible), with doctors hovering over

8 him, waiting for his blood oxygen levels to improve from

9 the current rate of 70 percent at which we entered the

10 hospital.

11 I know the fear that comes over the

12 millions of mothers who are unfortunate enough to

13 witness their child struggle to take a breath. Ground

14 level ozone pollution, commonly referred to as smog,

15 triggers hundreds of thousands of episodes of asthma and

16 other respiratory ailments each year. Smog interferes

17 with lung development and can cause bronchitis and

18 pneumonia. It sends thousands of children like mine to

19 the emergency room and costs Americans billions in

20 health care costs, lost productivity, and premature

21 deaths.

22 Luckily, for us, over the past few years,

23 we were able to keep my son's breathing issues under

24 control due to advances in medicine and a few dietary

25 changes. Ironically, however, at around the same time
38

COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 that I was told I would be going to Texas to testify to

2 you all, I am reminded of why I am fighting for clean

3 air. Within the past two weeks, my now eight-year-old

4 has been struggling to breathe again. And those

5 emotions of watching you child struggle to catch his

6 breath wash over you, and you realize the fear of him

7 not being able to breathe are never far away.

8 I live in Gloucester County, New Jersey,

9 just outside of the Philadelphia area. Gloucester

10 County had the most smog alert days in 2002 in New

11 Jersey, and in 2014, received an F grade from the

12 American Lung Association for ozone pollution. In fact,

13 all but one county in my state received an F. The other

14 one county was Mercer, and it received a D.

15 Our (inaudible) county, Camden County, has

16 the second highest cancer rate due to airborne car

17 emissions than anywhere in New Jersey. (Inaudible),

18 several times about the federal health standard, which

19 would result in an additional 1,100 Camden County

20 residents developing cancer if exposed to the current

21 levels in their lifetime. It wasn't supposed to be this

22 way.

23 When Congress adopted the Federal Clean Air

24 Act in 1970, it established a goal of setting and

25 achieving air quality standards protective of human
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COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 health by 1975. Nearly three decades later, the New

2 Jersey air still frequently fails to meet established

3 smog standards. Every year, air pollution in New Jersey

4 causes more than an estimated 7800 (inaudible) emissions

5 for respiratory and cardiovascular disease. 1,000 new

6 cases of chronic disease, such as asthma and

7 (inaudible), 400,000 asthma attacks and roughly 1

8 million missed school days and workdays.

9 We must set (inaudible) for pollutants to

10 protect the health of our citizens, especially our

11 children. Decades of scientists' research links ozone

12 to asthma attacks, bronchitis, heart attacks, and

13 premature death. Elevated ozone levels can make it

14 harder for even healthy people to breathe. The EPA

15 should follow the science. The scientific records show

16 us that setting the allowable level of smog at 60 parts

17 per billion would provide the (inaudible) protections

18 for American families. The new standard would reduce

19 illnesses and hospital visits. It would improve air

20 quality and reduce health issues for New Jersey

21 residents in urban areas, such as the area where I live

22 with my family.

23 Moms around the country applaud the EPA for

24 giving us protection, but let's make sure that we are

25 protecting even the most vulnerable populations, like
40

COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 our children and the elderly. This mom is urging you to

2 protect your son's health and the right to breathe.

3 Thank you.

4 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you.

5 MS. BREDHOLD: Hello. My name is Wendy

6 Bredhold, and I'm Indiana field organizer for Moms Clean

7 Air Force. I have a three-and-a-half-year-old daughter,

8 Beatrice Rose, and we live in Evansville, Indiana, which

9 is in the southwest corner of the state within 62 miles

10 of 17 coal-fired power plants, including some of the

11 biggest and dirtiest in North America.

12 The smoke stacks of one coal plant are

13 actually visible from the daycare center on the campus

14 where I work and where she spends her days. Based on

15 the current ozone standard of 75 parts per billion, my

16 county ozone report card from the American Lung

17 Association actually worsened from 2013 to 2014 from a D

18 to an F, but I know that the current standard isn't as

19 protective as it should be. So, even on days when we're

20 told the air is only moderately polluted, most days, I

21 don't feel confident in the Air Quality Index.

22 I urge you to set the revised standard at

23 60 parts per billion and protect children who live in my

24 community. My daughter doesn't have asthma, knock wood,

25 and I hope she won't develop it, but the poor air
41

COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 quality in our area is affecting her health. As she

2 approaches her fourth birthday, how many days has she

3 played outside, breathing air that puts her health at

4 risk because current rules aren't strong enough.

5 I'm here on my daughter's behalf and also

6 on behalf of families in my community who cannot be

7 here. My friend, Lori, a teacher, and her son Max both

8 have asthma. Lori can tell when the air quality is poor

9 because she feels tightness in her lungs. She said,

10 quote, when this happens, I increase our maintenance

11 meds to double strength to help decrease inflammation

12 and avoid asthma attacks. The cost of these inhalers is

13 $300 per inhaler, monthly, and our insurance doesn't pay

14 for it. Luckily, I can get samples from the doctors

15 sometimes.

16 In addition, the rescue inhalers cost $60

17 per inhaler. On smoggy days, Lori says she and Max

18 avoid going outside except to rush to the car to go to

19 school and to work. It's worth adding, for your

20 information, that the AQI is not well communicated, at

21 least not in my community. Lori said, many times, we do

22 not receive alerts until after the air quality has

23 become hazardous, and these come to my e-mail only

24 because I've signed up for the alerts.

25 Most people in the community are not aware
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COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 when there's an alert, because it's not widely

2 announced. And I can confirm that's true. In the past,

3 I have had to inform the children's schools and daycares

4 about keeping them inside during air quality alerts, and

5 as a teacher, it has saddened me to have to keep our

6 students inside during air quality alerts on otherwise

7 beautiful days.

8 And I can sympathize with Lori on that. I

9 worry that Beatrice's daycare center is not aware of the

10 AQI, and in the past, I've seen children playing outside

11 on days when it's unhealthy for sensitive groups to

12 breathe the air.

13 Another friend, Nicole, has a

14 six-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Roxie. She has

15 suffered with asthma since she was six months old.

16 Nicole said, like many kids with chronic asthma, Roxie

17 cannot go outside with the other kids at school on many

18 days due to air pollution. She's been in and out of the

19 hospital almost every year. The medical bills are an

20 average of $2,500 to $3,000 out of pocket for

21 medication, extended hospitalization, doctor and ER

22 visits.

23 It breaks my heart that my child's

24 wellbeing depends on a combination cocktail of Singulair

25 and Zyrtec, breathing treatments, and an inhaler just to
43

COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 feel normal.

2 So, because I have only five minutes, I can

3 only relate the stories of a couple of families within

4 my circle of friends, but I ask you to keep these

5 children in mind when reviewing the ozone standard.

6 Reducing levels of smog to 60 ppb would prevent roughly

7 1.8 million asthmas attacks, 1.9 missed school days, and

8 6,400 premature deaths each year and would have a major

9 positive impact on the health of my community and

10 children like Roxie, Max, and Beatrice in a heavily

11 polluted corner of Indiana. Thank you.

12 MR. NIEBLING: Next up is Frank O'Donnell

13 and Lindsay Pace.

14 MS. RAUCH: Good morning. My name's Molly

15 Rauch. I'm with Moms Clean Air Force, a community of

16 parents fighting for clean air. On behalf of over

17 400,000 members from across the country, I want to thank

18 you for the opportunity to testify today.

19 I'm here as a public health expert to talk

20 about the health effects of smog and to respectfully

21 urge you to set the smog standard at 60 parts per

22 billion, which is more stringent than the standard you

23 proposed in November. The scientific record

24 demonstrates that this level would provide the strongest

25 public health protections for Americans.
44

COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 I want to tell a somewhat personal story as

2 a way of explaining why parents need a more stringent

3 standard. I'm a mother of three school-age children,

4 and I live in Washington, D.C., an area of the country

5 with increasingly high levels of smog. Several years

6 ago, when my children were still quite young, I

7 developed asthma-like symptoms that bothered me in the

8 summer. I soon realized that breathing smog on hot,

9 humid days likely triggered the coughing, wheezing,

10 chest tightness, and chest pain that I sometimes felt.

11 I wasn't diagnosed with asthma, but I did

12 receive a prescription for an inhaler, and I was told

13 that I was now considered among the vulnerable. What

14 did that mean? It meant that I should take precautions

15 on days with high air pollution because those days could

16 trigger the very uncomfortable symptoms that I'd started

17 to have. My lungs were sensitive, and the way to

18 protect myself as a vulnerable person was to pay

19 attention to the Air Quality Index. And so on the

20 suggestion of my doctor, I did, and I still do.

21 I make sure to avoid prolonged outdoor time

22 on high ozone days. Because I don't want my children's

23 lungs (inaudible) by smog either, I also do the same for

24 them, making sure that they go to the library instead of

25 the playground when the AQI hits orange. The AQI is a
45

COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 tool I can use as a parent to try to keep my kids and

2 myself safe.

3 The problem is that the AQI is a function

4 of the NAAQS. It represents the health determination

5 implicit in the EPA standard. If the EPA standard is

6 too lax, the AQI doesn't help parents. Parents need a

7 NAAQS that tells us the truth. Through the AQI, we rely

8 on the NAAQS to make determinations about how to care

9 for our children. We use it to keep our babies safe.

10 If the smog standard is too lax, the air

11 quality system can tell us, untruthfully, that it's safe

12 to send our kids outside to play, even when it's not.

13 We deserve to know the truth about whether the air is

14 safe to breathe. Smog at levels below 65 parts per

15 billion can harm some of the most vulnerable among us,

16 potentially people like me and my children. That's what

17 the independent Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee

18 said to your agency -- excuse me -- Clean Air Scientific

19 Advisory Committee said to your Agency based on their

20 thorough and expert review of the science.

21 Our national standard needs to reflect that

22 determination. Parents have a right to know the truth.

23 We know that breathing smog triggers asthma attacks,

24 interferes with lung development, increases lung

25 infection, increases hospital visits, and is associated
46

COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 with premature death from cardiovascular and respiratory

2 causes.

3 Breathing smog gets in the way of little

4 lungs developing properly. It exacerbates the national

5 childhood asthma epidemic, and it causes our elders

6 pain, suffering, and even death. The science is clear

7 on this issue. Study after study has shown appreciable

8 health impacts of breathing smog at levels currently

9 common in cities like Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas,

10 Phoenix, Las Vegas, New York, St. Louis, Tulsa, and I

11 could go on.

12 Right now, EPA has the opportunity to

13 protect millions of Americans from dirty air and

14 unnecessary illness. According to EPA's analysis,

15 strengthening the smog standard to the more stringent 60

16 parts per billion would confer profound health benefits

17 to Americans. At this level of protection, thousands of

18 fewer deaths, over a million fewer asthma attacks in

19 children, and over 9 million fewer restricted activity

20 days or lost school days each year.

21 The monetized benefits of this level of

22 protection in 2025 would be upwards of $37,000,000,000.

23 Profound statement, as well as profound health benefits.

24 The case I've recommended a standard in the range of 60

25 to 70 parts per billion. The case cited was clear that
47

COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 a standard of 60 parts per billion would offer more

2 public health protection than a standard of 65 or 70.

3 EPA should follow the science.

4 The scientific record shows that setting

5 the allowable level of smog at 60 would provide the

6 strongest public health protection for American

7 families. New stronger standards for smog will help

8 millions of Americans with asthma and other respiratory

9 ailments like myself breathe easier. Thank you.

10 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you.

11 MR. O'DONNELL: Hi. I'm Frank O'Donnell.

12 I'm president of Clean Air Watch, a national nonprofit

13 organization dedicated to promoting cleaner air and

14 better public health, chiefly through education. Thank

15 you for your proposal and for allowing me to speak here

16 today and for your patience this morning, because I know

17 it's a long day for you.

18 As you know, air quality standards such as

19 the one for ozone are the heart and the lungs of the

20 Clean Air Act. These standards have helped bring

21 cleaner air to north Texas and throughout the country.

22 But cleaner is not the same as clean. I'm here to

23 remind you that the current smog standards are too weak

24 to protect our health. They are too weak to protect

25 children, too weak to protect seniors, too weak to
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COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 protect the vulnerable, including millions and millions

2 with asthma, and you're hearing a lot of very telling

3 stories this morning that illustrate that very point.

4 And I also want to remind you of the vital

5 importance of alerting the breathing public when the

6 outdoor air is dangerous. Today, the so-called Air

7 Quality Index amounts to false advertising. It is based

8 on an outmoded standard. The health standard for ozone

9 must be updated, and so must the related warning system.

10 The breathing public should have the right to know if

11 the air is truly fit to breathe.

12 I hope you'll base your decision on medical

13 science, not political science. If you've got a medical

14 issue, where do you go, to a doctor or to an oil company

15 lobbyist? Based on medical science, there's no doubt

16 that the current standard is too weak. Your own

17 independent science advisors have forcefully recommended

18 tougher standards. Not only that, your advisors have

19 declared in writing that the upper standards of the

20 range of your proposal, 70 parts per billion, may be --

21 and I underscore, "may be" -- illegal because it may not

22 protect public health with an adequate marginal

23 statement.

24 To quote those science advisors, our policy

25 advice is to set the level of the standard lower than
49

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1 70 parts per billion within a range down to 60 ppb.

2 Clean Air Watch encourages you to heed that advice and

3 set a standard of 60. The level endorsed by major

4 health and medical groups, such as the American Lung

5 Association and the Americans for Asthma Society.

6 Your own analyses show that a standard of

7 60 would provide the best level of public health

8 protection. Now, it seems like only yesterday, I was

9 leadoff witness in a similar hearing on this very topic.

10 At that time, it was in Atlanta, urging the EPA to

11 update its smog standards to reflect the advice of its

12 independent science advisors and give us the right to

13 know if the outdoor air is dangerous, that we have a

14 problem with dirty air.

15 That was eight long years ago, before

16 politics intervened and then intervened again. At long

17 last, you have a chance to correct those mistakes and do

18 it right this time. Trust me, you won't have an

19 opportunity like this again any time soon. Now, we know

20 the naysayers and their political cronies and their

21 pseudo-think tank allies will come out in force and

22 proclaim cleaner air costs too much. For them, the sky

23 is always falling. The irony is, some of these very

24 folks who are saying, well, the current standard is just

25 ducky, fought bitterly against it, not that many years
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1 ago.

2 So, I want to point out, history has proven

3 the naysayers wrong time and time again when it comes to

4 this issue. As my colleague from American Lung pointed

5 out, the sky won't fall if you set tougher standards.

6 It will only get clearer and cleaner. Thank you again

7 for your time.

8 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you very much. Next

9 up, we have Lindsay Pace and Elena Craft.

10 MS. PACE: Good morning. My name is

11 Lindsay Megan Pace, and I'm a Tennessee field organizer

12 for Moms Clean Air Force in my state. I represent over

13 6,000 members and their families from the great

14 Volunteer State. We're a community of parents that are

15 unified in the knowledge that air pollution is affecting

16 not only our children's health but also their futures.

17 I stand here today as a mom, a former

18 teacher, and a longtime advocate for our youngest

19 citizens. I am speaking on behalf of their collective

20 voices, for our children are the ones who bear the brunt

21 of avoidable air toxins like smog. My family lives in

22 Chattanooga, a city that is steeped in the history of

23 industrial pollution.

24 In 1969, the EPA stated that Chattanooga

25 was the most polluted city in America. The citizens
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COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 were exposed to high levels of particulate matter and

2 smog due to unregulated emissions from industry, coke

3 foundries, and railroads. The topography of Chattanooga

4 compounds these problem because it becomes trapped in

5 our valley.

6 Through my work, I had the opportunity to

7 listen to the stories of Chattanoogans who grew up in

8 the age of unrestricted air pollution. While each story

9 is unique, their sentiment is always the same. They

10 literally saw their city transformed through aggressive

11 city legislation, coupled with the Clean Air Act.

12 Sometimes, I am questioned as to why we

13 need stronger ozone standards. These people believe

14 that because you can't see smog that you used to in

15 Chattanooga, it must not be there, or worse, that it

16 isn't affecting our health. And while I agree that

17 Chattanooga has come a long way to today's air quality

18 standards, I respectfully disagree that we should stop

19 at mediocre. Our children deserve so much better than

20 mediocre.

21 The science is unequivocal that smog is bad

22 for human health. It's proven smog creates a host of

23 lung and cardiac issues. It cuts lives short, and it's

24 a lung irritant. Children are especially vulnerable

25 because their bodies are still developing, they breathe
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COLLINS REALTIME REPORTING - DALLAS, TEXAS (214)220-2449

1 more rapidly, and they are more likely to be playing

2 outside during high alert days.

3 Ozone is a powerful asthma trigger. Each

4 year, thousands of children are sent to the emergency

5 room because of smog-induced asthma attacks. Growing up

6 with a younger brother who suffered so severely from

7 asthma, I can recall too many occasions shrouded with

8 worry and fear over his inability to perform the most

9 basic of human functions, breathing.

10 In 2014, the Asthma and Allergy Foundation

11 of America respectfully rated Memphis and Chattanooga

12 the second and sixth worst metro cities for asthma in

13 this country. And not shockingly, both these cities

14 often receive failing ozone grades from the American

15 Lung Association. As a mom, this information alarms me.

16 I'm here today in the work that I do

17 because when my daughter was born, I realized living my

18 life as (inaudible) as possible was no longer enough. I

19 realized that I couldn't go out and buy her clean air to

20 breathe. Right now, you have the opportunity to give my

21 daughter and all of our children cleaner air to breathe.

22 I am urging you to set the ozone standard at 60 parts

23 per billion instead of the 65 to 70 you proposed in

24 November.

25 The scientific record demonstrates that
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1 this level will provide the strongest public health

2 protections for Americans and, most importantly, for our

3 children. Thank you so much for this opportunity.

4 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you.

5 MS. OLDHAM: Hello. My name is Melanie

6 Oldham, O-L-D-H-A-M. Good morning. I appreciate the

7 Dallas and U.S. EPA coming here to listen and to act,

8 protect our public health, especially of our children,

9 elderly, and people with respiratory problems. Again,

10 my name is Melanie Oldham from Freeport, Texas, 45 miles

11 south of Houston. That is Freeport with an F. The

12 American Lung Association has given Missouri County and

13 Freeport an F for ozone the last several years.

14 We are a severe (inaudible) county for

15 ozone. I am a licensed physical therapist and have been

16 healthcare professional for 30 years who does home

17 health care, and I see the patients whose health has

18 been severely affected by ozone. I treat people,

19 especially the elderly, with damaged lungs from exposure

20 to ozone. I see these patients on oxygen 24 hours a day

21 and gasping for air and breath.

22 It is a little known fact that my county,

23 Missouri County, in (inaudible), Texas, has had, the

24 last five years, the highest ozone readings in the State

25 of Texas. That is the fourth highest daily maximum
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1 level. I read in an article that David Brymer, the air

2 director of TCEQ, said he was baffled why the monitor in

3 (inaudible) in the park has those readings. Could it be

4 that the (inaudible) central chemical industry where I

5 live in Knox (inaudible) and Freeport and other sources

6 in southern Missouri County produce ozone and blows

7 across our county and also ozone from east Houston. We

8 have a perfect storm.

9 VOCs does keep sunlight -- forms our ozone.

10 And again, Houston, Galveston, Missouri County, we have

11 been a long time a severe nonattainment area for ozone.

12 I have read (inaudible) act discussions about ozone

13 standards since 2008. It is said by you, EPA, and I

14 believe it is scientifically proven that the ozone smog

15 standard must be 60 parts per billion to protect the

16 lungs of children with asthma, elderly, and other

17 respiratory ailments.

18 We need you to take action now to

19 protect -- to raise national ozone -- or lower the ozone

20 standard to between 60 and 65 parts per billion in order

21 to protect peoples' lungs. There has been and presently

22 has been millions of people with their lungs damaged due

23 to ozone.

24 On a personal note, I met a chemical

25 engineering student at the University of Missouri 31
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1 years ago. Ken moved to Texas for a chance to work at

2 Dow (inaudible), and I watched a man transform into a

3 man with a purpose in life of making money for his

4 company and himself and denying that pollution and ozone

5 damaged people's health and lungs. Even though I tried

6 to get him to listen to scientific reports about ozone

7 and about all the sick children and elderly in Missouri

8 County that had been permanently damaged by ozone due to

9 industry not using BACT and not decreasing their ozone

10 voluntarily. Let's be realistic and care.

11 We have been unable to get our local

12 legislators and some people at TCEQ to help us decrease

13 ozone in Texas. We plead that EPA lower the ozone

14 standard to 60 to 65 parts per billion. My favorite

15 quote is from Albert Einstein. He stated, "this world

16 will not be destroyed by those that do evil, pollute,

17 but by those who stand by and watch and do nothing." I

18 plead with you, EPA, not to stand by and watch but after

19 all these years to do something. Please lower the ozone

20 standard to between 60 and 65 parts per billion. Thank

21 you.

22 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you very much. Next

23 up is Elena Craft and Rebecca Wooten (inaudible).

24 MS. CRAFT: My name is Elena Craft, and I'm

25 a toxicologist health scientist with Environmental
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1 Defense Fund and also have an appointment at UT Health

2 Science Center in Houston. Thank you for the

3 opportunity to testify today. EDF commends EPA and

4 (inaudible) for proposing the Air Quality Standards for

5 Ozone. We respectfully request the EPA follow the

6 recommendation by the Clean Air Scientific Advisory

7 Committee and reduce the National Ambient Air Quality

8 Standards for Ozone to protect public health and

9 children in sensitive populations.

10 We urge the EPA to set a standard for

11 60 parts per billion, as the scientific record

12 demonstrates that this level will provide the strongest

13 public health protections for Americans. As EPA is well

14 aware, (inaudible) ozone on the respiratory system,

15 aggravate asthma and other (inaudible), linked to early

16 death from cardiovascular causes. People with asthma,

17 children, and older adults are among the population most

18 at risk (inaudible).

19 An independent case has indicated the

20 current standard as inadequate for public health and

21 recommended a range of 60 to 70 parts per billion.

22 Furthermore, the case act emphasized at 70, there are

23 substantial adverse effects (inaudible), including

24 decrease in lung function, (inaudible), and increase in

25 airway inflammation. The case made it clear that a
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1 standard of 60 parts per billion would offer more public

2 health benefits than the standard 65 or 70.

3 EPA's analysis is based on an extensive and

4 compelling body of scientific evidence. Since the last

5 proposal, there have been more than a thousand new

6 studies that demonstrate the health and environmental

7 harm to those (inaudible). EPA's analysis highlights

8 the clear and profound health benefit of strengthening

9 (inaudible) to 60 parts per billion. And the EPA

10 estimates that this level of protection will result in

11 monetized benefits in 2025 of between $37 to $75

12 billion.

13 We can also get there. The critics say

14 that we can't meet more restrictive standards, that

15 we'll have to stop using drive-throughs and stop having

16 barbecues. But if we look past the fear mongering, we

17 see that in Houston, for example, one of the most

18 ozone-polluted cities in the country, ozone is actually

19 on the decline, and data indicate that the proposed

20 standards are achievable.

21 In a 2013 peer-reviewed report from

22 Environmental Science and Technology that examined

23 (inaudible) in the Houston and Galveston area, regional

24 background (inaudible) demonstrated a decline of .5 to

25 .75 parts per billion per year in Houston, corresponding
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1 to a decrease of 7 to 11 parts per billion ozone between

2 the years 1998 and 2012. Houston experienced the fewest

3 number of ozone exceeded states ever in the past year,

4 14 down from 65 in 2006.

5 These reductions (inaudible) national

6 decline and are attributable in part to communication of

7 national Clean Air Act protections. (Inaudible)

8 protections (inaudible) of Clean Car Standards, both of

9 which will contribute to significant and sustained

10 emission reductions. With regard to the (inaudible) air

11 pollution rules, physically, new information from EPA

12 outlined in January 2015 memo from Steven Page to

13 regional (inaudible) indicates that Houston stands to

14 gain several parts per billion worth of ozone reductions

15 by 2018 as a result of controls implemented in states

16 like Louisiana and Mississippi.

17 And EPA's own data for all states,

18 excluding California, also indicated that much of the

19 country will be able to meet those standards by 2025.

20 Almost 90 percent of counties projected to be out of

21 attainment with the standard of 65 parts per billion and

22 close to a hundred percent of the counties projected to

23 be out of (inaudible) attainment with 70 parts per

24 billion.

25 For four and a half decades of implementing
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1 the Clean Air Act, the U.S. has maintained strong

2 economic growth. As an energy capital of the country,

3 Texas has proven time and time again that it has the

4 ingenuity to thrive and innovate economically while not

5 -- without sacrificing (inaudible) clean air. As a

6 scientist and as a mom of an eight-month-old baby boy, I

7 applaud the EPA's efforts in protecting public health.

8 How exciting is it in our lifetimes we are witnessing

9 incredible progress in securing clean air across the

10 nation.

11 We appreciate EPA's support and thank you

12 for your leadership. Setting the ozone standard to 60

13 will help those of us in Texas (inaudible) breathe

14 easier. Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

15 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you.

16 MR. ARECHIGA: Good morning. My name is

17 Jacob Arechiga. I'm an attorney at Jackson Walker, LLC,

18 and I'm appearing here on behalf of the Gulf Coast

19 Coalition, or GCLC. GCLC is a coalition of entities

20 that own or operate (inaudible) power plants in Texas,

21 Louisiana, and Mississippi. GCLC appreciates the

22 opportunity to speak to the EPA (inaudible) proposed

23 National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone.

24 GCLC is here to highlight the importance of

25 this Texas coal generation fleet, especially with regard
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1 to meeting the electricity demands of a rapidly growing

2 state and ensuring affordable and reliable electricity

3 and the potential harm that could be done to the State

4 if the standard is set too low (inaudible) Texas

5 Electric.

6 Texas coal fleet is young. The average age

7 of the state's coal generation fleet is 29 years

8 compared to a national average of 45 years. The

9 (inaudible) decades of useful life remaining (inaudible)

10 and essential to responding to population and economic

11 growth. Not only is Texas Coal Fleet young, it is

12 heavily controlled. (Inaudible) the over $17 billion in

13 emissions controls. Those numbers are likely to be much

14 higher. This number does not include coal's (inaudible)

15 in response to standards rule and other EPA rules.

16 The result of Texas having such a young and

17 heavily controlled fleet is that Texas fleet has one of

18 the lowest noncommissioned rates of any fleet in the

19 nation and far lower than the national average.

20 According to the Texas Commission on Environmental

21 Quality, Texas air quality is only getting better. From

22 2000 to 2013, the ozone levels in Texas have decreased

23 by 24 percent compared to the national average of

24 12 percent. (Inaudible) emissions have decreased the 67

25 since 1997. This has been achieved all while the Texas
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1 economy has grown at an incredible rate.

2 Texas needs all the power it can get.

3 We're big, we're hot, we're the backbone of the energy

4 and chemical industry. We're growing. (Inaudible)

5 percent since 2013, more than twice the national

6 average. Texas population has also grown at more than

7 twice the national rate since 2010, adding more people

8 than any other state, nearly 1200 people a day, on

9 average. Texas cannot afford another rule that needs to

10 shut down or dispatch a power plant. (Inaudible)

11 already significant reliability concerns in electrical

12 and (inaudible) companies, especially in Texas and other

13 southwest regions. We should not (inaudible) be under a

14 proposal that could lead to additional requirements.

15 The premature forced shut down of any Texas

16 power plant is unsafe and potentially results in

17 blackouts (inaudible). (Inaudible) economic consulting

18 has predicted nationwide (inaudible) of this rule of up

19 to a range of $270 billion to $360 billion annually. In

20 Texas, (inaudible) these have shut down 28 percent of

21 coal-generating capacity, $48 million gross state

22 product loss from 2017 to 2040; (inaudible) 347 lost

23 jobs and job equivalents per year; $113 billion in total

24 compliance cost; and $970 drop in household consumption

25 per year; $10,000,000,000 more for residents to own and
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1 operate their vehicles statewide between 2017 and 2040;

2 and, based on the national averages, up to a 50 percent

3 increase in residential electricity prices and up to a

4 32 percent increase in residential natural gas prices.

5 The 65 to 70 parts per billion standard

6 indicates that ambient background levels the EPA is

7 proposing is largely unachievable. The most highly

8 populated cities, as well as (inaudible) suburbs, will

9 not be able to comply with these standards. Currently,

10 all or a portion of the more than 200 million counties

11 across the country are not (inaudible), and those areas

12 are more than one-third of the total U.S. population.

13 The EPA (inaudible) equipment and violate

14 the new proposal and it projects a 358 (inaudible)

15 standard and 558 (inaudible) standards that ppb

16 standards. Further, based on reports conducted on

17 behalf of the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality,

18 the vast majority of the residents actually in the DFW

19 area are not related to power plants at all. For

20 instance, in the DFW area over 84 percent of the

21 (inaudible) emissions are from mobile sources, the bulk

22 of which are automobile insurance.

23 The Texas coal (inaudible) power fleet is

24 clean and getting cleaner and is a critically valuable

25 resource to maintain our electrical reliability and
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1 ensuring that Texas remains the economic powerhouse it

2 has grown to be. These resources must be protected in

3 any future EPA rulemaking, including this next ozone

4 proposal. Thank you very much for your time and we'll

5 be submitting written details.

6 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you very much. Next

7 we'd like to call Christian Stumpf and Sarah Davenport.

8 MS. DAVENPORT: Good morning. My name is

9 Sarah Davenport. I'm here on behalf of (inaudible)

10 Johnson. She sends her regrets that she wasn't able to

11 make it this morning. However, she would like me to

12 read her remarks.

13 We are here today to discuss the

14 Environmental Protection Agency's proposal to lower the

15 standard for ozone, the pollutant that causes smog, from

16 the current standard of 75 parts per billion to a

17 standard in the range of 65 to 70 parts per billion. As

18 someone who worked in the public health field before I

19 entered politics, I am very sensitive to the problem

20 poor air quality can have on the health of Texans.

21 Unfortunately, those of us from the

22 Dallas/Fort Worth region are familiar with the negative

23 effects of smog and are accustomed to seeing orange and

24 red alerts, warning about being outside because the air

25 is too polluted for it to be safe. Air-quality-related
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1 illnesses have a very real and destructive effect on the

2 economy, nationally, on the order of hundreds of

3 billions of dollars annually, and the benefits of

4 reducing those effects will be seen throughout the

5 country.

6 The scientific evidence supports a lower

7 standard for ozone than we currently have, and according

8 to the agency's analysis, strengthening the standard

9 will provide better protection for our children by

10 preventing 320,000 to 960,000 asthma attacks that will

11 keep them from missing 330,000 to 1 million days of

12 school, and it will stop between 750 and 4,300 premature

13 deaths per year. It is worth noting that children and

14 communities of color are disproportionately affected by

15 air pollution.

16 Children are more likely to be active

17 outdoors when their lungs are still developing. In

18 addition, a 2011 analysis U.S. populations and air

19 quality found that African-Americans and Latinos were

20 more likely to live in counties that had worse problems

21 with pollution. African-Americans were also more likely

22 to live in counties with worse smog pollution, have

23 nearly two times the rates of current asthma as

24 Caucasian children, and are four times as likely to die

25 from it.
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1 Some will argue that EPA's proposal will

2 kill jobs, (inaudible) and result in irreparable

3 economic destruction. This is not a new argument.

4 There is much more evidence showing that jobs are

5 created and the economy expands following the passage of

6 (inaudible) reforms. For example, the U.S. economy grew

7 by 54 percent in the years following the passage of the

8 Clean Air Act.

9 Now, more than ever, the American people

10 need a strong EPA to protect their rights of clean air

11 and water. Yes, some types of industries may see a

12 decline in the face of new regulations. In Texas,

13 depending on how the relevant firms decide to comply,

14 some jobs could be lost. Why I truly hate to see any

15 family suffer a job loss, I am an optimist with a well

16 founded faith that ultimately, these regulations act as

17 a catalyst for the creation of new jobs in industrial

18 sectors and that the hardworking Texas workforce will be

19 the ones that benefit in the end.

20 Strict pollution limits force us to push

21 the envelope of scientific innovation and create new

22 technologies, and, as it has been proven many times

23 over, improve worker productivity, increase agricultural

24 yield, reduction in mortality and illness, and other

25 economic and public health benefits far outweigh the
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1 cost of compliance.

2 Thankfully, poll after poll shows that the

3 public believes that the EPA should protect their rights

4 to clean air and water more than they believe that

5 pollution is the price they must pay for economic

6 security. I stand here today with the people of Texas

7 who, regardless of where they fall on the partisan

8 divide, universally agree that respiratory diseases,

9 heart attacks, and premature death are not part of the

10 sacrifice they should have to pay -- universally agree

11 that respiratory diseases, heart attacks, and premature

12 death are not part of the sacrifice they should have to

13 make for the sake of the Texas miracle.

14 Although scientific -- excuse me. Although

15 significant progress has been made in the past 40 years,

16 it is our job now to build upon this legacy and ensure

17 that we continue to improve or environmental quality.

18 In the great State of Texas, the healthy environment and

19 strong economy are not mutually exclusive, and I am

20 supportive of the EPA's effort to lower the ozone

21 standard. We can and must do better for the current and

22 future Texans.

23 Remarks from Counselwoman (inaudible).

24 MR. STUMPF: Thank you. My name is

25 Christian Stumpf. I'm the regional director of public
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1 policy for the American Lung Association in the

2 southwest, and I am here to read a letter on behalf of

3 Jeanette McNeill from (inaudible), Maine, who could not

4 be -- travel here today, giving her statement.

5 So, thank you for continuing to evaluate

6 ground level ozone and for listening to our comments

7 today. I have lived with asthma for more than five

8 decades. For the most part, I've come to terms with it.

9 Over my lifespan, I've been in the emergency room at

10 least 80 times. The bills (inaudible) show costs

11 between $3,500 and $17,500 per visit. If I accept my

12 doctor's recommendation, my medication next year alone 

13 will cost $100,800.

14 A recent visit to the allergist's office,

15 one of many each year, was $390. Keeping me and

16 millions of our people just like me, and for millions of

17 more people like me, breathing is not cheap. But aside

18 from cost, these days, I think most about our kids.

19 They are just starting out, learning what (inaudible).

20 I wish that not one of them would be down like the young

21 runner I once saw with emergency personnel around her

22 and an oxygen mask on her face.

23 I wish that no kid was spending time with a

24 nebulizer in the school nurse's office instead of being

25 in class. I wish that every kid could play whatever
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1 position they wanted in soccer instead of always being a

2 goalie because the goalie doesn't have to run so much.

3 I wish that no child would ever face the terrifying

4 moment when you know you may not get one more breath.

5 Asthma limits our kids' promise and their dreams.

6 Having had a chance to reflect over many

7 years, I would pay anything to eliminate asthma or

8 reduce its effects. I and many others are already

9 paying a great deal to live with it. So, I urge you to

10 strengthen our ozone standards, as you propose, and

11 strengthen them even more if the science supports it.

12 It means a great deal to me, but more importantly, it

13 means a great deal to all the kids of asthma in our

14 communities around the country. Those kids are the best

15 reason for making the change to the ozone rules

16 proposed. Thank you.

17 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Next, we'd like

18 to call Patricia Brown and Keith Ennis. After that,

19 Rebecca Wooten.

20 MS. BROWN: Good morning, my name is

21 Patricia Brown. I'm a resident of Midlothian, Texas,

22 and I hope that my last-minute preparation will clearly

23 relate the importance I feel (inaudible) in tightening

24 our air standards in the United States. I have the

25 benefit of having been a United States veteran. For
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1 that reason, I'm very thankful that my eldest daughter

2 had the medical care that she did.

3 Considering as the World Health

4 Organization estimates that each person breathes

5 approximately 3,000 gallons of air a day, I don't think

6 that the average American gives that much thought nor do

7 they have the benefit of knowing some of the things that

8 our professionals and experts that are here today do in

9 order to protect themselves.

10 I believe that clean air is a basic human

11 right, and I believe everybody in the room will agree

12 with that. My concern is the health inequities that we

13 see across the United States, and they're often due to

14 the social determinants of health, as you know. In

15 2003, the World Health Organization, Zurich branch,

16 suggested that life expectancy will decrease as disease

17 increases further, and this will occur further down the

18 social ladder.

19 The social determinance of health, having

20 to do with education level and where we live, where we

21 work, age, and socioeconomic determinants, getting back

22 to my daughter, we had the benefit of the Air Force

23 taking care of her medical beneath needs, but I can't

24 express how exhausting it was constantly being called,

25 as a single parent in the military, to come get your
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1 child. This included missing a lot of school, a lot of

2 work, and basically preventing a normal childhood.

3 So, my concern is that I hope to speak on

4 behalf of those incapable or unable to speak, and I

5 thank you for being here today to hear all of us. I'm

6 aware of the terms of environmental injustice and

7 that's, again, it's because I have the benefit of having

8 the education of environmental law background and I'm

9 currently halfway through a master's in public health

10 program.

11 My concern, also, is the mentality across

12 the United States. I currently work in a federal sector

13 in a dental laboratory where a long-time lab manager

14 gave me grief, basically, because I brought up issues

15 about air quality in our work section. I have

16 approximately 70 coworkers, and I don't believe many of

17 them want to bring up the concern about the air quality

18 in our work section again because that's their bread and

19 butter. That's their job. That's all they know.

20 They don't often have the luxury of finding

21 employment elsewhere. So, our very long-time lab

22 manager came to me, in his mind, proving that we've all

23 lived through these things with a sheet that said, here,

24 do you remember in the days when we used asbestos ring

25 liner in our certain procedure? And my comment to that
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1 was, yes, but we know better now. It's not acceptable.

2 Our very own Healthy People 2020 government

3 initiative highlights the importance (inaudible) of

4 these various social determinants of health by creating

5 social and physical environments that actually promote

6 good health for all, and that's a thought shared by the

7 World Health Organization.

8 As displayed by a number of professionals

9 who testified here this morning, there's a dire need to

10 change the (inaudible) standard. And that's because

11 the -- as the population increases and as human

12 consumption increases, those in positions (inaudible) to

13 protect us, I feel, are respectfully obligated to do

14 everything in their power to enable the general

15 population to live in healthy environments.

16 And my -- my respectful comment to those

17 who argue that the standards that are proposed are not

18 possible, I beg to differ. There was a day when we

19 still allowed kids to play with lead toys, etc. Again,

20 we know better now. So, these efforts will take a

21 collaboration of government agencies and their efforts,

22 and I thank you for allowing me to speak my voice today.

23 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you very much.

24 MR. ANNIS: Good morning, my name is Keith

25 Annis. I'm from Fort Worth, Texas. I'd like to thank
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1 you for holding this hearing today. Thank you for

2 scheduling it over the entire day so the folks who work

3 9:00 to 5:00 may be able to attend this evening. I

4 really appreciate that. I have had asthma, and at age

5 six, I spent a week in the hospital because of asthma.

6 I'm here to speak on behalf of my wife, who also suffers

7 from asthma and my two daughters, Sophia and Lisa, who

8 have not had diagnoses yet, but I'm waiting for that any

9 moment.

10 A little more than a week ago, in this very

11 room, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality took

12 public testimony regarding their latest state

13 implementation plan. Alas, this was an exercise in

14 futility. TCEQ has a long history of listening to

15 industry insiders and ignoring the public good. It is

16 because of this history that I'm here to ask the EPA to

17 implement the 60 parts per billion standard.

18 As you consider the statements opposed to a

19 60 parts per billion standard presented by industry

20 lobbyists and insiders, please remember one of their

21 arguments is that current standards have not been

22 implemented by many of the states and may counties are

23 currently and would be in noncompliance. Considering

24 how hard they are working to make sure that states like

25 Texas never implement these standards, it's really no
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1 surprise that they use that as an argument. It is, in

2 fact, laughable to think the (inaudible) would argue to

3 wait until state authorities take action.

4 Another point being raised is the science

5 isn't there yet to address issues related to background

6 ozone levels. Having grown up in the shadow of the Oak

7 Ridge National Laboratory, and as the son of a

8 scientist, I can assure you that every scientist I have

9 ever met, which is every father and most mothers of

10 every friend I had growing up, likes nothing more than a

11 challenge. Necessity is the mother of invention. I

12 urge you to have faith in the men and women of our

13 scientific community to address these concerns and reach

14 the 60 parts per billion standard.

15 The final industry argument I would like to

16 discuss is the theory that imposing these standards will

17 cost jobs. I appreciate being reminded how large the

18 oil and gas industry is and how many jobs it creates,

19 but I find it odd that they were able to grow so large

20 despite having the existing clean air standards in

21 place. Once they fought tooth and nail, arguing they

22 would cost jobs. Clearly, that did not happen.

23 Some may doubt the ability of the oil and

24 gas industry to continue to be profitable. I have great

25 faith in their ability to continue to realize profit.
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1 Thank you again so much for being here today, and I

2 appreciate the opportunity to give testimony.

3 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you very much. Next

4 up, we have Rebecca Wooten.

5 MS. WOOTEN: I'll go ahead and get started.

6 My name is Rebecca Wooten. I'm actually the President

7 of the North Texas board of the American Lung

8 Association, but actually, today, I'm just here as a

9 mom. I'm actually a mother of three. When my first was

10 born, my son, he was probably the best child, the best

11 baby that you could ever imagine, and in fact, he is a

12 lot of the reason why I actually had two more who

13 weren't as easy.

14 But he's a sweet baby, and as a first-time

15 mom, as you can imagine, I would do just about anything

16 to protect him. When he was two, he nearly died because

17 of a near-fatal asthma attack. He was blue,

18 unresponsive, and had to be rushed to the emergency

19 room. When we went into the emergency room, they took

20 him in, and they had to intubate him, and the doctors

21 said, I don't think he's going to make it. This began a

22 whole entire life of doing everything I could do to

23 protect him. He has fought very hard and has had

24 multiple asthma attacks since that nearly killed him.

25 I have spent much time making decisions and
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1 choosing the food that he eats, the water that he

2 drinks, the medicine that he takes, but the one thing

3 that I don't get to choose is the air that he breathes.

4 So, I'm asking you to make that choice for me, for my

5 son, and for all the children like him and our future

6 generations. I'm asking you to make that choice and to

7 do the right thing by not only looking at the standard

8 and realizing and taking responsibility for the fact

9 that it's not where it should be, but also making the

10 decision to say to yourself, is what we're proposing

11 today enough?

12 Everyone has sat here today and told you

13 that the opportunity to do the right thing and really

14 look at the standard is 60 parts per billion is the

15 right thing to do, so I'm asking you to think about that

16 and make that choice and do the right thing. If I could

17 make that choice for my son, I would. I would certainly

18 try to. But I'm asking you to do that on my behalf and

19 for all the children that come after him. Thank you.

20 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you very much. Is.

21 Cherelle Blazer here?

22 MS. BLAZER: Okay. My name is Cherelle

23 Blazer. I'm here with -- as an organizer for Sierra

24 Club, the (inaudible) campaign. I'm also here as a

25 private citizen. I'm very glad that y'all are here
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1 today. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you for

2 this proposed strengthening of the ozone standard. I

3 just want to tell my own personal story because, of

4 course, you all know the science already. And I just

5 want to say that this became truly a personal journey

6 for me maybe eight years ago when I was pregnant with my

7 daughter.

8 We lived out in Mansfield, Texas, and my

9 husband had an acute asthma attack. He went into a

10 coma. When he went into that coma, it was so stressful

11 for me that I went into premature labor, and there was

12 just this horrifying moment when I was in the

13 hospital -- the same hospital he was in. He was on the

14 first floor in ICU, and I was on the third floor where I

15 thought that I could lose my husband and my baby at the

16 same time on the same day, and that was horrifying.

17 It was -- yeah, it's a feeling no mother

18 should have to feel, no wife should have to feel. And

19 at that moment, I realized that clean air is not just

20 about numbers and charts. I am an atmospheric

21 scientist, but this is a passion for me because I don't

22 want any other family to have to go through what I've

23 gone through. I understand that some industry will say

24 that this standard is too expensive for them, but I have

25 to say that what it would cost them to clean up their
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1 acts is not nearly as expensive as what families have to

2 pay every single day.

3 When you tally up the cost of all the

4 medications for my son and for my husband, when you

5 tally up the cost of having to miss days of work, even

6 because my son is sick. If he goes out and plays on a

7 day that is a bad ozone day, a bad air day, that night

8 is horrible. We're up all night. He's having asthma

9 attacks every two or three hours. He has to have a

10 nebulizer. My husband can't sleep, I can't sleep. The

11 next day, he's unable to focus at school, if he's able

12 to go to school at all.

13 You know, the world was a magical place for

14 me growing up, and I want that for him as well, but I'm

15 aware that the world is not a magical place when a child

16 is fighting just to stay in it. I think that it is

17 unfair for families to have to shoulder the cost of

18 illnesses associated with clean -- with bad air. I

19 think that an industry -- any industry that is

20 (inaudible) should bear that burden, and they're most

21 equipped to do so.

22 I also urge that this standard be made to

23 60 parts per billion because that is the most protective

24 of public health, and it's going to save a lot of lives.

25 It's going to save a lot of money for families. It's
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1 going to spur industry to innovate and do better. It's

2 going to spur industry to create jobs in cleaner

3 sectors, and it will improve the public health in

4 general. That is all. Thank you.

5 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you very much. At

6 this point, we're going to take a brief, only like

7 ten-minute break, see if we can get these microphones a

8 little louder, and visit the restroom.

9 (Break taken from 10:41 a.m. to 10:55 a.m.)

10 MR. NIEBLING: Okay. Welcome back. Thanks

11 for your patience. I think we got our microphones at a

12 better level so you all can hear what's going on. We're

13 ready to continue to take testimony.

14 The next two people I'd like to call up are

15 (inaudible).

16 MS. WEATHERSBY: Hi, my name is Lynn

17 Weathersby, and I am here with Moms Clean Air Force.

18 This is the first time I've ever done anything like

19 this, so I'm a little nervous. I'm here to request that

20 the EPA reevaluate the current standard and lower it to

21 60 parts per billion. I have no personal story. I'm

22 fortunate enough to have two children who are healthy,

23 don't have any breathing problems, but I do live in the

24 DFW area, and I have for 30 years.

25 Over the course of that 30 years, sadly and
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1 with great concern, I've watched the skies of Texas turn

2 blue to brown. I will not do the data. The research is

3 there. The statistics are solid. The EPA was created

4 as an independent regulatory agency in 1970 designed to

5 protect human beings from the ill effects that generate

6 pollution, and I respectfully request that the EPA do

7 what they have been charged to do.

8 It is not within your job description to be

9 concerned about protecting jobs. It is not within your

10 job description to be concerned about protecting

11 businesses. Your goal is singular, to clean up the air

12 and to keep it clean for the benefit of our citizens.

13 Please follow the advice of the science advisory board,

14 the environmental economists, and the citizens at large

15 who depend on you to do the right thing.

16 Thank you for your time and for hearing me

17 out this morning.

18 MR. NIEBLING: Thanks. You did great.

19 MS. KELLEY: Hi. My name is Ingrid Kelley.

20 I live here in Arlington, Texas, and I am speaking today

21 because as a nurse, I'm entrusted to protect the

22 public's health. Often, the scope of nursing practice

23 reaches beyond the bedside. This includes advocating

24 for the wellbeing of the public through education and

25 registration.
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1 I work in a heart failure unit in a major

2 urban hospital. I witness those that struggle that are

3 living with heart and lung disease. While there are

4 different variables that causes these problems, we

5 should be focusing on those that can be changed. Air

6 quality is a public health problem, and we can change

7 it.

8 There's enough literature and studies that

9 describe the harmful effects of air pollution. Our air

10 quality contributes to a variety of respiratory

11 ailments, reactive airway disease, asthma, chronic

12 obstructive pulmonary disease. These are all on the

13 rise. I can attest that now I care for patients that

14 are suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

15 and are not longer directly related just to smoking.

16 Additional studies confirm that these toxic

17 byproducts from an array of sources that find their way

18 into our air cause additional illnesses, including heart

19 disease, endocrine disruption, cancer. Actually,

20 there's not a system in the human body that is not

21 adversely affected by air pollution.

22 Children, the unborn, the elderly are the

23 most vulnerable. I know this because all four of my

24 grandchildren intermittently use nebulizers and

25 inhalers, and they are all under the age of ten.
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1 Imagine their lungs ten years from now. So, I plead

2 with you on behalf of all of our loved ones to rise to

3 the challenge, to regulate and enforce the standards

4 that control our air quality.

5 I ask that you address all of the air

6 pollution concerns that are presented here today by

7 various speakers. I specifically ask that the gas

8 industry be held accountable for the contamination

9 caused by fracking. In 2012, the American Nurses

10 Association issued a statement asking for a national

11 moratorium on fracking due to public issues that have

12 increased directly related to this industry and their

13 activity. This includes air pollution. It's not just

14 limited to air pollution.

15 I want to thank you for your time. I know

16 your labor will be hard, but your rewards will be

17 substantial. Generations, present and future, will reap

18 the benefits of your courage to clean our air. Thank

19 you.

20 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you very much. Next,

21 we'd like to invite up Sandstrom and Wisdom. After

22 that, Gold.

23 MS. SANDSTROM: Good morning, Joan

24 Sandstrom. I'm not a scientist; I'm not an attorney. I

25 just came here because I want to explain the situation
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1 where I live and why clean air is important to me. I

2 live in Magnolia, Texas, in Montgomery County. We're

3 about 45 miles north of Houston, maybe 10 to 12 miles

4 west of the Woodlands. The area is growing rapidly.

5 There's a highway widening where a subdivision is going

6 in, and I live in a subdivision, two to five acres. I

7 have a beautiful property, a nice green lawn surrounded

8 by trees, a little pond.

9 Unfortunately, most of the time, I can't

10 really enjoy it because of all the burning going on. My

11 neighbors love to burn trees, and every leaf that comes

12 off a tree, they burn. Last October, I filed a

13 complaint with the Texas Commission of Environmental

14 Quality. They referred it to the Montgomery County

15 Environmental Health Department, and that complaint was

16 handled by a very nice gentleman.

17 However, in the end, he told me that if I

18 did not have a documented lung disease, and because of

19 the amount of loopholes, there was really nothing that

20 he could do, and I was pretty much just stuck. Now,

21 that was last October, and during that month, I counted

22 16 days with smoke in the air. Now, the TCEQ web page

23 does have guidelines for burning which suggests not to

24 burn leaves because they create so much smoke and not to

25 burn until an hour after sunrise.
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1 Well, there's -- that's no enforcement with

2 it. My neighbors burn after dark, and the problem with

3 that is that the winds die down, the air becomes

4 saturated with smoke, and it doesn't clear out until the

5 next day when the winds pick up again. Now, since I

6 decided to come here today, I kept a tally again. So, I

7 had smoke at my house January 16th, 18th, 19th, 20th,

8 21st. We had some nice days of rain after that, and

9 then it started again on the 26th and 28th.

10 Now, to put this in another perspective, if

11 I lived in Austin, I'd have to have a permit in order to

12 burn anything outside. San Francisco, California, which

13 is my hometown, has considered banning any wood-burning

14 stoves or fireplaces because of the particulates that

15 are put into the air. I have a quote from Dr. Janice

16 Kim, very short, she's with the California Office of

17 Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, and she says,

18 quote, we know there are very toxic components in the

19 wood smoke. People who burn wood are exposing

20 themselves, their neighbors, and their families to

21 harmful compounds, including carcinogens.

22 That's the end of the quote. So today, I'm

23 here to ask you what -- why should it matter where I

24 live, what state or what county I'm in, in order to have

25 clean air? Why do polluters have a right to the air
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1 that everyone around them has to breathe, and what can

2 we do to fix this? And I think you have the power to

3 please help us out. Thank you.

4 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you very much.

5 MS. WISDOM: Good morning, Christina

6 Wisdom. I'm an attorney, and I represent the Texas

7 Association of Manufacturers. Thank you for the

8 opportunity to testify here this morning. TAM

9 represents large and small companies employing more than

10 894,000 Texans. Manufactured goods account for 94.6

11 percent of all Texas exports and has been held

12 (inaudible) top exporting state in the U.S. for several

13 consecutive years.

14 TAM opposes lowering both the primary and

15 secondary ozone standard at this time. TAM agrees with

16 the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, that the

17 current (inaudible) standard of 75 parts per billion is

18 protective of public health in the environment.

19 The Dallas/Fort Worth and

20 Houston-Galveston-Missouri areas in Texas are still

21 working to comply with the 1997 standard of 80 parts per

22 billion in addition to the current standard of 75 parts

23 per billion, and the Houston (inaudible) nonattainment

24 area is still subject to the one-hour ozone standard.

25 Any attempt to move the needle and lower
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1 the ozone standard yet again could actually discourage

2 continuing investment, put the Texas manufacturing

3 sector at a severe economic disadvantage to other areas

4 in the nation, and effectively move further investment

5 overseas.

6 So, data from TCEQ indicates that from 2000

7 to 2013, ozone levels in Texas decreased by 24 percent

8 while the average for all other states was only

9 12 percent. Of those reductions on a statewide basis,

10 (inaudible) reduced NOx emissions by 67 percent and VOC

11 emissions by 52 percent since 1997. In the HGB

12 (inaudible) area, (inaudible) have reduced NOx emissions

13 by 85 percent and VOC emissions by 48 percent since 

14 1997.

15 Based on the most recent monitoring data

16 from TCEQ, lowering the ozone standards to a range

17 between 65 and 70 parts per billion would put 17

18 additional Texas counties in nonattainment, most of

19 which heavily populated areas of the state where, again,

20 points (inaudible) have already made dramatic reductions

21 in NOx and VOC emissions in the last several years.

22 Despite the billions of dollars industry

23 has invested to reduce these emissions since 1997, the

24 Clean Air Act puts the full burdens of compliance with

25 the (inaudible) Act on the backs of point sources. This
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1 is fundamentally unfair considering that mobile source

2 emissions, which are federally preempted by EPA, make up

3 the majority of NOx and VOC emissions in the state's

4 nonattainment areas.

5 Lowering ozone standards further leaves

6 industry with few options for compliance short of

7 shutting down or idling facilities. Notably, the Clean

8 Air Act requires EPA to review the NAAQS every five

9 years. It does not require you to change the NAAQS

10 every five years. EPA does not have to lower the ozone

11 standard at this time, and TMA strongly urges them not

12 to do so.

13 Most critically, the Clean Air Act directs

14 EPA to set the ozone standard at a level that is

15 requisite to protect the public health and further

16 directs EPA to revise and promulgate these standards as

17 they may be appropriate. It's TAM's position that

18 lowering the standard below the current standard of 75

19 is not appropriate because it is not requisite to

20 protect the public health. TCEQ has done extensive

21 research on lowering the standard at this time and has

22 concluded that there will be little or no public benefit

23 from lowering the current standard.

24 In fact, at least 1 out of 12 studies

25 confirmed by EPA showed us that (inaudible) between
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1 long-term exposure to ozone and early death. Yet this

2 single study is used by EPA to justify lowering the

3 standard at this time, despite many other studies

4 showing that the current standard is protective of

5 public health.

6 The most serious aspect underlying the

7 proposal is the Clean Air Act mandate that expressly

8 forbids EPA from considering the feasibility and cost of

9 attaining a NAAQS for ozone or any other criteria

10 (inaudible). It follows logically, then, that EPA will

11 carefully consider lowering the ozone standard and would

12 do so only if the science resolutely supports doing so.

13 According to a study by the National

14 Association of Manufacturers, the new ozone regulations

15 are estimated to cost Texas alone $48 billion in gross

16 state product from 2014 -- from 2017 to 2040 and result

17 in over 180,000 lost jobs. These are staggering numbers

18 to consider, given that credible scientists say that

19 directly contradict EPA science and the tremendously

20 high cost of compliance, TAM feels strongly that EPA is

21 not acting in the best interest of the nation's health

22 or economy if it lowers the standard at this time.

23 The Texas manufacturing sector routinely

24 spins off a minimum of four additional service sector or

25 other related jobs for each new manufacturing job. The
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1 Texas job engine is too critical to the state and

2 national economy to be decimated by EPA's attempt to

3 advance a prohibitively expensive, feel-good agenda with

4 no demonstrated health benefits. For this reason, TAM

5 respectfully urges EPA not to move forward with this

6 (inaudible) current ozone standard.

7 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you.

8 MS. WISDOM: Thank you.

9 MR. NIEBLING: Christine and Richard Guldi.

10 MS. GULDI: Good morning. My name is

11 Christine Guldi, and I live in Dallas. I'm a member of

12 Sierra Club, a mother and grandmother, and I would like

13 to thank the EPA, all of you who work so hard to give us

14 air that is as clean as it is, because I have no doubt

15 that it would be much worse if you were not working very

16 hard to improve it. But I am in favor of still lower

17 standards for the ozone level.

18 When I was growing up, my next door

19 neighbor, Mr. Clarence, would raise turkeys for the

20 Thanksgiving market every year, and invariably, when the

21 turkeys got big enough, they would break out, and this

22 big herd of turkeys would trample people 's gardens and

23 eat their produce and no one, including Mr. Clarence,

24 doubted that it was his responsibility to round up those

25 turkeys and keep them in his yard.
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1 The many sources of NOx in the Dallas area,

2 not just one industry -- this includes the people who

3 drive the pickup trucks and the cities that have

4 landfills. I know you know better than I what the

5 sources are, but it's their responsibility to keep their

6 ozone producing turkeys out of the gardens where people

7 are trying to raise children. Thank you.

8 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you.

9 MR. GUDLI: I'm Richard Gudli. I'm a

10 retired engineer. And I also want to tell you a story

11 about a something-year-old experiment I've been involved

12 in. In 1966, I went to visit my father in Rockdale,

13 Texas, where there is a burning plant that had no

14 pollution controls, and if you flew from Austin to

15 Houston, you could see the smoke. If you drove from any

16 direction, you could see this smoke, and if you got

17 there, you could smell the smoke.

18 And when I got there, my nose started not

19 dripping, but just running continuously. And I think I

20 went there 250 times before that plant got shut down,

21 and I don't remember a single time that I wasn't

22 miserable. It was replaced by one with good pollution

23 controls. I could not smell the coal, and my nose

24 didn't drip a single drip. 40 times, I think, I went

25 there afterwards with no problem. 250 times before,
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1 flushing nose. It was just horrible. 40 times with the

2 clean plant, pollution controls, no problem.

3 That's a great success story, except we

4 have about four more of those plants who spew their

5 poison over Texas every day, and we've started fracking

6 all over the place so that now the haze starts in

7 Waxahachie 40 miles to the south and goes to Oklahoma 60

8 miles to the north, a hundred miles of haze and smog,

9 and we've got more than 9 million people who live here

10 and suffer.

11 The story of my family's distress goes on,

12 because now we have a 12-year-old granddaughter who

13 lives in Dallas. She has asthma. Sometimes she can't

14 go to school. Sometimes she has to go to school and

15 come home, and she can't stay there because her asthma

16 is too bad. Now, do the people of Texas, the polluters

17 and the regulators, do they care for Abby? Not one bit.

18 All they care about is how to get around whatever

19 regulations we have and tell us everything is okay, like

20 we're hearing this morning, how to prevent further

21 regulations.

22 And it's so bad that the chief medical

23 officer, Michael Honeycutt, says, don't worry about

24 ozone alert days. Don't go for a walk. Don't ride your

25 bike. Don't walk to your grandchildren and play soccer,
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1 and don't go to your garden. Stay home. And that makes

2 me so angry, I can't tell you. The air is a fundamental

3 human right. No polluter, no lobbyist, no governor of

4 Texas, no TCEQ, and no Koch brothers who spend

5 $900 million to win elections to keep this charade going

6 have any right to take our clean air from us. We want a

7 60 parts per billion limit, and we want it now. Thank

8 you very much.

9 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Next up, we have

10 Susybelle Gosslee and Zac Trahan.

11 MS. GOSSLEE: Good morning. I am Susybelle

12 Gosslee, and I am speaking on behalf of the League of

13 Women Voters of Dallas. The league supports clean air

14 and supports the efforts of the Environmental Protection

15 Agency to create clean air with enforcement and higher

16 standards of a level of 60 parts per billion and other

17 actions. The EPA's air monitoring data finds that ozone

18 levels in parts of the Metroplex have exceeded the

19 current EPA standard of 75 parts per billion in multiple

20 days each summer.

21 In our hottest dry summers, ozone levels

22 have exceeded the standard of 10 to 20 days, sometimes

23 reading 90 to a hundred parts per billion. North Texas

24 does not have a clean air -- does not have clean air,

25 nor has an honest effort been made to clean the air.
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1 The result is that many Americans have not had positive

2 outcomes, especially for those families who have lost a

3 loved one.

4 Air pollution causes thousands of asthma

5 attacks and emergency room visits, but that's not all.

6 Air pollution is also responsible for debilitating lung

7 disease, heart attacks, damage to infants' and

8 children's developing brains, robbing them of IQ. Then,

9 there's cancer, according to Dr. Will, executive

10 director of Physicians for Social Responsibility. That

11 is too high a price for the American people to pay.

12 Ozone in the stratosphere protects the

13 earth, but at ground level, it is pollution. Ozone is

14 created by all the systems that you know and has many

15 sources. All are produced at numerous sides. Requiring

16 stricter enforcement in our standards for fuel efficient

17 automobiles and trucks will create cleaner air for our

18 area. A car sitting in the sun emits huge amounts of

19 toxins, even if the engine is not running. In addition

20 to enforcement and higher standards, transportation

21 choices in the area affect air quality.

22 The League supports transportation choices

23 that emphasize rapid mass transit and fewer roads, which

24 will lead to reduced pollution, lower number of children

25 with asthma, and missed school and other improved health
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1 outcomes. Gas is a major problem. Gas evaporation is

2 almost as bad as a car in motion. Natural gas has

3 negative impacts with methane, just to name one, and

4 this needs to be addressed.

5 Natural gas facilities, storage tanks,

6 flares in the Barnett Shale leave a tougher standard to

7 improve public health. The VOCs from drilling account

8 for more VOCs than all on-the-road vehicles, according

9 to some of the newest research. Why should the cost of

10 polluted air be shifted from companies that pollute

11 children and cause dire effects on other American --

12 vulnerable Americans?

13 The coal plants are another big problem.

14 Coal plants should be held responsible for their

15 emissions. 68 percent of the time, the wind in the DFW

16 area is from the southeast. This southeast wind brings

17 in air pollution from Big Brown Coal, Martin Lake, and

18 Monticello into this area. Many young people of

19 childbearing age are moving into Dallas County. Dallas

20 County's population has grown at a faster rate since

21 2010 than it did in the decade from 2000 to 2010.

22 All people, especially children, are

23 particularly vulnerable to ozone pollution. The

24 population in the DFW/Arlington region grew more than

25 any other area in the country between 2011 and '12.
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1 There are millions of people of all ages who will be

2 affected by the clean air that you can help create.

3 Unfortunately, planes are also a big

4 polluter, but airports are exempt from the clean air

5 standards. Does this need to continue when it is

6 killing people? We must stop the poor transportation

7 choices we made to allow expansion of gas-powered

8 engines by extending the roads as the only choices of

9 travel. Even gas-powered leaf blowers and lawn mowers

10 are a big problem as they are another source of ozone.

11 Americans can be educated about the effect

12 of these individual choices. The League seeks to bring

13 American's promise to protect clean air and public

14 health embodied in the highly successful and popular

15 Clean Air Act. We're concerned about the attacks on the

16 EPA and health protections. Any actions from updating

17 Clean Air Act protections or any delay on behalf of the

18 administration to avoid implementing new clean air and

19 industrial pollution requirements is an attack on the

20 health of our children and families, plain and simple.

21 MR. NIEBLING: Your time has expired.

22 Please conclude your remarks.

23 MR. GULDI: Okay. Unfortunately, China is

24 an example of what could happen. It is not farfetched

25 to imagine that in the future, every child, even every
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1 person in our region, has to wear a face mask to protect

2 themselves, their heart and lungs from intolerably

3 polluted air. Thank you for your attention.

4 MR. TRAHAN: My name is Zac Trahan, and I

5 work with the Texas Campaign for the Environment here in

6 DFW. Thanks for this opportunity to speak. Here's the

7 problem. We live in Texas, and our state doesn't look

8 out for us. You just heard it from the Texas

9 Association of Manufactures. Our state agency agrees

10 with the industry. When it comes to our health and air

11 and water quality, our State (inaudible) industry above

12 the public health and environments.

13 That means the protections that we do have

14 come as a result of local ordinances or federal

15 mandates, and now our governor has declared that he

16 wants to preempt all of our local ordinances. That

17 leaves federal mandates as our protection.

18 Ozone pollution is a great example of this.

19 Several places, including DFW, we've never even come

20 close to meeting the old 80 parts per billion

21 (inaudible) to make that happen. Even with enforced

22 national law, we only met that standard this past cool

23 summer in Texas, and we've not ever met the (inaudible)

24 75 parts per billion standard.

25 Right now, the Texas Environmental
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1 Protection Agency is supposed to be (inaudible) a plant

2 (inaudible) federal government, explaining how it plans

3 to comply with this current (inaudible), and the State's

4 plan is to try to come close enough to 75 parts per

5 billion, and not by forcing industries to reduce this

6 air pollution, but by waiting for new federal rules on

7 clean burning fuel in automobiles to reduce (inaudible).

8 Industries such as the (inaudible) power

9 plants or oil and gas drilling and processing facilities

10 are essentially using the air we breathe (inaudible),

11 dumping, you know, free disposable (inaudible) air

12 pollution at the cost of our economy, our health, here

13 in Texas.

14 The State will never make these companies

15 reduce their air pollution. That means (inaudible) if

16 EPA actually reduces (inaudible) the ozone standard to

17 60 parts per billion. Setting that new ozone standard

18 will force industries to vastly reduce the air pollution

19 from point sources, and these companies will have to

20 install some of the same pollution control technologies

21 that they're already using in some cities here and other

22 parts of the country and other parts of the world,

23 because there's places that go above and beyond the bare

24 minimum protections.

25 Here in DFW, national gas (inaudible) serve
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1 an example of this. Some cities require them to use

2 electric (inaudible) to reduce air pollution, and most

3 don't. Now, when they run on diesel or gas engines,

4 they can spew tons of toxic air pollution and ozone

5 precursors. And in fact, the fracking (inaudible) is

6 one reason why we've stalled out on any progress in

7 moving forward on reducing ozone pollution (inaudible).

8 But the state environmental agency will

9 never require them to actually all move over to electric

10 compressor engines to reduce air pollution. And people

11 that live near these facilities, obviously, deserve

12 clean air to breathe, and everyone living in DFW

13 (inaudible) deserve not to be treated as second class

14 citizens when it comes to clean air. This is just one

15 example. There are many more like it.

16 We attend the state implementation plant

17 meetings here in Arlington, and we see that the state

18 environmental agency explaining why they don't plan on

19 requiring pollution controls. And it's really amazing

20 how they can keep a straight face when they say that

21 things and pollution control technologies that are

22 already in use in some parts of this region and the

23 country cannot possibly be required for others.

24 If you're not paying really close

25 attention, sometimes it's hard to tell the difference
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1 between a state environmental agency and an industry

2 representative, because they use the exact same words

3 and arguments to argue against any new pollution control

4 technologies.

5 In fact, here are some direct quotes.

6 "Further lowering the ozone standard will fail to

7 provide any measurable increase in human health

8 protection. I haven't seen the data that says lowering

9 ozone will produce health benefits. In fact, I've seen

10 data that shows it will have a negative health impact.

11 The results of these studies are inconsistent, and it

12 remains unclear if ozone is truly related to increased

13 health defects."

14 So, which of these statements do you think

15 came from an industry representative, such as Texas

16 Association of Manufacturers, and which do you think

17 came from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality?

18 The answer is all three of them came from the TCEQ. How

19 is it that the state environmental agency that does not

20 believe that ozone causes health impacts may be expected

21 to enforce standards to reduce the ozone pollution.

22 Why would they if they don't believe

23 (inaudible) health? That's why federal mandates have to

24 be in place to protect people's health, and if the EPA

25 decides to keep the 75 parts per billion standard or
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1 lower it to 70 parts per billion, the state

2 environmental agency and industry will continue stating

3 along the exact same way they've been (inaudible) along.

4 But if you set that lower at 60 parts per billion, that

5 actually forces industries to acknowledge control

6 technologies that are feasible, that are economically

7 feasible, that will help the economy in Texas, not hurt

8 it. And that's what we're asking you to do. So, thanks

9 very much for being here today, and we support the

10 strongest standard that's under consideration.

11 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you very much. Next,

12 we invite Corey Troiani, and on deck, Hector Rivero from

13 TCC.

14 MR. TROIANI: Hi. Good morning. My name's

15 Corey Troiani. I live in Dallas. I'm also a community

16 organizer with Texas Campaign for the Environment.

17 Thanks for opening your proverbial ear to us here in

18 north Texas. So, I'm a Texas born resident. I've lived

19 here about 24 years in what we call a nonattainment

20 zone. We don't achieve adequate air quality for

21 anybody, especially during summer months.

22 So, I want to talk to you about public

23 health, and because invariably, in meetings such as

24 these, industry will show up and touch a little bit on

25 economics, too. So, smog kills people, you know that,
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1 especially little people with developing bodies, kills

2 them. Everyone in this room knows someone with a

3 respiratory illness, I'm guessing, and most people have

4 witnessed somebody suffering or dying of such an

5 illness.

6 So, I remember when I was ten years old,

7 one of my first sleepovers at one of my friend's house

8 during the summer, he woke up in the middle of the night

9 and had an asthma attack, and I really didn't know what

10 to do, but I woke up his mom and, thankfully, she was

11 able to get to him with the nebulizer technology that we

12 have, and she was able to save his life. And I'll spare

13 the details how that affects me because you'll probably

14 hear it over and over, because it happens millions of

15 times, and it has -- in my lifetime, it's happened --

16 that story has happened millions of times in the United

17 States alone.

18 And it's well studied. I mean, the smog,

19 it's very well understood. I grew up thinking that smog

20 was like smoke and fog or something, but like, it

21 smells -- we know what it does. There's a lot of

22 medical science, and scientists are going to speak with

23 you today and tell you what it does. The American Lung

24 Association supports a 60 parts per billion standard.

25 They also say that smog is like getting a sunburn in
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1 your lungs. The American Heart Association linked smog

2 with (inaudible) death of the heart in 2010. It's been

3 further verified. And the broader metrics are clear.

4 The European Union has a standard of 60.

5 Canada has 63. So, why, why is there smog in north

6 Texas? I guess you probably already know. It's

7 tailpipes; it's fracking, cars, industry for the most

8 part. So, I brought a technical paper for you guys who

9 probably like reading them. I do, too. So, it's about

10 fracking. It talks about -- it's published in 2009 and

11 it talks about the effects of air pollution caused by a

12 significant increase in the ozone area in the Barnett

13 Shale. So that's interesting.

14 Let's see. Yeah, so, I mean, there are a

15 lot of people who feel the same way that Zac Trahan

16 feels, who just spoke. You know, the TCEQ and the Texas

17 Railroad Commission doesn't regulate railroads, but it

18 regulates oil and gas. They are what we -- you know,

19 what a lot of people like to call industry lapdogs.

20 They just do whatever industry tells them to do, and

21 they say whatever industry says they should say.

22 So, we do need your help. We absolutely

23 are seeking your organization to bring a better federal

24 standard to protect people's lives. I'll throw another

25 quote out there from the TECQ who says, "Ozone is an
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1 outdoor air pollutant because systems such as air

2 conditioning remove it from indoor air. Since most

3 people spend more than 90 percent of their time indoors,

4 we shouldn't be concerned about it." So interesting

5 thing, TECQ.

6 So, I mean, keep in mind that you're going

7 to hear from a lot of concerned citizens, citizen

8 scientists, medical scientists, and so on. You're also

9 going to hear from the industry, particularly oil and

10 gas industry and heavy polluting industries. So, I want

11 to just touch on economics for just a second here.

12 There are a lot of industries in the United States that

13 are being negatively affected by ozone. There are a lot

14 of businesses that are negatively affected by ozone, and

15 just because you're hearing the oil and gas industry

16 crying to you about how their business is going to be

17 affected if they have to spend a few extra dollars on

18 pollution control, doesn't mean it overall hurts

19 business.

20 In fact, I have another study here -- I

21 didn't pay $39 to do the whole thing. I'll let you guys

22 pay for that, but I have the abstract, and it basically

23 tells that it was released in December of last year and

24 says that we lose billions of dollars a year in crop

25 failure due to smog. So, there may not be a lot of
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1 farmers here today, but these papers can speak for them

2 if they're not here. Smog affects business.

3 And so put me on record with the demand for

4 60 parts per billion, absolutely. I can't tell you how

5 much I'd rather be on the other side of the table to

6 protect our future and our economy, so absolutely thank

7 you for you work. I wish I could be you making this

8 kind of decision, and thank you for making the standard

9 of safety.

10 DR. PACHECO: Yes, good morning. I'm

11 Dr. Susan Pacheco, a pediatrician. I work at the

12 University of Texas Health Science Center. I am in the

13 environmental -- look at me -- see, if I start talking

14 in Spanish, please forgive me, I just get excited. But

15 the Counsel of the American Academy of Pediatrics. I am

16 in the leadership with the American Lung Association and

17 with the Moms Clean Air Force. Now, before I start, I

18 want you to meet a patient of mine. His name is here.

19 What is your name?

20 MR. BECKWORTH: Alex Beckworth.

21 DR. PACHECO: And why are you here?

22 MR. BECKWORTH: Because I have asthma.

23 DR. PACHECO: And can you tell me what do

24 you have in your backpack? I'm sorry, it's Alexander.

25 And why are you here?
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1 MR. BECKWORTH: Because I have asthma.

2 DR. PACHECO: And can you tell them what

3 you have -- carry in your backpack all the time?

4 MR. BECKWORTH: (Inaudible)

5 DR. PACHECO: So anyway, I am a

6 pediatrician, and I am an advocate, and this is Alex.

7 He's -- well, I am his advocate, and I am the advocate

8 of thousands of children across the U.S. that have

9 problems because of smog issues, and I need to mention

10 something that one of my friends that came before me

11 said. When it comes to health, the word, "unfair" does

12 not apply. And that if we look at evidence-based data,

13 there's hundreds and hundreds of articles that prove

14 that ozone is detrimental to the health.

15 Now, in the case of Alex and his sister,

16 who's back there, he has (inaudible), a very -- it's not

17 a common condition, but his body cannot repair injury

18 the same way that most of us can, and what happens to

19 him, for example, when he breathes polluted air is that

20 there's inflammation in his lungs that he cannot solve.

21 So anyway, I just want to bring the words

22 "oxidative stress" and "inflammation" because what it

23 also does in our airways is it reduces oxidative stress

24 and that (inaudible) process that doesn't stay in the

25 lungs but is disseminated. So, what I want to share
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1 with us today is three reasons why I think that we need

2 to implement stricter ozone guidelines.

3 The number one is that I want to move away

4 from asthma because we always talk about asthma, but

5 there are many health conditions in the population where

6 there's already oxidative damage and severe lung damage

7 and that we have not considered in the equation, and

8 it's our kids with cancer and cystic fibrosis, kids that

9 have immunodeficiency. We don't think about that. If

10 you think about this, this is a cumulative process.

11 I have been disturbed, and I will say this

12 even though you are my friends, EPA, because of the

13 emphasis that we put in the secondary standards, and I'm

14 going to quote the statement, and the thing that I think

15 is great is that we have an approach when it comes to

16 secondary standards. We don't have that for children,

17 and I think that is something that we have to consider.

18 But I -- this is in the 2008 document from

19 EPA saying that when we set the secondary standards, we

20 should consider the processes at the level in the

21 systems, and I want us to consider that when we talk

22 about children, because also this affects not only the

23 lungs, but affects also complete development. Different

24 to adults, children are exposed to -- I've been exposed

25 for I don't know how many years. These little monkeys
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1 that I have here were exposed in utero and can be

2 exposed through our own other life, and their body

3 systems are developing and it's something that we have

4 to consider.

5 Now, the most pressing issue that I bring

6 here is that many times -- actually, there's very

7 clearcut data, very good articles published recently

8 from (inaudible), and they are from Mexico City where we

9 have seen that (inaudible), what those -- this is -- it

10 breaks the lining of your airways, so that gives room

11 for more particles to enter into our bodies. That

12 process is inflammation within our lungs, with heart

13 disease and COPD for the pediatric population. We have

14 activation of the immune system. We have (inaudible)

15 process in the brain that we know that can cause

16 cognitive changes and structural abnormalities in the

17 brain.

18 And something that is very worrisome is

19 that we can even see pre-Alzheimer's changes in people

20 exposed to high levels of ozone. So anyway, I

21 completely support the 60 parts per billion and I

22 appreciate your consideration of these issues.

23 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you very much. Next

24 up, Hector Rivero.

25 MR. RIVERO: Good morning. My name is
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1 Hector Rivero. I'm the president of Texas Chemical

2 Council. TCC is a statewide (inaudible) association,

3 representing 70 chemical manufacturers operating about

4 200 manufacturing research facilities across the state.

5 Additionally, we represent almost 500 large and small

6 businesses who depend on industry for their livelihoods.

7 TCC member companies provide approximately

8 70,000 direct jobs and over 400,000 indirect jobs.

9 Together, our industry manufactures thousands of

10 products and medicines that improve the quality of life

11 for Americans and people around the world. We're here

12 today to express our opposition to EPA's proposal to

13 lower the ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards.

14 We believe that the existing EPA ozone

15 standard of 75 parts per billion will continue to

16 provide ample protection of public health. TCC also

17 believes in appropriate peer-reviewed, sound science and

18 does not believe that the scientific evidence provided

19 clearly supports the further load of this ozone standard

20 at this time.

21 Instead, we are in concert with the states

22 to focus on fully implementing and attaining the

23 existing ozone standard before adopting any lower

24 standard. The current U.S. shale economy has created a

25 manufacturing renaissance in our country, generating new
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1 economic investment and job growth opportunities. To

2 date, there have been hundreds of announced projects

3 with billions of dollars in potential investment in the

4 State of Texas and across the country. This investment

5 will result in thousands of new permanent jobs and tens

6 of thousands of indirect jobs in construction and the

7 supply chain here in the United States.

8 The proposed EPA ozone standard will have

9 an economic investment in Texas and would considerably

10 slow or even falter new projects and expansions,

11 negatively impacting jobs in the products and materials

12 entering the streams of commerce across the country. In

13 order to maintain the growth we're currently

14 experiencing and the job growth, we need to ensure

15 sound, stable, and predictable regulatory policies that

16 do not impose unnecessary barriers to growth in our

17 sector.

18 Instead, EPA should focus on fully

19 implementing and attaining the existing ozone standards

20 before adopting any lower standard. Retaining the

21 current standard provides the continued protection of

22 human health and the environment without impeding the

23 welfare of the nation and our economy. The Houston area

24 is home to the largest (inaudible) in the United States,

25 more than 6 million people, and an economy that is
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1 currently thriving exponentially.

2 Even with this growth, the air quality in

3 the Houston and Galveston (inaudible) nonattainment area

4 has improved significantly and continues to improve due

5 to voluntary and existing regulatory programs. Our

6 industry alone has invested over $5 million to reduce

7 NOx emissions by over 80 percent in the HEB

8 nonattainment area from stationary sources. However,

9 mobile sources continue to be the major contributor to

10 the total emission inventory for the area, which are

11 preempted by the federal regulations for the states.

12 Despite the progress made, the Houston area

13 remains nonattainment at the current 75 parts per

14 billion standard. The proposed standard would not only

15 negatively impact business growth in the majority of

16 counties, but will create new restrictions on business

17 growth and economic development in every area of the

18 state that would be a nonattainment under the proposed

19 new standard.

20 Currently, there are 18 Texas counties at

21 nonattainment under the current standard. Should EPA

22 lower the standard to 65 parts per billion, every major

23 populated county of the state would be designated as

24 nonattainment, according to research conducted by the

25 National Association of Manufactures. Nonattainment
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1 status results in increased operating costs, permitting

2 delays, restricted business expansion, and impact

3 economic activity and growth.

4 EPA should also take into consideration the

5 current technology limitations under proposed new

6 standards. EPA's own analysis indicates that a

7 significant percentage of new emission reductions needed

8 will be derived from currently unknown controls. This

9 places states and point sources in a position of trying

10 to achieve required reductions with controls and

11 technologies that currently do not exist. This

12 (inaudible) source of emissions will continue to

13 dominate the total emissions inventory.

14 In conclusion, we urge EPA to seriously

15 consider retaining 75 parts per billion standard and

16 allow full implementation and attainment of the current

17 standard across the U.S. prior to moving the goal line

18 any further. Under the current standard, we can

19 sufficiently continue to provide for the protection of

20 our nation, public, and economic health. Thank you for

21 your time and consideration of our companies.

22 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you.

23 DR. KISSEL: Thank you for allowing me to

24 speak. My name is John Kissel. I'm a retired physician

25 from St. Louis. We're interested in this issue, too.
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1 And I'm a graduate of Harvard Medical School, board

2 certified in internal medicine, fellow of the American

3 College of Physicians. But I'm here really because I

4 have children and grandchildren, as so many people, and

5 I'm here to urge you to protect them, because they very

6 much need your good offices.

7 I want to tell you about my granddaughter,

8 Addie, who is my youngest granddaughter. She was born

9 prematurely at 2.2 pounds, and at that, she had about a

10 75 percent chance of surviving, about a 50/50 chance of

11 surviving without serious medical problems, and she was

12 born -- we've always wondered -- since it's clear from

13 data now that increased ozone levels increase the

14 risk -- we always wondered whether it was a factor being

15 born premature.

16 But we know from clearcut studies that

17 being premature increases the risk of a serious

18 respiratory problems and that that's compound if she

19 lives in an area where there are high ozone levels. It

20 also puts her at increased risk of respiratory

21 infections, which can precipitate in a child like her.

22 So, the good news is that she's healthy.

23 The bad news is that two years ago, she

24 moved with her family here to Dallas. St. Louis has

25 chronically been a nonattainment ozone standard, but it
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1 currently is in marginal attainment. Dallas area, of

2 course, by the time she got here, just got out of a

3 serious nonattainment category into a moderate

4 nonattainment category, so we worry about her every time

5 she gets a sniffle. That's something serious.

6 So, she and I are here to thank you for

7 proposing a lower ozone standard but also to

8 indicate what we think the ozone standard should be, and

9 the science, of course, supports that. It's fairly

10 straightforward. The Clean Air Act doesn't call you to

11 look economics. It calls for you to look at science.

12 Despite very strange things have been published out of

13 the Texas environmental community, the science is really

14 quite clear and you know the science. I'm not going to

15 go through the science.

16 But the other thing I want to tell you is

17 that in Missouri, we're in a similar situation as are

18 the people here in Texas in that our Missouri state

19 agencies are worthless in terms of health environment,

20 and so we depend very much on the EPA, but that's --

21 Missouri is almost as conservative as Texas, but a few

22 years ago, there was a proposition on the statewide

23 ballot that called for utilities to increase their

24 percentage of energy generation from renewable sources,

25 and that proposition called for them to be up by 2015.
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1 Well, that hasn't happened, but it hasn't

2 happened not because the proposition didn't pass. That

3 passed by over 60 percent of the popular vote, and they

4 passed in the state of Missouri. And I think what that

5 shows is that people, regardless of their political

6 persuasion, want to breathe clean air, and they want to

7 have clean water. And in that proposition, there are

8 lots of advertising for industries of various kinds that

9 say this is going to bankrupt the state and so forth.

10 But people voted for -- people want

11 protection for their children and for their own health.

12 Addie has a brother who is almost seven, and like kids

13 his age, he's very interested in superheroes, so the

14 teacher had gave the class an assignment. She said, I

15 want you to go home and talk to your families and your

16 friends and come back, and Monday, we're going to

17 discuss real-life superheroes, not the ones in the

18 comics or the ones on TV.

19 So, I happened to be there when he had this

20 discussion with his parents, and he said, Grandpa, who

21 do you think are real-life superheroes? I thought about

22 it for a minute. Let me tell you about a lady named

23 Jenny McCarthy. I think you guys do more for the health

24 of my children and grandchildren than physicians, and so

25 I encourage you to do it, and I think I can say with
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1 confidence that if you do what you're supposed to do,

2 that we'll have your backs. Thanks.

3 MR. NIEBLING: Thanks.

4 MS. FUGMAN: Hi. My name is Virginia

5 Fugman, and I'm just -- good morning. It's beautiful

6 weather today. So, I just wanted to start off by saying

7 thank you so much for hearing from us, and I feel like I

8 probably speak for -- I feel really fortunate because

9 I'm able to have a job where I can come at 11 o'clock

10 and come talk to you guys on Wednesday and, you know, at

11 also on two occasions outside of DC, so this is awesome.

12 Thank you very much.

13 So, I feel like I just want to take it upon

14 myself to speak for a lot of people. And I love how

15 everyone always talks about their grandchildren and

16 children and all the other people that they know. I

17 don't have any children or grandchildren, so I'm going

18 to be real selfish and speak for me, and I just want you

19 to help save my life, okeydoke?

20 I quit smoking. I stopped drinking. I do

21 floss. I go to my dentist every six months. I'm doing

22 my part, but the odds are stacked against me, and I need

23 you to pull your weight over there. So -- and I really

24 like also that the kiddo with the cowboy hat that says

25 (inaudible). I think you're a total rock star and that
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1 gentleman before me, you guys are superheroes. Just

2 amazing.

3 I want you to go back and think about what

4 were you thinking when you took your job before the EPA,

5 and go back to your before -- I don't know anything --

6 and think about, what do I want to do, how do I want to

7 change this world? And here is, like, a really amazing

8 opportunity to save a ton of lives. So, I just want to,

9 like, get permission to protect the environment. I

10 Googled your mission, and it's very simple. To protect

11 human health and environment. That's legit and amazing.

12 So, I just want -- you're not the IPA, the

13 Industry Protection Agency, you're not the JPA, the Job

14 Protection Agency. So I just want to give you a go to

15 make a really fantastic decision to save the environment

16 and to protect human health and to put a face, so when

17 this comes up again, the name is Virginia and I want you

18 to save my life. Cool. Thank you.

19 MS. GRIFFIN: Hello, I'm Madison Griffin.

20 I'm a community activist with Texas Campaign for the

21 Environment. Thank you so much for allowing us to come

22 and speak with you guys. So, yeah, I'm coming to

23 support lowering the ozone standard 60 parts per

24 billion. So yeah, that current smog standard is

25 insufficient to protect human health of the American
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1 populations, children, minorities, and elderly, so it's

2 imperative that you set that new standard.

3 So, according to the EPA, you guys, setting

4 that standard would improve the quality of life of

5 millions of Americans and prevent the premature death of

6 (inaudible) people. So, I'm going to speak as a local

7 today. I was raised in DFW. I graduated from

8 Waxahachie High School. So, I know firsthand what it's

9 like to grow up in a noncompliant region.

10 So, when I was in high school, I was a band

11 nerd. I was in the competitive (inaudible) marching

12 band, and I spent hours at band camp outside, and the

13 worst thing I had to worry about, as someone doesn't

14 suffer from asthma, is, you know, like, the very

15 embarrassing band pants with crew socks and tee shirts.

16 That's the worst thing I had to worry about.

17 But not so much for my friends. One of

18 them, we'll call him Mark, had been diagnosed with

19 asthma early on in life, and, yeah, while I worried

20 about things like that, he had to stop playing his

21 instrument, French horn, which he'd won numerous awards

22 in to switch to an instrument he didn't have to use air

23 for, percussion. So, yeah, he was at a disadvantage.

24 When I was listening to the weather on the

25 radio, he'd have to listen to the bad air day alert and
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1 decide whether he was going to put activities before his

2 own health. This is a decision children shouldn't have

3 to make in high school. Extracurricular activities are

4 a right of passage, you know, band, cheerleading,

5 football, they all take place outside. You know, people

6 who have jobs also have this issue, I'm sure.

7 So, yeah, fortunately, Mark's story does

8 have a happy ending. He became, you know, leader of the

9 drum section and eventually the drum major, but most

10 stories against adversity don't end in a happy ending.

11 That's why these are so exceptional.

12 Another friend of mine, (inaudible) some

13 schools in north Texas, they have great schools, great

14 teachers, you know, awesome journal publishing, but he

15 said that he wasn't able to apply to any of them because

16 of the smog standards here, because he also with

17 diagnosed with asthma.

18 So yeah, this, I found really surprising.

19 I looked it up on (inaudible). Arlington/Fort Worth had

20 a grade of F, which, in most schools, is not very good.

21 So, yeah, Dallas/Fort Worth needs a wake-up call. We've

22 never reached those ozone levels that you need for human

23 health. We're in a region where the ozone levels are

24 reported with the weather. So, yeah, we need to lower

25 it down to 60. 70 is not enough. Adverse effects are
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1 reported at that level.

2 So, yeah, I urge the EPA to set the ozone

3 standard at 60 parts per billion as the one that you

4 recommend and enforce these in regions of noncompliance.

5 These standards are not meant to reflect what especially

6 noncompliant regions are doing. They're meant to strive

7 towards, and you guys have an amazing opportunity to do

8 that. So, thank you so much for the opportunity, and I

9 know you'll do the right thing.

10 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you very much. We're

11 going to do a little adjustment. Next up, Liz Wally and

12 Rachel Baker.

13 MS. WALLY: I'm Liz Wally, and I'm from

14 Dallas, and for a very brief but intense time, four and

15 a half years, I was on the Dallas Planning Commission.

16 Intense because it was during the time of the gas

17 drilling ordinance. But, of course, much of that time,

18 we just had developers coming in and explaining why they

19 wanted to do what they wanted to and citizens coming

20 when they could get off work to explain why that was

21 going to (inaudible) light or hurt their water or

22 whatever.

23 And so it was a brief time on the -- I've

24 been, usually, on the other side, the ones coming and

25 asking. The weight that a regulatory body has, I think,
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1 is very strong. So, that's basically what I'm going to

2 talk about. And I was struck by a story which does not

3 have to do with the gas, but I'm going to just read it,

4 if I might, to illustrate several points.

5 So, this has to do with the luxury complex

6 that had just been built, very expensive homes in New

7 Jersey that burned to the ground and displaced over a

8 thousand people. Earlier, the morning news conference

9 in the nearby parking lot, Tom Jacobson said the blaze

10 had indeed swept through quickly because of lightweight

11 wood construction as well as a truss style of roof which

12 allowed sections to be built on the ground and then

13 lifted into place. If there was main level concrete and

14 cinder blocks, we wouldn't have this sort of problem, he

15 said.

16 Officials said the sprinkler system had

17 functioned properly. It is intended not to douse the

18 fire but to allow residents time to evacuate. In a

19 statement Thursday afternoon, Michael Fagan, the chief

20 construction officer and "developer of the complex,

21 defended the wood-frame construction as a standard,

22 common, and safe construction method for multifamily

23 housing used throughout the United States." The

24 community was built in accordance with the fire and

25 safety codes applicable at the time, Mr. Fagan said in
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1 the statement. The purpose of those codes is not to

2 prevent the building from burning down but rather to

3 ensure that there is sufficient time and opportunity for

4 all occupants to exit safely in the event of a fire.

5 The statement continued, as a company, the

6 safety and wellbeing of our residents is a priority in

7 the design and construction and operation of our

8 communities. I didn't read the first paragraph. I read

9 these -- they're out of order. The first paragraph

10 says, the complex of luxurious apartments burned down 15

11 years ago before it was even finished in what county

12 officials here described as the worse blaze it had seen

13 in decades.

14 The developers paid to settle lawsuits

15 filed by people displaced from nearby homes then got

16 back to work with the same lightweight wood they had

17 been using. Faster to build with, but also more

18 flammable. On Wednesday -- now we're talking present,

19 the complex (inaudible) caught fire again, the flames

20 raging even harder this time, misplacing more than a

21 thousand residents of the apartments and surrounding

22 buildings, (inaudible) a spectacle rarely seen.

23 This is a familiar story, and the balance

24 that is required on the side of the government

25 regulations versus the health of the community and the
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1 familiar story that we've heard and was referenced

2 before talk about what's easier, what's more economical,

3 but what always comes up is, we did what was required.

4 And what struck me, as planning

5 commissioner, and what strikes me, sitting on the other

6 side now, is that you are the ones that have to set

7 what's required, and without the government setting the

8 regulations at a level that protects, then the industry

9 is not doing anything wrong. Their job is to create a

10 profit for their shareholders. That is their job. It's

11 their job as the teenagers to push the limits of curfew.

12 It's their job, and we watch developers do this, and we

13 watch the industry do it, push as far as it'll go, but

14 it's your job to fight back.

15 So, I totally support what you're doing,

16 and I just want to remind you of the burden on the

17 citizens who are not paid, who don't -- who have had to

18 go out and learn polysyllabic words about diseases,

19 about chemicals, et cetera, take off for free to come

20 and show up. So, I'm simply talking about the process

21 and the weight on the other side to keep the balance

22 between profit and safety. Thank you.

23 MS. BAKER FORD: Good afternoon. My name

24 is Rachel Baker Ford. I live at 3317 Nights Haven Lane

25 in Garland, Texas. I am here representing my family and
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1 the Garland Democratic Voice. I support entirely the

2 new EPA 60 parts smog regulations. And here's why.

3 Have you ever held a child gasping for a

4 breath in the middle of an asthma attack? I have. I

5 can tell you it is one of the most frightening

6 experiences that one can have. The only thing you can

7 do for this child is to remain absolutely calm and

8 steady. I have held my child gasping for breath. Two

9 years ago in February, we took a road trip from Dallas

10 to a friend's ranch located about 20 miles northeast of

11 Denton with our grandchildren from New York.

12 Right straight up I-35, the haze over

13 Denton that winter day hung heavily as we drove through

14 Denton. Abby Ford stuffed up and began coughing. Her

15 nose ran the rest of the day. Older brother, Luke, six,

16 stuffed up through Denton but cleared as we got away

17 from the city line. On the return trip, Abby got worse

18 and Luke's stuffiness returned as we traveled back

19 through Denton.

20 By the time we got to Lewisville, both

21 children had cleared up. All the symptoms disappeared.

22 And it is a known fact that Denton has some of the worst

23 air quality in the nation. On January 15th of this

24 year, my husband and I were on a bus trip. When we

25 traveled up I-35, I stuffed up, my nose began to run,
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1 and I coughed, the same type of reaction my

2 grandchildren experienced on a road trip in February.

3 We know children are at the greatest health

4 risk from air because they're most likely to be

5 outdoors. Asthma strikes one out of every ten in the

6 U.S. and is the number one health issue that causes kids

7 to miss school. The EPA yourself said unchecked

8 (inaudible) pollution leads to long-lasting changes in

9 our climate. The changes threaten American health and

10 welfare for current and future generations.

11 The public health risks include more heat

12 waves, drought, worsening smog, increasing extreme

13 events like hurricanes, and snowfall. Changes in the

14 ecosystem habitat in species and diversity. The EPA has

15 estimated in 2015 that the haze plan protections will

16 prevent 1600 premature deaths, 2,200 nonfatal heart

17 attacks and over 1,348 lost school and workdays related

18 to pollution illnesses.

19 Texas sources produce more haze than

20 Oklahoma and Arkansas combined. The top 14 polluters in

21 Texas in 2009 were coal plants. Typical annual emission

22 and inventories over the last decade and 2009, coal

23 plants admitted 81 percent of the sulfur dioxide, 52

24 percent of the carbon monoxide, 33 percent of the

25 particulate matter, and 22 percent of the lead. And the
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1 dangers of coal burning to the coal burning plants is

2 not limited to the coal burning plants.

3 Coal dust in diesel exhaust from

4 (inaudible) trains and cargo ships can cause serious

5 long-term health problems like lung and heart disease

6 and cancer. The wide ranging health dangers of coal

7 dust include exposure to heavy metals, mercury, and

8 increased rates of asthma, especially in children. I'm

9 sorry -- yeah.

10 It's interesting to know that the

11 Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad estimates that

12 500 pounds of coal can be lost in the form of dust from

13 each railcar en route. So, it's not just complaints.

14 The haze and smog pollution in our wilderness is far

15 more serious than just providing for a beautiful view of

16 our nation's (inaudible) and wildlife areas. The

17 poisonous haze kills. It kills flora and fauna alike.

18 Without air which is breathable, people

19 cannot exist in the wild areas or anywhere. The EPA has

20 proposed a strong plan to address and solve this

21 devastating problem. We strongly support the new

22 regulations of 60 parts. Our lives and yours depend

23 upon it. Thank you.

24 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you very much. Next

25 up, Laura Paul.
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1 MS. PAUL: Hello, my name is Laura Paul. I

2 have come from Clarendon, Texas, a small town 60 miles

3 outside of Amarillo, to testify because we feel strongly

4 about the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for

5 Ozone must do a better job protecting our health. Tyler

6 was healthy when he was born, but around a year of age,

7 he began getting sicker all the time. I used to call

8 him my barometer, because a change in weather can

9 immediately produce symptoms the doctors later diagnosed

10 as asthma.

11 Over the years, he has been hospitalized

12 more times than I can count. Tyler says when he has

13 asthma, he feels like it's an elephant standing on his

14 chest. Fortunately, now that Tyler is 12, his condition

15 is stabilized, and we haven't had a recent incident, but

16 we still have to be vigilant. He still takes his

17 medications with him every time he leaves the house.

18 When your child has asthma, you never stop

19 worrying. Every time he goes to school, goes to a

20 friend's house, rides a bike, you never know what's

21 going to happen. You're aware of poor air quality,

22 allergies, sudden change in temperature, or some other

23 unexpected situation that would put him in danger and

24 you might not be there to help. I am concerned about

25 our own health as well as my son's. Although I was
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1 never diagnosed with asthma, I too have experienced

2 difficulties breathing.

3 As a mother, I am deeply saddened that

4 we're even here debating this, safer standards for

5 ozone, when it is obvious that current standards are too

6 weak, and put our children at harm's way. Scientists

7 and doctors have told us that it's risky for some

8 children with asthma to inhale air with ozone smog.

9 Tyler's lungs are already sensitive. When he breathes

10 in a powerful irritant, his lung tissues swell further,

11 making it hard for him to breathe. He coughs, he

12 wheezes, and he struggles, and we know how quickly a

13 severe asthma attack can become a life threatening

14 event.

15 We live out about 60 miles from the city.

16 The last time Tyler had an asthma attack, I decided to

17 drive him myself to the hospital 60 miles away. That

18 stretch was unbearable, looking behind, thinking that

19 your child's going to die. There's no terms to put to

20 that. Now, I don't take the risk. Call the ambulance.

21 The last time he went, the ambulance crew came, and they

22 didn't realize how severe he was. We made it 30 miles,

23 and they did back-to-back treatments and had him on

24 oxygen, and they said, we're glad that you brought him

25 in and we picked him up.
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1 Ozone is worse in warmer weather, and we

2 Texans are very familiar with this. I am concerned with

3 the climate change bringing erratic weather patterns and

4 hotter temperatures, unhealthy smog levels can become a

5 bigger problem. According to the American Lung

6 Association, more than 6.8 million children suffer from

7 asthma. It is one of the most common chronic diseases

8 in children. About half of them will experience an

9 asthma attack severe enough to require emergency

10 treatment, and although rare, some children, from that

11 asthma attack, will die.

12 On behalf of mothers everywhere, I urge the

13 EPA to do its job by setting the strongest possible

14 standards for ozone. It's about time that the nation --

15 it's about time as a nation that we finally put public

16 health first and make sure our air is safer for everyone

17 to breathe, especially our children.

18 MR. NIEBLING: Tyler?

19 MR. PAUL: Hello, my name is Tyler. I am

20 12 years old, and I attend Clarendon Junior High, and I

21 also have asthma. If you've never had asthma before,

22 you can imagine how it is. It feels like you're under

23 water, and it's something preventing you to reach the

24 surface, and you're running out of air, and nothing you

25 can do. My asthma is like that. I feel like an
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1 elephant is standing on my chest, crushing me.

2 I was a little kid. It was hard not to --

3 now that I am older, I know that if I struggle, it just

4 gets worse, but that doesn't mean it is easy. I have to

5 make myself slow down and take a deep -- few deep

6 breaths the way the doctors have taught me. When we

7 take our -- when we take a deep breath in our lungs and

8 wait. Similar to a balloon when you breathe out, the

9 air fills the air in our lungs.

10 Some experience seen in asthma attacks is

11 difficulty with our air, in or out. Airway constriction

12 is similar to using a small straw to inflate this

13 balloon, and you can see the difficulty with the air.

14 No movement, and the lungs do not really inflate. I had

15 had asthma since I was a very little kid. I spent a lot

16 of time at the doctor's.

17 Now I'm 12 years old -- 12. I am happy

18 that my asthma is under control, but I know that could

19 change at any time. I always have to stay on top. I

20 can't pretend I don't have it because my asthma will

21 never go away. My mom has taught me to double check and

22 make sure that my medication is in my backpack before I

23 go to -- before I leave the house every morning for

24 school.

25 I take asthma medication before gym class.
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1 Otherwise, I start to wheeze and cough, and I can't --

2 and can't make it. I sometimes have to give myself a

3 breathing treatment before band. I play the trumpet and

4 it requires a lot of breath control. It would be

5 impossible for me to hit a single note if I didn't give

6 my lungs a boost with my medication.

7 I am here today with my mom to testify on

8 behalf of all the children -- kids with asthma. Air

9 pollution makes it much harder for kids like me to

10 (inaudible). I am only -- I'm an only 12, but I know

11 that I have a right to clean air. That is why I am

12 speaking up today. You should not have to fight to stop

13 pollution. Thank you for your time. I hope you hear

14 what I had to say will make all of the difference. God

15 bless America.

16 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Next, we invite

17 up Juan Ramirez and Stephen Webster. Also, let you all

18 know, we're running a little ahead of schedule. If

19 anyone wants to go early, please check in at the desk.

20 MR. RAMIREZ: Hi. Thank you for allowing

21 me the opportunity to speak. My name is Juan Ramirez.

22 I'm originally from Texas. I live in Tampa, Florida,

23 now and I wasn't planning to speak. I want to caveat

24 everything that I say because I work for a transmission

25 cooperative in the State of Florida made up of
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1 (inaudible) cooperatives. There's over 900 cooperatives

2 across the United States.

3 I'm here speaking for myself because a lot

4 of people here are speaking from the heart, and a lot of

5 children here, and so I'm going to speak from the heart,

6 too, because I've sat in this issue, and I -- you know,

7 I work in the environmental field, and I work for a

8 nonprofit generation company, and people need to know

9 that some of the misinformation that you're hearing

10 about, you know, asthma and pollution, it's just not

11 true.

12 And before you dismiss my comments

13 before -- because I work for a generation company that

14 has coal or has oil or natural gas, I want you to

15 remember that the Clean Air Scientific Advisory

16 Committee that came up for the NAAQS, they themselves

17 receive millions of dollars. I think every member,

18 including a chair, received grants from the EPA. And so

19 I, you know, I want to -- you know, I feel bad. I see

20 some of these -- my kids have asthma, and they control

21 it with diet.

22 I've studied, you know, the data from the

23 CDC, and I see no relationship between pollution -- you

24 know, from 1980 to the present, asthma has increased

25 dramatically in children, and so I've studied it. You
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1 know, there's a problem, and, you know, I don't want my

2 kids to live in these areas too. I want to solve the

3 problem. I'm a scientist myself. I don't see it.

4 Asthma started going up in 1980 when they

5 made their dietary recommendations. Myself, working

6 with my own children and controlling their asthma, is

7 entirely tied to diet. A lot of these rules and

8 regulations are tied to a reduction in particulate

9 matter less than 2.5 microns (inaudible). We already

10 have a lot of rules in place now and a whole train wreck

11 of rules from mercury to toxic rule, which is based on

12 chemistry.

13 We have now had the (inaudible) for CO2,

14 which is based on the majority of improvements in public

15 health and based on 2.5. We have NO2 one-hour standard.

16 We have the SO2 one-hour standard. I mean, there are a

17 lot of rules in place right now that are affecting the

18 country. And having more and more like this one will

19 place a lot of expense, and it would be very costly to

20 stationary source of people wanting to produce power and

21 -- reliably and affordably and provide it to everyone.

22 Our cooperatives provide power for

23 1.4 million people. We have people that, you know,

24 veterans and people that have been -- you know, I think

25 we have the poorest counties in the State of Florida. I
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1 think a majority of the people in the county are at

2 poverty level, so increasing the rates is going to do

3 nothing, you know, for the public health. There are

4 people wrestling in the pocket for food or necessities.

5 The clean air -- and I want to remind the

6 EPA, they can set the standards outside of what the case

7 recommendations are, and they have before. I looked

8 this up just now, and for carbon monoxide on August 31,

9 2011, the case that -- they recommended that the

10 existing (inaudible) standard provided go down from 9 to

11 3 or 6. The case (inaudible) warned that, based on the

12 analysis and studies presented, there's no consensus

13 that the standards may not protect for adequate safety

14 and therefore (inaudible) that result in lowering the

15 standards should be considered.

16 But despite the case stack's preference for

17 lower standards, the EPA's final rule retained the

18 current (inaudible) standard. EPA's final rule

19 concluded that in certain positions, the (inaudible)

20 standard are too great for the (inaudible) or evidence

21 to provide a basis for arriving (inaudible) the current

22 standard.

23 The they also did it on April 3, 2012, when

24 the secondary nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide NAAQS

25 was released. KSAC recommended using a new method for
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1 (inaudible) nitrogen oxide and sulfur oxide that would

2 have used acid neutralizing capacity of water body left

3 a concentration for the (inaudible). (Inaudible) to

4 support the standard, noting the KSAC (inaudible) and

5 National Parks Service (inaudible) do not adequately

6 protect against these environmental harms.

7 Nevertheless, (inaudible) did not adopt a new standard

8 recommended by KSAC, stating that the administrator has

9 determined that at this time, it is not appropriate in

10 Section 109 to set a (inaudible) standard to address a

11 position in (inaudible).

12 So, they have done it before, and you know,

13 based on just what we see now with all the current

14 regulations, you know, now the mass rule will come into

15 play a role and you're going to see dramatic reductions,

16 and we have seen reductions since 1980. Why there's

17 increased asthma, I'm not quite sure. I think it's

18 still tied to diet. I've read all the studies from

19 California. There are a lot of models that show that

20 diesel emissions from mobile sources are causing asthma

21 or causing cardiac arrest.

22 I question the statistics, and I think that

23 the EPA should look at those -- these papers that have

24 questionable science. I just don't think it's there,

25 and I urge everyone to read for yourself what's in there
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1 and try to come up with a solution to the problem,

2 because the problem right now is not ozone. It's not

3 particulate matter. It's not SOx and NOx. Those things

4 have been dropping dramatically. The problem is

5 somewhere else and lie somewhere else, and we need to

6 look for an answer to that problem. And I believe it's

7 diet, and I've seen it in my own kids, and I'm here

8 because my family is in Texas and I saw what was going

9 on and I just thought I could help. I just wanted to

10 share some information with you. Thanks.

11 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you.

12 MR. WEBSTER: Thank you for doing this, and

13 thank you for listening to my comments. I come not as a

14 member of any organization. I simply come here as a

15 lifelong Texan and a -- somebody who misses the Dallas

16 area tremendously.

17 My father was the first city manager for

18 the City of Addison. He helped master a plan for what

19 was and is there today. My grandfather was one of the

20 founding members of SMU Law, and pretty much my entire

21 family is here in the Dallas area. I am not. I live in

22 Austin, and I traveled here from Austin to speak with

23 you all, not about my political viewpoints, not about

24 science, but about my personal experiences with ozone

25 and with airway issues.
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1 I suffer from reactive airways, and it's

2 only triggered on days that are really intense ozone. I

3 discovered that I suffer from reactive airways the first

4 time that I went to Los Angeles as a journalist on

5 assignment. It was in 2005. I never suffered from any

6 airways until -- before in my life, and I'm 31 years

7 old. We've been hearing a lot about children today, but

8 here I am, an adult male, and I can't go outside in the

9 Dallas area on a hot day when the ozone is bad. I begin

10 to wheeze, and within an hour, I require a rescue

11 inhaler.

12 So, when my doctor realized that I was

13 taking this inhaler so much, they gave me a daily

14 inhaler. They said, no, do this twice a day. Well,

15 this is -- oh, it's only a hundred dollars, but -- only

16 a hundred dollars, right? This was only $35. Both of

17 them, before the Affordable Care Act was passed, cost me

18 three times as much. Now that I have affordable

19 healthcare, I can actually get breathing treatments,

20 which is nice on days when it works.

21 I also carry this. You are all experts in

22 science and medicine, so I'm sure you know what this is.

23 This is an Epipen. An Epipen, you take out and you

24 inject in your leg when you can't breathe. I carry this

25 because that's happened to me three times. I've woken
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1 up in the morning or in the dead of night, unable to

2 breathe, and I don't know if you've ever experienced

3 this personally, but it feels like someone has reached

4 inside your chest and they're holding your lungs and

5 squeezing them and won't let go.

6 You pull as hard as you can, and none of

7 the air that makes it into your passages does anything

8 for you, and it just grows your panic. And you've heard

9 all day people who suffer from these problems. I live

10 in Austin because there's a whole month now in Dallas

11 when I just can't go outside. I can't. And Austin is

12 significantly better.

13 The American Lung Association ranks Dallas

14 number 8 for ozone pollution. Ranks Los Angeles number

15 1. That would explain why, when I stepped off the plane

16 in Los Angeles for the first time, I was headed to a

17 doctor an hour later for my very first inhaler. I am

18 now an owner of a company, a media company. I would

19 have loved to have my company in Dallas. It's where my

20 family and friends are. I can no longer work with them.

21 I'm a journalist and editor, and most of my

22 clients are in the Dallas area. I had to walk away from

23 my career because of the air pollution in the city. So

24 now that I've started over, things are going a lot

25 better for now. Now that I've gotten affordable health
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1 care, things are going a lot better for me. And now

2 that I have a daily inhaler, it's going a lot better for

3 me. But I don't come to Dallas during the summers

4 anymore. I wish that weren't the case. Thank you.

5 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Thanks. We

6 would like to invite Jim Schermbeck.

7 MR. SCHERMBECK: My name is Jim

8 Schermbeck. I'm representing Dallas's 20-year-old

9 (inaudible) clean air group located here in the

10 Dallas/Fort Worth area. I want to thank you for

11 bringing this here to Dallas/Fort Worth and in Texas.

12 Your session is very appropriate. DFW has never been in

13 compliance since the amendments of 1991. We've never

14 met a federal deadline for a standard. We've become the

15 dirty air capital of Texas.

16 Texas, in general, is a lagger when it

17 comes to clean air. Left to its own devices, Texas

18 would never act in a timely way or in any way to review

19 smog except as a side effect of market conditions.

20 That's the result of having an official state position

21 in the state government that smog isn't such a big deal.

22 And that's the official state agency that you're

23 expected to work with.

24 I want to give you, though, an example of a

25 success story that's happened only because the federal
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1 enforcement of the Clean Air Act and because of lower

2 smog standards that have come about for the last two

3 decades, every single one of which, by the way, with the

4 subject to the same objections from industry that you're

5 hearing today. DFW is the location of the largest

6 concentrations of cement manufacturing in the U.S.

7 There are three large plants in close

8 proximity, one in DFW, and that's what this refers to.

9 They've been the largest in North Texas and particulate

10 matter and (inaudible) pollution. But in 1994, this

11 plant was a real nightmare. There were three plants

12 there with 8 kilns. Several of them were wet kilns,

13 which means they are the dirtiest (inaudible) kinds of

14 cement plants you could possibly have (inaudible).

15 In fact, TXI owned the largest hazardous

16 waste permit in the country. Both the Texas waste

17 reporting system and EPA (inaudible) law was letting

18 citizens down. Residents were experiencing the

19 grounding out of plumes, which were literally reaching

20 the ground and were driving people into their homes.

21 There were constant upsets.

22 A decade later, ATSTR, no fan of

23 environmentalists, found that there were dangerous

24 levels of SOx, and yes, ozone coming from these plants,

25 but that was a decade down the road. At the time, both
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1 the federal government and the state government were

2 letting people down. But also in 1994, citizens began

3 pulling the cement plants into the fight over the DFW

4 smog levels.

5 We believed that the only way to reduce

6 pollution at those cement plants was to bring new

7 controls to them through the enforcement of the federal

8 smog standard, first the one-hour standard some of us

9 remember, and then the 85 parts per billion standard.

10 But first, we had to convince government that cement

11 plants impacted DFW smog. Looking at this chart

12 today -- and it's, by the way, PSAT modeling that was

13 done in 2006 -- it's hard to believe there was even an

14 argument at the time, but we had to convince the State

15 that these plants actually impacted DFW smog.

16 In fact, they did. 12 parts per billion or

17 more some days. And you can see asthma that results as

18 a consequence of that thanks to a Cook Children's

19 Medical Center study. We had to bring Ellis County in

20 to do that in the early aughts. We had to show that the

21 technologies that were on the shelf that could decrease

22 this kind of pollution, and indeed, there were. They

23 were in use in Europe, but not in the United States.

24 In 19 -- I'm sorry, in 2006 and '7, in

25 pursuit of the standard, the cement kilns were included
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1 in the (inaudible) for the first time in DFW. And since

2 the (inaudible) recognized technology, and there was

3 something that citizens demand, which was a green cement

4 procurement policy, which advised local governments to

5 boycott the older cement kilns in favor of the newer

6 ones.

7 As a result, in 2015, you don't have eight,

8 you have four, but you have more cement manufacturing

9 capacity. Less kilns. NOx pollution has decreased by

10 70 percent -- 73 percent and SOx by 40 percent. SNCR is

11 considered an industry standard. None of this would

12 have come about without the pursuit of federal ozone

13 standards in this area by citizens, in particular, over

14 the State's objections.

15 But we also need, now, a lower standard in

16 2015 to drive further progress. For one thing, it's the

17 law. It's eight years overdue. Secondly, the kilns

18 very much need state-of-the-art control still. There's

19 a technology called SCR in Europe that hasn't been

20 brought to the United States, hasn't been (inaudible),

21 and the gas industry is very much where these kilns were

22 20 years ago.

23 There's actually more VOCs created in DFW

24 by the gas industry than all on-the-road vehicles and

25 (inaudible), that's a State of Texas figure. So, point
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1 sources are very much still a part of this. As a result

2 of this, though, TSEC has proposed this outrageous plan

3 that actually does nothing about those sources, and when

4 I say that, there's not hyperbole. They're actually

5 waiting for the federal gasoline mix to take effect in

6 2017 to reach the 2018 standard. The current

7 (inaudible) has no controls on it.

8 The success of the cement plant shows you

9 how this strategy, how ozone standard can change an

10 industry, a region, a state. I don't know whether any

11 of you have seen Selma, but environmental enforcement in

12 Texas in 2015 is no difference than civil rights

13 enforcement in Alabama in 1965. Only strong federal

14 action can salvage the situation and give Texans safe

15 and legal air to breathe. Thank you.

16 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Sarah?

17 MS. SHARIF: Sarah Sharif, and I'm in

18 Austin, Texas, with the Sierra Club. My first question

19 is, you know, why even have a better ozone standard,

20 right? Why not? We currently have the standard at 75,

21 and I know that the EPA's proposed to reduce it down to

22 60. I know you're looking at a range, but why not go

23 for the better option. Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio

24 alone, over the past couple of days, are at 80 and 81,

25 as Jim has alluded to.
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1 Dallas/Fort Worth area has not been in

2 attainment for over 40 years. For some folks here, that

3 is their entire lifetime. And so, you know, we're here,

4 basically, to support you. We're asking you to make the

5 standard better, to really tie in the standard, because

6 it affects multiple lives. I know a lot of folks here

7 are speaking from the heart. Why? This is especially

8 important to me. As a child, I also suffered from

9 asthma, and I oftentimes, when I was young, felt guilty

10 of why I couldn't breathe when I was outside during

11 school activities or why my parents had to rush from

12 work to take me to the clinic because I could not

13 breathe at school. The nurses, whatever they were

14 giving me was not strong enough.

15 And the truth is that it was not my fault,

16 and it wasn't my parents' fault of why this was

17 happening, and ultimately, I just think that we deserve

18 better in Texas. Parents deserve better; I deserve

19 better; and younger children and the elderly that

20 specifically suffer from this deserve better. And you

21 know, that's why I'm here. That's why I had to testify

22 to y'all to make things happen. That's all I have to

23 say.

24 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you very much. Next

25 up, Grace Darling and Helen Bush. On deck, we have Andy
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1 Wilson.

2 MS. DARLING: Good afternoon. I don't have

3 anything new to say other than to echo what you have

4 heard here all morning, and that is my name is Grace

5 Darling. I lived in Arlington for 43 years, raised my

6 family here. My children both had asthma. Even though

7 we had lived in other cities when they were little, when

8 they came here, their asthma just blossomed and -- but

9 this is not on a personal level.

10 Yes, I'd like clean air, but it makes good

11 business sense to me to have the lower standard because

12 it is a win-win. The technology's there for industry

13 and businesses to comply with 60 parts per billion.

14 What we need is the political will, and if you live in a

15 state like Texas where business profits outweigh

16 people's health, we need all the support of the federal

17 government that we can get. So I hope the EPA will

18 recommend the 60 and thank you for your time.

19 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you very much. Helen.

20 MS. BUSH: Good afternoon. My name is

21 Helen Bush. I live at 8650 South Western Boulevard,

22 Dallas, Texas. That's the village. I want to thank you

23 for being here. I want to say when I read about the

24 EPA, I am totally supportive and thankful for your work.

25 I support -- I was looking in the '70s at the great
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1 environmental laws passed, which, I think, founded you,

2 and I'm going to keep on protecting our environment.

3 I've been watching this. I've been a

4 resident of Dallas since 1973. I came here aware of

5 environment questions, and I've lived in Dallas for

6 these 40 years. I've been making a living, plus getting

7 education and raising two kids in those 40 years, so my

8 days were filled up. In 2009, I specifically took up

9 this cause to look at what was conservation and

10 environment problems in this area, and so I've been to

11 quite a few three-minute speeches, and I've listened to

12 many people talk about themselves, their own community,

13 their own homes, their own cities.

14 Last week, I went to Oklahoma City, and I

15 listened to speeches. I came back to Dallas the next

16 morning and drove downtown with a view of downtown and

17 saw a huge smog over downtown Dallas. And then I looked

18 in my own community, which is famous for having

19 greenery -- green spaces in an apartment complex, and I

20 couldn't believe it, but I could see the smog rolling

21 through the trees from 75 and the morning brown haze

22 that's famous.

23 To me, they're called -- what's going on in

24 this regional basis, "haze" is an incredible euphemism.

25 It's still smog, it's worse, and it's not just over
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1 cities. It's now regional. And to me, when I listen to

2 these sensible people talk to you as a committee and our

3 government officials and those in power, downtown at

4 City Hall, I think we can hardly convey how strong our

5 feelings are, and also know that I represent certain

6 friends, a good number of networks that agree with me,

7 that work 40, 50, 60 hours a week that can't be here.

8 I have friends that say, well, nothing's

9 going to happen -- because I talk to my own

10 contemporaries. So now, I want to say, we need -- we

11 are very sensibly speaking to you, and controlled, and

12 studied the subject to try to persuade you to uphold the

13 strongest standards that you possibly can because the

14 standards are going down and we're being converged.

15 There's a convergence from the other cities that they

16 predicted 40 years ago, and we're living them now, and

17 we didn't steer away from this problem that we saw

18 coming at us. We're living the same life.

19 You -- I thank you for being here. I would

20 almost want to turn to the audience and go, we are also

21 responsible. And I want to tell you one way that might

22 illustrate how much I know about this from living in

23 Seoul, Korea, remembering articles about Tokyo, and the

24 policemen wore big antique gas masks every day to work

25 to direct traffic, and Los Angeles has a famous problem
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1 that they were going to resolve by better cars. And New

2 York City solved some of its problems. But Texas is

3 getting a convergence.

4 So, I want to tell you how strongly I

5 believe this problem needs to be addressed and

6 conquered. I believe -- I believe when I came here that

7 as a community of people, we were going to be stepping

8 back in our standards of living so that we wouldn't be

9 powering the greenhouse gases they already knew about in

10 the '60s, and we wouldn't be powering up this with more

11 material wealth, that manufacturing energy, daily

12 living, cars, homes, production all generate this.

13 I don't know if we can really go back. I

14 read quite a few books that say our worst enemy is

15 tradition, and I have found that to be true, because

16 when I look at situations that aren't traditional, I'm

17 just one of those that run for cover and look for a

18 brick house and a picket fence and regular car. I'm as

19 bad as anybody. That's why it's community, and that's

20 why it's publicity, and that's why it's talking about

21 the subject, which brings me here today.

22 I want to say one comment because I do kind

23 of think about this and try to read public information

24 available to my contemporaries. I found an old book

25 from 1965 by -- that had only a chapter by Isaac Asimov,
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1 one of our important thinkers, one that influenced Karl

2 Sagan that had so many documentaries on channel 13. He

3 wrote about 30 pages on what he predicted the future

4 would be of real life in 1995, and he writes science

5 fiction, and now it's 20 years later.

6 He was so far off base, and this is why I

7 come to trust my own thinking more and more even though

8 other people can read faster, think faster, remember

9 things more. I keep working at it. He was off base of

10 what he predicted. There's -- thank you very much for

11 listening to my story.

12 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Next up, Berta

13 McLemore and Andy Wilson.

14 MS. MCLEMORE: My name is Berta McLemore,

15 and I had not intended to testify. I had basically come

16 to listen. And so I have no statistics to offer you.

17 I'm originally from New Mexico, and I moved to Texas and

18 have acquired asthma-like symptoms since I got here. I

19 used to be a runner and a -- and then I had to slow down

20 and be a walker. I used to do 30,000 miles a year. I

21 can no longer do that because if I go out and walk --

22 and unfortunately, I walked here today -- my nose gets

23 stopped up, and the next symptom that's going to -- I'm

24 going to acquire is that I'm going to start having a

25 sinus infection.
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1 If I get to 1400 this year, I will be

2 really happy, but it's going to be within my house,

3 within the mall, within some other place where I

4 can't -- don't have to go outside. I want something

5 more for my grandchildren. I have none right now, but I

6 want more for my grandchildren. I've watched my son

7 suffer from asthma. He wanted to be a football player,

8 but he couldn't because he couldn't make it through the

9 game because he couldn't breathe. And so he went to get

10 on steroids to help him get through the time.

11 I would like to agree with the person who

12 was several before me who said it was food, and we tried

13 that. It's not all food. It's the air. You can't cut

14 out -- it's not one symptom. It's several symptoms.

15 But if you cannot breathe, then you might as well die

16 anyway and that's what we're here for. It's not just

17 water that we need, but it's air. I want to thank you

18 for even having regulations. Please don't give up.

19 Please go for the stricter ones so that the future will

20 remain.

21 If we can't breathe, then there's no hope

22 for anybody, and I thank you for taking on that -- the

23 charge of trying to clean up the air. Please don't be

24 intimidated. Please do it. Thank you.

25 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Andy.
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1 MR. WILSON: Hi. Thanks for this occasion.

2 I'm here to talk about my friend, Jeff. This is Jeff

3 Weiss, a good friend of mine, and I'm -- this is the --

4 in memoriam page from the Walker Funeral Home in Utah.

5 Jeff Michael Weiss, beloved brother and son, passed away

6 unexpectedly on May 27, 2014 at the University of Utah

7 Medical Center from complications from a massive asthma

8 attack. Jeff was 49 years old.

9 Jeff was a great friend and well known

10 throughout the community. Over a thousand people came

11 to his funeral. We loved him. He was a brother, he was

12 a mentor, and he lived in Salt Lake County, which, every

13 January and February, has some of the worst air

14 pollution in the entire country. On the day of his

15 asthma attack when he passed away, the Utah Division of

16 Air Quality had the air quality that day as (inaudible)

17 standards. But I checked, and the ozone levels were in

18 the 60s.

19 The systems that we have in place are

20 simply not doing the job that they need to do to inform

21 the public and to protect the public, and I am convinced

22 and other of Jeff's friends are convinced that he passed

23 away largely because we failed. We failed to stand up

24 for clean air and, you know, it's easy -- it was always

25 easy for me to think of the environment as an abstract
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1 thing.

2 I believe in clean air; I believe in clean

3 water, but I'll tell you what, I didn't care about clean

4 air until I got a phone call, living -- well, going to

5 grad school in the Bronx from a member of our church

6 board asking us if we could please drive them to the

7 emergency room because their child was having an asthma

8 attack.

9 I didn't realize how much we were hurting

10 people, because it was all in the abstract, and that

11 immediately breaks me out of the white privileged world

12 that I live in to be in a community of color where this

13 is daily for them, and we are failing those communities

14 and allowing us to create environmental sacrifice zones

15 where -- well, they aren't violating all of the

16 standards, but they are occasionally violating some, and

17 you know, the NOx levels, the ozone levels there,

18 they're okay; they could be stronger.

19 They're obviously not strong enough

20 because, as we've heard from so many people testifying

21 today, there's real harm being done, and so many people

22 have these stories, and we need to do better. And I

23 sincerely hope that we will. My father still lives in

24 Utah county. He suffers from COPD and asthma, and every

25 year, I hope that the air quality will get better and we
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1 will do something so that I don't lose him unexpectedly

2 as well. Thanks for your time.

3 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you very much. Next

4 up, we have Susan Cooper and Mary Goodman.

5 MS. GOODMAN: Hello, my name is Mary

6 Goodman, and I'm the chairperson of the Fort Worth

7 Sierra Club, and I'm speaking on behalf of the Sierra

8 Club and also on behalf of myself. Texas is not a fan

9 of regulations, as you all know, and we haven't met the

10 ozone numbers that we should have met years ago. And

11 Texas (inaudible) say we're going to do, but you all

12 know what the TCEQ is like.

13 Anyway, the Sierra Club recommends or our

14 opinion is that we would like the ozone standard lowered

15 to at least 65 parts per billion, and we're nowhere

16 close to that right now. Our advantages to that is that

17 it would lower asthma rates, which my great nephew has,

18 and cases of lung disease and heart disease. Lowering

19 the standard -- lowering the ozone would cause Texas to

20 make changes to its air quality plan, and -- hopefully

21 by more closely regulating the coal fire plants and the

22 oil and gas industry.

23 It would save money spent on healthcare,

24 the emergency room visits, would make breathing easier

25 in the DFW area, and with that, would draw more
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1 companies to -- and jobs to Texas. Since Texas is not

2 really carrying out or enforcing our federal laws now,

3 we feel -- we recommend that the EPA take over air

4 (inaudible) and revision of the state implementation

5 plan from the TCEQ, and just thank you all for being

6 here. And personally, I'm a Democrat, and it's lonely

7 in Texas to be a Democrat, and so we rely on the Feds to

8 help us get what we need, because regulation is just

9 anathema to this state.

10 MS. COOPER: Thank you. I am Susan Torres

11 Cooper. Please note that in front of me, I have a

12 nebulizer, an inhaler, a rescue inhaler, a flutter

13 valve, which is designed to relieve chest congestion,

14 and a bottle of Robitussin to subdue violent coughing.

15 I am in the care of a pulmonologist. I get severe

16 bronchitis and have sometimes been hospitalized for it.

17 But, of course, I live in the Dallas/Fort

18 Worth area which, according to the American Lung

19 Association, is eighth among cities for ozone pollution.

20 As you surely know, our area has been in nonattainment

21 for about 25 years. The American Lung Association

22 states more than half the people in the United States

23 still breathe air dirty enough to cause health problems.

24 I speak of health problems such as asthma,

25 one of the greatest causes of school absences and other
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1 respiratory problems, also cancer, premature births, and

2 birth defects. The air tends to be dirtiest in larger

3 cities. The causes are multiple, and they are

4 cumulative. Cities are congested with traffic and

5 therefore high vehicular emissions. Coal mining by

6 mountaintop removal spews tons of debris into the air,

7 and that's causing high incidence of cancer and other

8 illnesses to the citizens of Appalachia.

9 Coal fired power plants eject thousands of

10 tons of particulates into the air. This pollution

11 extends to Louisiana, Arkansas, and extensive areas in

12 Texas, including our own Metroplex, and reaches as far

13 as Big Bend, approximately 500 miles away. The Union of

14 Concerned Scientists states, coal is the worst offender,

15 a dirty energy source that produces less than half of

16 our electricity but nearly 80 percent of all power plant

17 carbon emissions.

18 Fracking. The health risks from fracking

19 are not limited to what's in our drinking water. Oil

20 and gas operations are also poisoning the air we

21 breathe, says Natural Resources Defense Council senior

22 scientist, Marion (inaudible). And (inaudible) are not

23 even required to disclose what chemicals they use.

24 Nuclear power plants produce no air

25 pollution or global warming emissions when they operate
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1 but can cause damage to human health and the environment

2 in the event of a meltdown or other disaster, as

3 evidenced by the Fukushima disaster in Japan.

4 Oil, and especially (inaudible), are the

5 most dangerous of all. Consider all of the ruptures,

6 spills, and explosions that happen even just in recent

7 years. An oil pipe just exploded in West Virginia with

8 flames and huge volumes of filthy smoke. The BP spill

9 has not been cleaned up yet. There is no successful

10 technology to clean up tar sands spills, such as that in

11 the Kalamazoo River or the Exxon spill at Mayflower,

12 Arkansas.

13 Many residents now have life changing

14 illnesses from the spill. Communities along the routes

15 of existing tar sands pipelines and the earth extractive

16 mining sites report high incidences of cancer, and now,

17 heaven help us all, the Senate is debating whether to

18 approve the construction of a Keystone Exxon pipeline.

19 EPA, the effect is cumulative and

20 devastating. We are counting on you to reduce the

21 danger to public health by setting strict carbon limits

22 and imposing harsh and meaningful penalties to corporate

23 violators. Breathing clean air and drinking safe water

24 are basic human needs. We are counting on you. You of

25 the EPA are our last hope. Thank you.
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1 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Next, we'd like

2 to invite up Lawrence Goodman and Al Braden.

3 MR. GOODMAN: My name is Lawrence Goodman.

4 I'm vice chair of the Fort Worth group Sierra Club. I'm

5 here representing the Sierra Club in our area and

6 myself. As one of the ladies before me said, I can't

7 imagine anything more important than our air. Without

8 it, we die, and this is not just talk. In Texas, in

9 this area, TCEQ has shown repeatedly they're not

10 interested in our air.

11 The Midlothian area southeast of here has

12 had cement kilns. The air has really been affected by

13 that. TCEQ has done nothing to affect that and nothing

14 to change that. The only thing that has changed is in

15 the cities in the area refusing to buy their cement, and

16 that has helped, but we still have one kiln that's

17 dirty, and it needs to change.

18 I also would like to recommend EPA take

19 over permitting in our area. TCEQ apparently will not

20 do it. They won't fight or argue with industries, which

21 are very powerful, I understand that, but this isn't --

22 TCEQ won't do it. There's been a lot of examples of

23 federal authorities having to be involved in state

24 issues when the state wouldn't fulfill their

25 responsibilities. Unfortunately, some of that happened
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1 in the '60s when the states were not giving equal rights

2 to people, and I think this is in the same frame of

3 that. I guess that's all I have to say. Thank you for

4 your attention. I appreciate y'all being here today.

5 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you very much.

6 MR. BRADEN: Hello. My name is Al Braden.

7 I'm from Austin. Thank you for being here and listening

8 to our citizens today, and not just to the corporations,

9 as we talk about our concerns for clean air. The lady

10 who spoke just a minute ago, I think, tells you why air

11 is so critically important. But we count on you to make

12 our air clean, our water clean, and to take the toxins

13 out of our soils.

14 I remember the first Earth Day in 1970 and

15 the hope that we had that our voices would finally be

16 heard. The life sustaining air and water would be

17 renewed. Frankly, I was no fan of Richard Nixon, but

18 even he heard the need to remove toxins, so Richard

19 Nixon listened and create the EPA back in 1970. So it

20 was with a profound sense of irony as we debate the

21 ozone limits of 60 parts per billion that the scientific

22 community shows could be lifesaving that I move to

23 wonder, do we have Richard Nixon's courage today?

24 I listened intensely to Senator

25 Whitehouse's hearings on ozone this past December. And
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1 the current mantra of Congress is, I'm no scientist.

2 Well, I'm not a scientist either, but I can read and

3 listen and evaluate evidence. The evidence put before

4 Senator Whitehouse's committee was really compelling.

5 Dr. Gregory Wellness of Brown University School Public

6 Health outlined the scientific consensus of 14 major

7 national health organizations to join in a letter to

8 President Obama, strongly supporting the 60 parts per

9 billion, saying it would clearly save lives among

10 children.

11 Among others, it was signed by the American

12 Academy of Pediatrics, American Heart Association,

13 American Lung Association, and the American (inaudible)

14 Society. These are the scientific experts who know

15 firsthand and much more than I how ozone affects

16 everyday lives of Americans, and their testimony

17 summarized over a thousand scientific studies.

18 All of these studies are part of the

19 overwhelming evidence that's already been presented to

20 EPA pointing to health and environmental damage in

21 countless ways. Also (inaudible) theories was Dr. Brian

22 Shaw, head of Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

23 In the face of that scientific evidence, Dr. Shaw was a

24 no-show, but his views are pretty well known.

25 A lead story in the Austin American on
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1 December 27th quoted Michael Honeycutt, a researcher who

2 works for Dr. Shaw as saying, quote, one reason we

3 shouldn't worry so much about air pollution is that we

4 spend most of our time indoors. TCEQ is planning to

5 spend $1.65 million for research to support that point

6 of view. Clearly, we in Texas need outside help to take

7 care of our outside air. So, my question to the EPA is

8 not how to make our air safer to breathe, it's why it

9 takes so long. And I know the answer.

10 The big fossil fuel industry has much -- is

11 huge and has much political power, but I ask you to

12 continue to listen to citizens who breathe the air, the

13 children, the elderly, and the poor who live near the

14 ozone producing power plants. In Austin, there are

15 schools directly across the street from our biggest

16 point source of ozone pollution, which is the aging

17 Decker Gas plant. And in Fayette, down in LeGrange

18 County, our coal plant is the eighth largest single

19 point source of nitrogen oxides in all of Texas.

20 So I ask you, please give us the necessary

21 60 parts per billion ozone regulations that medical

22 experts across the country demonstrate will help us

23 breathe safer air. Please give us the regulations we

24 need to bring local pressure to clean up our own act.

25 Thank you. Thank you very much for your service.
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1 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you very much. At

2 this point, we have completed our morning session and we

3 will recess until 2:00 p.m. and take further testimony.

4 So go to lunch.

5 (Break taken from 1:07 p.m. to 2:05 p.m.)

6 MR. NIEBLING: Good afternoon, and welcome

7 back. My name is William Niebling. We appreciate you

8 for being here today. We're here today to listen to

9 your comments (inaudible) to the National Ambient Air

10 Quality Standards for Ozone. We started this hearing

11 this morning and took a brief break for lunch. In a

12 moment, I'm going to call up Thomas (inaudible) and

13 (inaudible) Brymer, the first two people to testify for

14 our afternoon session.

15 The proposed National Ambient Air Quality

16 Standards for Ozone were announced on November 25, 2014,

17 and published in the Federal Register on December 17 of

18 2014. EPA's proposal is based on extensive scientific

19 evidence about ozone's effect on public health and

20 welfare. The proposed updates will improve public

21 health protection, particularly for children, the

22 elderly, and people of all ages who have lung diseases

23 such as asthma.

24 It will also improve public welfare

25 protection, particularly related to ozone sensitive
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1 trees and other (inaudible) ecosystems such as national

2 wilderness areas. We've proposed (inaudible) primary

3 ozone standard to protect the public health and the

4 secondary (inaudible) standard to protect public

5 welfare.

6 We're proposing to set the levels in the

7 primary and secondary in the range from 65 to 70 parts

8 per billion. These standards will be met when the

9 three-year average of the fourth highest daily maximum

10 eight-hour ozone concentration is at or below the new

11 level. The proposal would also extend the ozone

12 monitoring season for many states and update the air

13 quality to ensure that people are informed about their

14 air quality. These proposed standards do not establish

15 emission controls (inaudible) industry.

16 Instead, each state, as needed, will

17 determine how best to meet the standards in a way that

18 makes the most sense for that area. States will have

19 time to develop and implement plans to meet the revised

20 standards, and existing (inaudible) federal rules will

21 help the vast majority of areas meet the proposed

22 standard by 2025. I'd like to thank you each for taking

23 time out of your day to (inaudible) and share your

24 comments.

25 Before we get started, I'd like to go
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1 through some housekeeping items and ground rules to make

2 sure that this afternoon moves swiftly. First, please

3 be sure you've checked in at the registration desk, even

4 if you are not planning to speak today, and if you

5 signed up to speak online or on the phone, let the EPA

6 staff know that you've arrived. I will call up speakers

7 in pairs.

8 When your name is called, come up to the

9 front of the room. I'll call on you to please state

10 your name and please state it for the court reporter so

11 she can spell it accurately. Your comments will be

12 transcribed and included in the official records on the

13 proposed rule. Each speaker will have five minutes to

14 give comments. We have a light here to let you know how

15 much time you have remained to speak. The light will

16 flash red and beep when you've spoken for five minutes

17 and it's time to stop.

18 Please remain at the table until the person

19 next to you has completed as well. We're here to listen

20 to you today. However, a panel member may ask questions

21 to clarify your comments. After each pair of speakers

22 has spoken, I will call up the next pair and so on and

23 so forth. If you have a written copy of your testimony,

24 give a copy before you leave today. We will put any

25 written comments in the official docket for the proposed
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1 rule.

2 If you have additional comments you would

3 like to make, submit them in writing until March 17th,

4 2015. Instructions are available at the materials table

5 near the desk. The hearing will continue until 7:30

6 p.m. tonight. We may take breaks as needed. If you

7 have any questions during the day, see the staff, and

8 someone will try to help you.

9 Finally, I'd like to ask each of you to be

10 respectful of everyone today. We would like to hear

11 from each of you. So that we can be fair, we ask that

12 everyone listen quietly. Even applause can slow things

13 down. Thank you again for taking the time today to

14 share your comments on EPA's proposal, and we should get

15 our afternoon started.

16 So with that, I'd like to invite up Tom

17 "Smitty" Smith and David Brymer.

18 MR. SMITH: Good afternoon. My name is Tom

19 "Smitty" Smith. I'm director of Public Citizens' Texas

20 office. My name -- I run a group called Public Citizens

21 Texas, which is a national consumer and environmental

22 organization, and I've run their Texas office for 30

23 years. I'm here on their behalf, but I'm also here as

24 an adult onset asthmatic.

25 For about 16 years, I've had the great
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1 pleasure of living near to Interstate 35 and about eight

2 miles from downtown Austin and adjacent to the old

3 Mueller Airport. About ten years into that residency, I

4 began to wheeze, and I couldn't ride my bike anymore.

5 And I went to my physician, and he said, well, duh, what

6 are you thinking? You're in a perfect place. You burn

7 your lungs from the ozone coming both from the highway

8 and from that airport.

9 As a result of that, I began to do what

10 many of us as asthmatics do, the daily ritual of

11 inhalers, never going anywhere without an inhaler in my

12 pocket or my briefcase and several in my cars. I'm a

13 lucky man in that I'm able to still breathe and walk and

14 I've got a whole lot of restrictions with these

15 medications, and (inaudible) places because they can

16 cause trigger.

17 When you look at the data nationally, what

18 you see is millions of dollars' worth of

19 healthcare-related costs associated with asthma that are

20 borne not only by the people who have asthma, but the

21 people -- the insurance companies, and here in Texas,

22 since about a quarter of our medical or population is

23 eligible for Medicaid, increasingly, people in the State

24 of Texas, and every time a kid has a difficult time

25 breathing and is rushed to the emergency room, it costs
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1 taxpayers or their parents $3,000, on average, for that

2 emergency room visit.

3 One of the largest sources of the gases

4 that are causing asthma or the ozone is triggering a lot

5 of these asthma attacks are the big old coal plants to

6 the south and east of the Dallas/Fort Worth area. I'm

7 here today, in particular, to point out that those

8 emissions coming from those coal plants could

9 dramatically be reduced, either through the addition of

10 off-the-shelf controls that TCEQ has now permitted for

11 other coal plants in the State of Texas, both

12 traditional (inaudible) river basin, but also the --

13 that have an effective rate in north of 90 percent.

14 And that those would make a significant

15 difference, both in terms of the air quality downstream

16 or downwind, but also in terms of healthcare cost.

17 You'll hear more about that later on from Dr. Robert

18 Haley. But when you look at healthcare costs from coal

19 in Texas, estimate by the Clean Air Task Force is about

20 $2.5 billion a year from air pollution related to these

21 big coal plants, and most of that, unfortunately, is due

22 to early death, but a significant amount of it is due to

23 avoidable asthma-related attacks that we're all paying

24 for, somewhere in the neighborhood of about $300 million

25 a year, and that comes from the source.
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1 And when you look at the studies that have

2 been done, one of the things that stands out, and TCEQ's

3 own data is that if you look at the population of coal

4 plants in south -- the southeast of Dallas, and you

5 compare it to the 75 parts per billion study we have in

6 Texas for ozone today, that the monitor at Denton

7 Airport South that does not comply and is the one

8 remaining monitor in this area that would not comply

9 with the 75 parts per billion would come in compliance

10 if you simply required SCRs on all of the existing coal

11 plants in south and east Texas. And the folks over at

12 TCEQ now consider that best available control

13 technologies.

14 It would, in addition, not only bring into

15 compliance, make a big down payment on getting to the 70

16 parts per billion level that you all are considering.

17 Now, I would urge you to go deeper, certainly down to 65

18 and down to 60, because it's going to save us all money,

19 and it will allow us to take a deep breath in the

20 Dallas/Fort Worth area again. Thank you all for your

21 time.

22 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you.

23 MR. BRYMER: I'm David Brymer. The TCEQ

24 recommends retaining the ozone standard, because the

25 available science does not support the standard between
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1 65 and 70 will provide additional health benefits. For

2 example, the EPA's own analysis does not show reduction

3 in the asthma patients from lowering the standard.

4 There's no doubt the ozone levels in 80s

5 and 90s caused health effects and improved air quality

6 (inaudible) the health standards. However, the EPA has

7 not demonstrated that further lowering of the ozone

8 standard is necessary to protect public health. Air

9 quality now is better than ever. Most of Texas recorded

10 the lowest ozone damage ever in 2014. The Houston and

11 Dallas/Fort Worth areas have seen ozone levels reduced

12 29 and 21 percent respectively for the last 15 years

13 while populations increased 34 and 29 percent.

14 The citizens of Texas should be proud of

15 our (inaudible) to improve air quality. (Inaudible)

16 mobile sources. For example, in Houston, major

17 stationary industrial sources have cut emissions over

18 80 percent the last 15 years. The replacement of older

19 or higher emitting vehicles for newer and lower emitting

20 vehicles has also resulted in significant NOx

21 reductions.

22 (Inaudible) programs that incentive heavy

23 diesel replacement contribute to mobile emission

24 reductions. Large additional reductions for major

25 stationary sources will be difficult in most areas in
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1 Texas because of the tremendous reductions already made

2 by industry. Mobile sources now emit the vast majority

3 of NOx emissions, and significant reductions beyond

4 (inaudible) or accelerated (inaudible) will be very

5 challenging given the limited jurisdiction the states

6 have over these sources.

7 (Inaudible) air quality standards are

8 maxed, it will have significant economic impact on

9 industrial and mobile sources such as motorists and

10 doctors. (Inaudible) one tons a year of (inaudible) and

11 (inaudible) currently has a market value of $200,000.

12 Since economic cost of this rule would be tremendous, it

13 is imperative that the science justifies this rule. But

14 more importantly, integrated analysis does not

15 demonstrate health benefits from lowering the current

16 standard.

17 A significant resource investment in a more

18 (inaudible) standard is missing an opportunity to

19 instead focus significant resources on more pressing

20 public health concerns. This includes determining what

21 other factors (inaudible) quality, allergens, secondhand

22 smoke are contributing to increase (inaudible) in lieu

23 of just continuing to lower the ozone standard and not

24 realizing any reductions in asthma-related illnesses.

25 The EPA has decided that (inaudible)
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1 studies that connect ozone with premature mortality.

2 However, the majority of these studies do not

3 appropriately account for other potential causes such as

4 temperature, other pollutants or personal

5 characteristics, such as age and smoking. These studies

6 are inconsistent in finding positive associations

7 between ozone and premature mortality. The (inaudible)

8 wrong with ozone epidemiology studies is that

9 (inaudible) misclassification.

10 It is universally acknowledged, even by the

11 EPA, the personal exposure to ozone it is 10 to

12 20 percent of ambient levels. This means that

13 epidemiology studies overestimate ozone exposure to

14 people in those studies and therefore their risks by

15 five to tenfold. This fact alone renders these studies

16 not useful in setting an ozone standard nor in

17 calculating benefits for the (inaudible) analysis.

18 EPA claims that ozone causes premature

19 mortality in concentrations much lower than the levels

20 have shown (inaudible) and lung function effect in human

21 clinical studies. This is illogical because no toxicant

22 causes (inaudible) at doses lower than those that cause

23 mild reversible effects. The TCEQ agrees with the EPA

24 that the ozone clinical data are best for studying the

25 ozone standard. TCEQ also reads that (inaudible)
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1 10 percent (inaudible) one detriment in the sensitive

2 population is the most appropriate end point to protect

3 against because it is a mild and reversible effect.

4 The more recent clinical studies used

5 healthy individuals who exercised for 50 minutes out of

6 every hour for nearly seven hours. This matters because

7 increased exercise increases ozone dose, and with regard

8 to sensitive populations with moderate or severe

9 respiratory disease, this group cannot exercise at high

10 levels for eight hours; therefore, they cannot inhale

11 enough ozone at 75 parts per billion to cause even a

12 mildly adverse respiratory effect.

13 Any time the EPA revises the NAAQS, it is

14 critical that the agency provide timely guidance to the

15 states on all aspects of implementation, including

16 physical guidance and models. I'm pleased that the EPA

17 acknowledges the importance of timely guidance

18 (inaudible) development. If NAAQS are revised, I

19 strongly encourage the EPA to adhere to the schedule for

20 release of guidance outlined in the preamble to the

21 proposed rule.

22 We all share in the common goal of clean

23 air and good health of our citizens. However, EPA's own

24 research shows a minimal benefit from the reduced

25 standard, and it is imperative that rather than making
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1 the standard more stringent, that emphasis needs to be

2 placed on better science and research to determine the

3 causes of increased asthma and the appropriate ways to

4 reduce it. Thank you for allowing us to provide

5 comments.

6 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Next we'd like

7 to invite up Robert Harris and David Martineau. We'll

8 put on deck Susan Lippman and Antonio Gonzales.

9 MR. HARRIS: I didn't bring a written

10 speech, but I'd like to voice my opinion in this area

11 concerning the EPA regulations.

12 MR. NIEBLING: Would you please state your

13 name for the court reporter?

14 MR. HARRIS: I'm sorry. Robert Harris, and

15 I'm an Arlington resident here in Texas. We have some

16 concerns -- many people have concerns over the data and

17 over the factual information that's done by certain

18 agencies in the country, not just in -- not just on the

19 (inaudible) level, but also on an individual level.

20 There has been a lot of scientific data

21 that's come out in the last decade that disputes many of

22 the things we believed two decades ago or three decades

23 ago. We used to believe that the majority of ozone was

24 generated by lightning strikes three decades ago, so we

25 passed regulations. Of course, we accumulated data and
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1 we used this to decide how we're going to handle all

2 these situations, and today -- in 2003, they had a

3 university study conducted out of Texas A&M University

4 with NASA which showed that only 30 percent of our ozone

5 is generated from lightning strikes, which was a great

6 achievement in the fact that they were able to collect

7 that data, but then it left even more questions

8 unanswered, and those questions were, okay, well,

9 where's the other 70 percent of the ozone coming from?

10 It's been here all along. We can't blame it on man

11 because it was here before man existed on this planet.

12 It leaves a lot of interesting questions

13 that we need to address. And when we're looking at

14 data, it seems like so many cases, we'll take a little

15 piece of the pie and we'll try to explain the big

16 picture with it. In the last decade, since that

17 research came out of NASA, there are researchers around

18 the world today that are looking at some theories that

19 algae release so many parts per billion into the

20 atmosphere, and there's been evidence that that exists.

21 But that's not part of our dynamic program in regulating

22 and understanding the numbers on how we're going to

23 conduct business.

24 Another thing, you know, back in the

25 '70s -- and excuse me if I'm a skeptic -- but back in
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1 the '70s, they ran an ad in a commercial that said we're

2 all going to burn up if we don't do something about the

3 ozone. Okay, that -- and that was by the year 2000.

4 It's already past 2000. That hasn't happened, so I

5 think that was a little over the top. And that was

6 produced from data that people claimed to have. You

7 know, at first they told us that the global icecaps were

8 going to melt by 2014. They're still there.

9 They've told us the equator wasn't going to

10 be inhabitable, back in the '80s, by 2010. There are

11 people still living out on the equator. I'm not

12 criticizing the EPA. What I'm suggesting here is that

13 we reach out not just in this country, but to the

14 international community, and let's come up with some

15 solid, solid evidence. Let's get some more research in

16 on where's the other 70 percent of the ozone coming

17 from?

18 We sit back as human beings, and we claim

19 to think that we know what's going on, and we control

20 the planet, when in reality, the data that's coming out

21 seems to indicate that the planet controls us. We don't

22 control it. I would like to encourage the EPA in moving

23 forward to get with the international community, and

24 let's check into some more of the research that's going

25 on around the world, and let's try to draw up some
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1 conclusive evidence on this stuff instead of taking bits

2 and pieces of a puzzle and trying to say that solves the

3 whole thing, because that's not going to get us where we

4 need to be passing good legislation.

5 And I don't think anybody's in favor of

6 dirty water and air. I know I'm not. We have to do

7 this orderly, professionally, and we have to admit our

8 mistakes in the past and admit that we weren't as

9 intelligent and as smart as we thought we were in the

10 past. And let's use it -- and let's use it to our

11 benefit, to our nation's benefit, for the world's

12 benefit. Thank you.

13 MR. MARTINEAU: My name is David Martineau.

14 I live in Dallas, Texas. I back up what he said.

15 Unbelievable. I've been in the oil and gas business in

16 Dallas, and I just want to talk about some of the things

17 that -- it just really backs up what he said. It's

18 related to health impacts on the oil and gas production.

19 As someone who works in the oil and gas world, I urge my

20 neighbors to be savvy with the information and keep an

21 eye on the claims masquerading as science which have

22 been widely discredited by science experts.

23 We have seen claims about air quality and

24 many of the others which are based on flawed research

25 and inappropriate comparison of air test results and
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1 safety thresholds, just here in this neighborhood here.

2 In north Texas, some have linked breast cancer with

3 increased drilling, but there's no credible evidence to

4 support this.

5 As reported by the Associated Press experts

6 from the University of Texas in Dallas, the Texas Cancer

7 Registry and the Susan G. Komen for the Cure in Dallas

8 all said there's no evidence for increase in cancer in

9 these counties in question. The Department of State and

10 Health Services completed its third investigation of

11 cancer in Flower Mound, the area where natural gas

12 occurs. The investigation reached the same conclusion

13 the department study did in 2010, which found no

14 evidence of cancer clusters in the area.

15 The department attributed the cancer rates

16 to the area where the natural gas (inaudible) because of

17 the increase in population and the use of mammograms now

18 to determine that you could have cancer. Even way up in

19 Colorado, for example, you may have read the story about

20 if you live within a mile of a well, you were going to

21 get cancer based on a study by the Colorado School of

22 Health.

23 What you rarely hear is that this widely

24 cited study also was criticized broadly by the Colorado

25 Department of the of Public Health Environment for its
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1 flawed methodology and eventually was decommissioned by

2 the Garland County Commissioners Court. But knowing

3 background on research and, you know, there was a fellow

4 here in Dallas that did a little research. His name was

5 Alan Armandais, and you may have heard of him. He also

6 worked for the EPA. Did a study for SMU. Completely

7 flawed.

8 He claimed that all the wells in the

9 Barnett Shale were causing everything and the cars

10 didn't. That study was totally debunked. He went to

11 work for the EPA after that. They found out he wasn't

12 very well off, and they (inaudible) and now he works for

13 -- you've heard of the Sierra Club people. Now he's

14 working for the Sierra Club. But, you know, safety

15 thresholds in air quality are also ripe for confusion,

16 too.

17 They set thresholds to protect public

18 health, protect against adverse effects of exposures to

19 various compounds in the air occurring over a period of

20 hours todays, long-term values intended to protect

21 against the adverse effects of exposure over 70 years.

22 You know, if you look at the oil and gas industry,

23 only -- the oil and gas industry, these guys work in the

24 business every day. They're not in the top 25 percent

25 of people that are sick, according to the American
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1 health studies, and so we've been dealing with oil and

2 gas for a long, long time.

3 In fact, when researchers use appropriate

4 comparisons, studies show that the activity doesn't

5 result in air exposures that would pose health concerns.

6 One recent study published in a peer-reviewed journal

7 analyzed 4.6 million air tests from continuous air

8 monitors across the Barnett Shale, just in our backyard

9 here, emissions that had -- from every type of natural

10 gas activity were captured, and the study conducted said

11 that gas production activities have no result in

12 community-wide exposures and levels to pose health

13 concerns.

14 In fact, the report by the environmental

15 protection study said reported methane emissions, quote,

16 from petroleum and natural gas systems have decreased by

17 12 percent since 2011 with the largest restrictions

18 coming from hydraulically fractured natural gas wells,

19 which have decreased by 73 percent. One last sentence

20 here.

21 The methane regulations, which you all are

22 talking about doing, under the guise of a (inaudible)

23 climate change rather than addressing any direct adverse

24 health effects will be imposed on those American

25 producers, but not OPEC, not Russia, policy that
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1 empowers one's enemies and fraud, costs American jobs,

2 raises gas prices, and has almost no impact on the

3 quality of air we breathe. Thank you.

4 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Next, we would

5 like to invite up Susan Lippman and Antonio Gonzalez.

6 On deck is Antonio Gonzalez and Star.

7 MS. LIPPMAN: Hello. Thank you for holding

8 this hearing. I'm Susan Lippman. I'm a member of the

9 Sierra Club, and I came here from Austin today. I'm

10 speaking in support of a national ozone standard set in

11 the 60 to 70 parts per billion range and I am advocating

12 60 parts per billion. The current level is set high and

13 is insufficient to protect public health as it should.

14 I'm not talking about an insignificant

15 level of impact on public health. Ozone pollution is

16 linked to premature deaths and costs our society

17 billions of healthcare dollars. My immediate family and

18 I have been blessed to have good health, but I still

19 remember my college friend struggling to breathe on a

20 sultry night in Houston while visiting me at my

21 grandmother's house. She seems to be putting up with it

22 as a part of her life, but it was scary, and it made me

23 realize how we're all just minutes away from death if

24 deprived with breath.

25 I also have a adult friend that almost died
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1 twice. Saved her life by mouth to mouth. I can hardly

2 imagine the anxiety that parents of asthmatic children

3 must go through. And so really I was shocked to read

4 that the asthma rate in Texas is 9 percent and the rate

5 in Dallas is 18 to 20 percent. These are appalling

6 percentages.

7 In addition, African-American and Hispanic

8 communities are disproportionately impacted nationally

9 with African-American children having twice the asthma

10 rate as white children and four times as likely to die

11 from it. How many of these deaths are needless? There

12 is research, and the estimates are that with the

13 stricter ozone standards, together with the EPA's power

14 plan, this could be prevented over the next 15 years:

15 150,000 asthma attacks in children, 6600 premature

16 deaths, and 3300 heart attacks.

17 I'm officially requesting a 60 parts per

18 billion standard since the health (inaudible) response

19 is sensitive to the concentration of ozone, especially

20 in children for whom the 60 parts per billion rate would

21 save four to five times as the 70 parts per billion.

22 Thank you.

23 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Antonio.

24 MR. GONZALEZ: My name is Antonio Gonzalez.

25 I identify as a Native American Mexican from San
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1 Antonio. My family's lived in the state for as long as

2 I know. We have teachings of learning from our

3 ancestors, at least seven generations back to pay for

4 our descendents' generations forward. Chemicals which

5 produce pollutants haven't even existing that long. Our

6 people have a relationship with this land that promotes

7 health and supportive relationships, and since that

8 time, since hydrocarbons have been introduced into our

9 cultures, our people have grown up in (inaudible)

10 communities of these people on the west side of San

11 Antonio and the east side of Austin.

12 So I've seen the effects of people in poor

13 health. When we are stuck in the system where there's

14 no economic room for economic growth, poor health goes a

15 long way, not only economically, but spiritually as

16 well, to feel that there's no way to get out of the

17 system that we are stuck in. It is demoralizing.

18 There's very little outlet for us to have a

19 voice in our communities or in the government in

20 general. I'm here because I have the opportunity to.

21 I'm privileged enough to be able to come here, but for

22 all the people that can't take the time off of work,

23 they can't afford do that, you know, these regulations

24 affect them more than it does anybody else.

25 So as far as I'm concerned, the role of the
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1 government is to protect the people. It's in the name

2 of the agency. If we want to see growth as a country,

3 it's going to take all of us together, and I don't see

4 how keeping the standards the same as they are is going

5 to promote that in any way. You know, this hearing is

6 to ask if we should lower the standards, but why

7 wouldn't we? You know, if we want to see our country be

8 the best that it can, then we should take every

9 opportunity that we can to promote that and support each

10 other. So thank you.

11 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you very much. Next

12 up are Darel Smith and Alice Garcia. On deck, we have

13 Steve Everley and (inaudible). I'd just like to remind

14 you, if you are preregistered to speak, but you haven't

15 checked in out front, please do so so that we know you

16 are here and can call you.

17 MR. SMITH: Hello, I'm from Austin, Texas.

18 Darel Smith. We have an unusual quantity of hot air

19 coming from the State Capitol. TCEQ has a plan that it

20 is intending to regulate, and we ask that the EPA please

21 step in to reduce the quality of ozone that is

22 permitted. It -- when you look at just one particular

23 thing like, ozone or haze or soot, the standards seem to

24 be arbitrary.

25 However, when the preponderance of air
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1 quality is looked at, we can see that asthma and upper

2 respiratory illnesses are increasing in children in

3 Texas, and we need some relief for better air quality

4 for our kids. And thank you very much for allowing us

5 this opportunity to testify about the situation here in

6 Texas.

7 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you, Darel.

8 MS. GARCIA: Hi. My name is Alice

9 Canestaro-Garcia. I am from San Antonio, Texas, and I'm

10 here because I also support best practices for ozone

11 regulation, and if the best practices is 60 parts per

12 billion, let's do that. If it's 50 parts per billion,

13 let's do that.

14 Because my experience as a classroom

15 teacher in Houston, Texas, from 1989 to 2009, we were

16 not allowed to have classroom gardens because there were

17 just too many ozone days. We were not allowed to go

18 outside countless times every year. And for a

19 three-year-old and a four-year-old to be restricted to

20 not move because it's dangerous to go outside for their

21 skin, for their lungs, I believe that's a strong

22 indication that the figures, the numbers that have been

23 quoted that say these are the limits, this is the safety

24 limits, but the physical effects are severe and

25 restrictive and certainly not a natural human life when
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1 on an autumn day, you can't go outside and play on the

2 playground or deny a position to start a pumpkin garden

3 for Halloween.

4 Please see the faces that we're trying to

5 represent. The little children, the women, people who

6 want to live a healthy life are not able to because

7 Mother Nature, Gaia, Pachamama is being destroyed by the

8 extractive practices that people are habitually used to

9 using for fuel.

10 I'm also a visual artist, and part of my

11 work focuses on visualizing the future based on current

12 energy practices in Texas and around the world. And

13 these practices make me want to leave the planet, but

14 there is no Planet B. So, I visualize what I think is

15 your calling, your challenge, your mandate to provide

16 for Gaia, for Mother Earth, for Pachamama, sweet water,

17 sweet skies, bees, animals, even humans -- and I'm not

18 so fond of humans -- living with active care and grace.

19 Right now, we are in the midst of what we

20 call in Spanish a fracaso, a failure, a devasation.

21 Fracaso is also a play on words regarding fracking,

22 which in this day -- I've lost the -- my mike turned

23 off.

24 MR. NIEBLING: I don't think so. Use the

25 other one.
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1 MS. GARCIA: Testing, testing. Thank you.

2 Horses galloping, cars driving up, the Stone Age didn't

3 end because they ran out of stones. Well, oft repeated,

4 right? (Speaking Spanish). The Stone Age didn't end

5 because they ran out of stones. I believe it's your

6 calling to say, all right, we still have plenty of this

7 substance that's making our planet sick, but we can

8 choose not to use it anymore. We can cut it back. And

9 if lowering the ozone level to 60 parts per billion will

10 do that, let's do that.

11 Mother Earth is dying. She has a bad

12 infection, as you know, of humans. (Speaking Spanish).

13 We rarely drive wagons, but still, there are plenty of

14 horses. Okay, audio. Streets cracking in the huge

15 truck wake, coughing, vomiting (speaking Spanish),

16 building the pipelines, (speaking Spanish), will only

17 get worse with leaky tarson pipes.

18 Okay. I am a representative of 350.org,

19 and I also represent (inaudible), which is concerned

20 about all of the dead zones around the world due to the

21 nuclear meltdowns. I know the focus right now is on

22 ozone, but audio under screams without end. (Speaking

23 Spanish). We're focusing right now on the air. We're

24 focusing right now on the ozone levels, so please use

25 all your power. You are powerful, and I just took a
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1 pledge to help you. So let me know what I can do.

2 Thank you.

3 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Now we'll call

4 up Steve Everley and Dona Upson and see if we can get

5 that other microphone working. Do you mind hitting on

6 the mikes to see if they're -- okay.

7 MR. EVERLEY: Was I called first?

8 MR. NIEBLING: You were.

9 MR. EVERLEY: Okay. My name is Steve

10 Everley, and serve as team lead for Energy in Depth, a

11 research and education program of the Independent

12 Petroleum Association of America. IPAA is headquartered

13 in Washington, D.C. I live in Dallas, Texas. IPAA

14 represents the oil and natural gas companies which drill

15 95 percent of all wells in the United States with an

16 average company size of fewer than 20 employees.

17 America's independent oil and natural gas producers will

18 be significantly impacted by EPA's proposal to reduce

19 the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone

20 from 75 parts per billion to between 65 and 70 parts per

21 billion.

22 Although I do not speak for IPAA in an

23 official capacity, I should note that IPAA believes that

24 EPA should retain the current standard of 75 parts per

25 billion. EPA's proposed ozone rule is based upon the
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1 health benefits of lower ozone levels, but a review of

2 EPA's data suggests that the agency may have

3 significantly inflated the value of those benefits. I

4 will briefly describe some of the flaws in the

5 assessment, but a more complete analysis can be found on

6 our website at www.energyindepth.org.

7 In 2011, the EPA proposed reducing the

8 ozone standard from 75 to 70 parts per billion. The

9 agency's regulatory impact assessment found that the net

10 benefits of a 65 parts per billion standard were

11 essentially zero. Even when including health benefits

12 of particulate matter reductions in optimistic

13 technological trajectory to achieve (inaudible).

14 But EPA now claims that 65 parts per

15 billion standard yields net benefits as high as $23

16 billion. That's a 3100 percent increase from what the

17 EPA said the exact same standard would deliver just

18 three years earlier. The EPA claims to have reviewed

19 more than 1,000 studies published since the EPA last

20 revised the standards in 2008, but Energy in Depth

21 reviewed EPA's health risk and exposure assessment for

22 ozone and found that nearly 70 percent of the references

23 cited were published prior to 2011.

24 In other words, most of the studies that

25 EPA used to claim billions of dollars in net benefits
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1 were available when EPA determined that the exact same

2 ozone standard would deliver no net benefits.

3 Interestingly, as Dr. Michael Honeycutt with the Texas

4 Commission on Environmental Quality noted last year,

5 some of EPA's data show a reduction in the ozone

6 standard could actually result in higher mortality

7 rates.

8 For example, EPA's data showed that

9 reducing the ozone standard to 65 parts per billion

10 would result in 44 more premature deaths in the City of

11 Houston alone. These examples suggest, at the very

12 least, that EPA's analysis of the data is flawed,

13 raising questions about EPA's justification for a lower

14 ozone standard.

15 Of course, the proposed rule also raises

16 significant economic concerns. In 2011, EPA admitted

17 that four of the five largest metropolitan areas in the

18 country, home to 50 million Americans, would not be able

19 to achieve a 70 parts per billion standard by 2020.

20 Parts of southern California won't be in compliance with

21 even an 84 parts per billion standard by the middle of

22 the next decade.

23 Since the health benefits cited required

24 that compliance be achieved, it's difficult to see how

25 these benefits will ever materialize. Last summer,
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1 (inaudible) Consulting released a study examining the

2 cost of a 60 parts per billion ozone standard, which is

3 the low end on which EPA is currently accepting

4 comments. New York concluded that it would reduce U.S.

5 GDP by $4.5 trillion through 2040, destroy over 4

6 million jobs, and increase household costs by over 

7 $2,000 per year.

8 The primary reason for these impacts is

9 because EPA's ozone rule will raise costs for America's

10 energy industry, which has been one of the few bright

11 spots in an otherwise sluggish economy. For example,

12 cheap natural gas has spurred over $100 billion in

13 manufacturing customs in the United States. Last year,

14 the world's largest chemical company, BASF, announced

15 that it would make its largest single facility

16 investment right here in Texas.

17 American oil and natural gas production has

18 slashed the trade deficit and net petroleum imports are

19 at their lowest level since 1987. In some estimates,

20 that the United States is now the world's large oil and

21 natural gas producer.

22 Last but not least, jobs in the oil and

23 natural gas industry have been a godsend to many working

24 families with salaries that are nearly double the

25 national average. The newest study concluded that a
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1 lower ozone standard would significantly restrict U.S.

2 oil and natural gas production, which would, quote,

3 crush the manufacturing comeback by removing our

4 nation's energy advantage, end quote.

5 EPA's ozone rule could very well be the

6 costliest regulation in the history. If a rule of this

7 magnitude is to be imposed, then the EPA should consider

8 providing a far more scientifically robust public health

9 basis, one that doesn't rely on inflated health benefits

10 or a lack of appreciation for the very real economic

11 costs. Thank you very much for your time.

12 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you.

13 MS. UPSON: Thank you. My name is Dona

14 Upson. I'm a pulmonary critical care physician at the

15 New Mexico Veterans Affairs Health Care Services

16 Hospital in Albuquerque and an associate professor of

17 medicine at the University of New Mexico. I'm also now

18 in my sixth year as a volunteer member of the air

19 quality board of Albuquerque and immediate past

20 president of that board. I'm here today representing

21 the American Lung Association and the American Thoracic

22 Society.

23 The ATS is a medical professional

24 organization with over 15,000 members, professionals and

25 patients who are dedicated to the prevention, detection,
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1 treatment, cure of respiratory (inaudible) critical care

2 and -- we pursue our mission through research, clinical

3 care, education, and science-based advocacy.

4 I've also had asthma myself for over 50

5 years, and I'm a mother. Thank you very much for this

6 opportunity to speak. As a pulmonary physician, I've

7 seen firsthand and experienced (inaudible) untreated

8 asthma attacks and exacerbations of COPD. Some people

9 are more vulnerable than others, including children and

10 teens, older adults, people with asthma, COPD, people

11 with cardiovascular disease, and people with low incomes

12 for a variety of reasons.

13 I have several patients who cannot live in

14 Albuquerque, although we have clean air for an urban

15 area, because they have more trouble breathing the

16 closer they get to the city even if they're coming from

17 higher elevation. One veteran, for example, Roy, has to

18 travel over three hours to see us and can only come for

19 morning appointments, when the air quality is best, so

20 he has to leave the house by 5:00 in the morning.

21 Several large multi-city and single city

22 studies from across the U.S. and around the world have

23 found that ozone triggers asthma attacks, especially in

24 children, and increases the risk that people with asthma

25 will be admitted to the hospital or emergency
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1 department. A well known and hard hitting example came

2 from the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, when doctors

3 looked at the association between reduced air pollution

4 levels and medical visits for asthma.

5 At that time, lower ozone was associated

6 with a 42 percent decrease in asthma treatment and

7 hospitalization in the Georgia Medicaid claim files.

8 This is just one case out of many in which ozone is

9 clearly linked to health issues. A considerable number

10 of other large multi-city studies of the U.S., Canada,

11 and Europe have also found strong evidence that

12 breathing ozone increases the risk of premature death.

13 New evidence from other studies has

14 broadened recognitions that ozone threatens other

15 systems besides our lungs, including cardiovascular

16 harm, aging-related memory loss, and even increased risk

17 of low birthweight in newborns. There is solid

18 scientific evidence that even healthy people are at

19 risk. The population-based study of healthy adults

20 found that airway obstruction was increased after days

21 when ambient ozone ranged from 59 parts per billion to

22 75 parts per billion, compared to days with levels under 

23 59.

24 Healthy adults exposed to ozone (inaudible)

25 chamber studies have demonstrated measurable decreases
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1 in lung function following exposure to ozone levels of

2 60 to 70. Numerous scientific studies show that ozone

3 exposure in the range of 60 to 70 parts per billion have

4 adverse physiologic effects across the entire age

5 spectrum, from newborn infants to the elderly. While

6 there's also evidence of health effects of ozone

7 exposure below 60 parts per billion, the strongest

8 evidence supports the conclusion that serious adverse

9 health effects occur across all ages at ozone levels

10 above 60.

11 As climate changes accelerates and

12 temperatures continue to rise, it is more important than

13 ever to reduce ozone pollution. Since the evidence was

14 last reviewed in 2007, we've gained an even greater

15 scientific understanding of the health effects of ozone

16 exposure, including greater links between respiratory

17 disease in children and reduced lung function, and

18 increased mortality in adults. The scientific record

19 provides clear, conclusive evidence that we should

20 (inaudible) compel EPA to establish an ozone standard no

21 higher than 60 parts per billion.

22 This is an opportune time to set a stricter

23 standard. Recent changes in vehicle and fuel emission

24 standards will significantly improve ozone levels across

25 the country. A stricter standard will lead to
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1 additional improvements in health regulations, which

2 will add cities and municipalities in implementing their

3 own standards.

4 One example is that several years ago, as a

5 member of the Air Quality Board of Albuquerque, we were

6 reviewing the state implementation plan and noticed that

7 diesel vehicles were excluded from emissions testing for

8 a variety of reasons. And we proposed including diesel

9 vehicles, but there was some pushback from the

10 environmental division at that time because they were

11 anticipating a more strict ozone level, and they thought

12 if they passed that -- we passed that law at that point,

13 they would lose the opportunity to pass it when the

14 ozone standard was changed so that it could offset some

15 of the penalties if we didn't obtain the standard.

16 As an air board, we went ahead and passed

17 that ruling, and diesel vehicles were included in the

18 emissions testing. So, let me just finish up. Suffice

19 it to say that ozone pollution at levels (inaudible)

20 under the current standard makes people sick. There's

21 accumulating evidence that ozone pollution is damaging

22 to human lungs and contributes to disease. Based on

23 this evidence, the American Thoracic Society and the

24 American Lung Association strongly encourage the EPA to

25 move forward with the strong, scientifically supported
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1 standard of 60 parts per billion to protect the nation's

2 children and other vulnerable populations and the

3 American public at large from the health hazard of ozone

4 pollution. Thank you.

5 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Next we'd like

6 to invite -- we would ask the audience to listen quietly

7 so we can -- (inaudible). We'll invite Kamene

8 Domubai-Ogidi.

9 MS. PEARSON: My name is Whitney Pearson,

10 and I'm from Oklahoma. I have lived there all my life,

11 and I currently live in Oklahoma City. The Oklahoma

12 City and Tulsa areas and other heavily populated

13 communities have had seriously unhealthy levels of smog

14 in recent years. The ALA State of the Air report gives

15 Oklahoma City and Tulsa F grades for ozone, and they are

16 both in the top 20 most polluted cities, which is pretty

17 surprising to most.

18 The only saving grace the last few years

19 has been unseasonably cool weather in summer months. We

20 all know that cool summers are not something that we can

21 rely on to protect us from smog. We can't control the

22 weather, but we can control the pollution coming out of

23 some of the larger sources that are contributing to

24 smog, coal plants, cars, and other industrial

25 activities.
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1 Study after study shows that to protect

2 public health, we need to significantly lower the amount

3 of smog in our air. More than 80,000 children and

4 290,000 adults are currently living with asthma. In

5 Oklahoma, in 2011, hospitalizations from asthma cost our

6 citizens $72 million. Oklahoma's population is about

7 3.8 million. Nearly 10 percent is urged to stay indoors

8 during heavy smog days. This does not include the

9 thousands of children who are at the greatest risk from

10 exposure or even adults who are active outdoors who can

11 also develop damage to their lungs.

12 Asthma seems to become a normal part of

13 everyday life for many, but clean air is a human right.

14 People deserve to know their air is safe, and we rely on

15 the EPA to make cleaner air a reality. It's time for

16 the EPA to do what's right and adopt the most protective

17 standard possible. Thank you.

18 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you.

19 MS. DOMUBAI-OGIDI: Hello. My name is

20 Kamene, and I've been living in Texas since 2001. I

21 have asthma, and so I'm not going to talk about the

22 statistics of others. I've had it since I was in sixth

23 grade, since I was 11. It has become so much a

24 permanent fixture in my daily landscape that I came to

25 this hearing thinking that I had nothing of additional
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1 value to say, really doubtful that I had anything

2 important to say at all, and therein lies a problem.

3 I have normalized an illness that I was

4 diagnosed with at 11 years of age in the DFW area. I

5 was living in Dallas proper where asthma is two times as

6 high as the rest of the State of Texas and 88 percent

7 higher than the national average. The problem is that I

8 came to a smog hearing at the origin of my diagnosis and

9 was also complicit with the conclusion of political and

10 industrial elements in denying this illness, and it's

11 ruined my life.

12 And colluding in a culture that fosters

13 normalizing illnesses derived from air quality

14 pollutants and the people behind them. It is an insult

15 to consumers and victims that industry can get away with

16 murder, that industry can cite the loss of disposable

17 wealth as sufficient in backing away from commitments to

18 cleaner processes.

19 I have some facts and statistics of my own

20 that are personal. Red, that is the color of the

21 package that houses my nebulizer. 70 percent, that is

22 my current lung capacity. Your breath is your life,

23 exclamation mark. That is what my mom said to me about

24 two weeks ago when I was on the phone with her and I

25 told her I couldn't afford to buy Albuterol because I
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1 ran out. Your breath is your life. That is the very

2 basic in asthma emergency control.

3 And you don't need to know the number of

4 times that I have reached for a breath that wasn't

5 there, that didn't come, that wasn't going to come. And

6 in that moment, where that perpetual next breath is not

7 possible and then panic is setting in, it becomes the

8 fullness of my consciousness. It's all that I can be

9 about. My life is distilled to those moments of,

10 where's my air. I don't have it. I have asthma, but

11 I'm also black, and that matters.

12 African-Americans are two times more likely

13 as -- than white children to have asthma and four times

14 as likely to die from it. I was that statistic, and I

15 am a living outcome of that statistic. I am alive. So,

16 asthma and smog ends up being an example of how race and

17 class and climate pollution intersect. They're not

18 independent of each other.

19 I -- a previous person who was testifying

20 from the industry said that the U.S. is the largest oil

21 and gas producer and that the jobs derived from this

22 activity is a godsend. Life is a godsend. A job that

23 pays for the medication that I need to get medication --

24 or a job that pays for medication that I need because of

25 an illness that I have because of oil activity, because
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1 of gas activity, because of coal activity, what kind of

2 job is that? It's cyclical.

3 The industry essentially makes bids and

4 reserves the lungs of the young, of the poor, of people

5 of color, and the industry today claims that it will be

6 significantly affected if a 60 parts per billion

7 requirement becomes a standard. And then I wonder, I'm

8 significantly as affected. I'm affected every day. I'm

9 significantly affected when I can't pay for my

10 medication, and something else that is significantly

11 affected is my personhood.

12 Personhood is self-autonomy. I don't own

13 my lungs anymore. I didn't have a choice on my lungs.

14 I say I have asthma, and I claim it as a part of who I

15 am. I am so inured with the condition where I don't own

16 something that technically belongs to me. I'm so inured

17 with an impression of my own internal physical organ

18 that I came to a smog hearing in the DFW area where I

19 was diagnosed with asthma and did not think I had

20 anything of value to say.

21 The State of Texas has effectively

22 challenged and is challenging my personhood and the

23 personhood of children all across the state, and that is

24 also your freedom. Freedom.

25 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Next, we'd like
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1 to invite up Molly Rooke. Please, we appreciate all of

2 the valuable testimony, but we ask that the audience

3 listen respectfully and quietly. Molly Rooke and Steve

4 Davidson. Is Steve Davidson still present? Well, we'll

5 find Steve eventually.

6 MS. ROOKE: Hi, I'm Molly Rooke. I'm from

7 Dallas, Texas, and I want to thank you for the

8 opportunity to speak at the hearing today. I'm here not

9 just because it's the right thing to do as someone who

10 cares about clean air, but because I know that it's

11 essential to our quality of life and to life itself for

12 so many people. I'm one of so many people who suffer

13 from the effects of a high ozone, and I am an asthmatic,

14 and I have suffered my worst asthma attacks on the high

15 ozone days here in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

16 And it's very frightening and dangerous to

17 suffer a serious asthma attack, and it's unnecessary for

18 us to be suffering in this way from high ozone when

19 there's so much the industry can do to clean up their

20 activities. There's no reason that they can't do it.

21 For a long time, I know that the EPA has seen this.

22 Industries -- polluting industries have said that they

23 just can't do it, it's going to cost too much, it's

24 going to cost too many jobs, and yet, in the end, they

25 always are able to clean up.
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1 There are better, cleaner technologies that

2 industry can be and need to be required to use, and if

3 you set the standards to what science, the most current

4 science says, then it needs to be at the lowest end of

5 the range, not just at the lowest end at 65 parts per

6 billion, but at the 60 parts per billion. And I request

7 that you do everything in your power to resist

8 industries' extreme pressure to make the standards

9 higher and not to the lower level. Because whatever

10 they say, it's not going to be good enough for us to

11 breathe, so I request that you set it to the strongest

12 standard, one that would be actually a safe and clean

13 chance for us to breathe our air. Thank you very much.

14 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Robert and Don.

15 DR. HALEY: My name is Dr. Robert Haley.

16 I'm a specialist in internal medicine practicing at

17 Parkland Hospital in Dallas and a medical epidemiologist

18 with 40 years experience doing epidemiologic research.

19 My career began with a ten-year stint at the CDC as an

20 epidemiologist and then in Dallas here.

21 I'm a past president and chairman of the

22 board of the Dallas County Medical Society, member of

23 the House of Delegates at Texas Medical Association,

24 TMA, and have been very involved for the last ten years

25 in helping develop a very robust body of policy on air
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1 quality. And we have a very strong stand on the ozone

2 issue from our years of study.

3 So, today, in my testimony, I'm really

4 representing the 7,000 physicians of Dallas County and

5 the 45,000 physicians of Texas. The physicians in our

6 state, and particularly in northeast Texas where we have

7 a ten-county nonattainment area on ozone, are very

8 concerned about the effects of air pollution,

9 particularly ozone on the health of our patients,

10 especially the effects of high ground level ozone

11 concentrations on asthma attacks in children, chronic

12 lung disease exacerbations, and heart attacks in our

13 older patients, and premature deaths across the entire

14 age spectrum.

15 Our reading of the scientific literature

16 finds compelling evidence of the adverse effects of

17 ozone on human health down to ozone levels of 40 parts

18 per billion. Now, recently, a group of epidemiologists

19 and GIS experts have developed a computer model to

20 estimate the reduction in hospitalization and

21 hospitalization costs and the reduction in premature

22 deaths and their economic valuation that would accrue to

23 the citizens of this ten-county nonattainment area in

24 which Dallas and Fort Worth are right in the middle due

25 to if there were a 10 parts per billion ozone reduction
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1 in our levels as we would expect from the lowering of

2 the standard from 75 to 65 parts per billion.

3 The modeling is done with a GIS-based

4 software called Binmap. You may have heard of it.

5 We've entered the eight-hour maximum ozone readings from

6 all the air quality monitors in our ten-county region,

7 and right now, we're modeling 2008, and in the next few

8 days, we're going to extend that to the latest numbers

9 of 2013. 2008 was only a moderate ozone year. 2011,

10 particularly, and up to '13 were very high levels, so

11 we're going to get higher estimates shortly.

12 Anyway, and the program then applies

13 concentration effect coefficients from the most robust

14 scientific studies to estimate the health and economic

15 benefits of such a reduction, and I'm going to present,

16 basically, the bottom line functions, which were shown

17 on the graphic on the third page of my handout.

18 So, in 2008, if the ozone levels had been

19 10 parts per billion lower than they were, that is, if

20 the standard were reduced and the ozone levels were

21 reduced by 10 parts per billion, the ten-county

22 nonattainment region pictured in the graphic would have

23 experienced 320 fewer hospitalizations at a cost of

24 $10 billion less in hospitalization costs, 77 fewer

25 deaths in that year, at an economic valuation of $617
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1 million in economic loss from premature death. These

2 are standard economic -- economist valuations of death.

3 These numbers show the great health

4 benefits of reducing the ozone standard by 10 parts per

5 billion in a moderate ozone year in our region. These

6 benefits would recur year after year. They would be

7 greater with an even lower standard, down to 60 parts

8 per billion, for example. And even higher in high ozone

9 years such as 2011, 2012, and 2013 which would probably

10 be more representative of future years due to trends in

11 climate.

12 Another part of our ten-year study

13 unrelated to this has been to collaborate with one of

14 the top environmental engineers in the country down at

15 Rice University to understand the main contributors to

16 our unusually high ozone levels in Dallas, which are

17 among the highest in the country, and what measures

18 would be most cost effective in fixing this problem. In

19 other words, how can we lower it most effectively?

20 We found that retrofitting or converting to

21 natural gas three antiquated coal-fired power plants in

22 east Texas that blow right into the Dallas/Fort Worth,

23 into this ten-county area, combined with change in

24 gasoline mixture would drop our ozone levels 10 parts

25 per billion for approximately the same economic cost to
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1 the industry that our consumers are paying in healthcare

2 consequences of the ozone levels. So, we think this

3 change appears economically responsible.

4 As physicians in the state who care for

5 these patients and see the asthma attacks, the

6 respiratory failure, the hospitalizations, and the

7 premature death, we believe the citizens of these ten

8 counties are paying a very high price for ozone air

9 pollution that could potentially be avoided. Therefore,

10 the 7,000 physicians of Dallas County, supported by the

11 45,000 physicians of the state, Texas, strongly endorse

12 lowering the ozone standard 10 parts per billion or

13 lower.

14 In the next ten-day -- in the next few

15 days, we're going to, as I mentioned, going to be

16 extending our study to the 60 parts per billion standard

17 and for higher ozone years, and we're going to send that

18 to you on the e-mail.

19 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. We would

20 appreciate that in writing.

21 MR. JAQUESS: Hello. My name's Don

22 Jaquess. I'm retired. I live -- I'll get this working

23 here in a minute. I live here in Arlington, Texas.

24 When I left here in '65 -- I graduated from high school

25 in 1965 in Fort Worth, Uncle Sam wanted to share an
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1 experience with me in southeast Asia like he did a lot

2 of people my age. I got back. I was in the ironworkers

3 union. When they didn't have work here, I went to

4 (inaudible). We started putting precipitators on coal

5 burners in 1972 in Dubuque, Iowa.

6 We've got coal burners here. If they want

7 to keep them coal burners, they should think about doing

8 the same thing. The cost of it would be less than what

9 it would be cost to run a hospital for a week. We've

10 got the dirtiest coal in east Texas, and we burn the

11 dirtiest coal anywhere in this country right through

12 these coal burners down in east Texas.

13 I've got a brother that lives on Ray

14 Simmons. He can't walk but 20 feet before he has to sit

15 down. He's got COPD, and he's on a gas machine 24 hours

16 a day. Since I came home in '94, after accidents -- you

17 know, Vietnam and the ironworkers wasn't real good to my

18 health. I've had a restaurant and I've had a sports

19 club. And since then, I've ran for the U.S. House of

20 Representatives, and I ran on the platform of the fact

21 that the air that we had in this area, just right here,

22 I'm not talking about the entire country, I'm talking

23 about right here.

24 You can drive down to Midlothian right now,

25 pull into any restaurant you want to, walk in, have a
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1 cup of coffee, walk back out, and I guarantee you're

2 going to have to wipe dust off your car. It's going in

3 your lungs as well. I realize that our congressmen here

4 has threatened to file lawsuit against the EPA to remove

5 the restrictions on air quality.

6 When we had to report that came out in the

7 Dallas Morning News four-and-a-half years ago that

8 stated that 85 percent of the children that were born

9 within one year of the time that he was made chairman of

10 the CPA -- EPA had lung problems. 85 percent of every

11 child in south Dallas. They said it'd cost 3,000 jobs

12 to correct this.

13 To me, it would seem like it would be a

14 whole lot easier to replace 3,000 jobs, which is, you

15 know, totally false because you know good and well it

16 would put people to work (inaudible) precipitators and

17 just change them over and there will still be people

18 working after they get through. There'll be more people

19 working after it gets through.

20 But what I'm getting at, primarily, is if

21 we don't get a grip on this right now, within 15 years,

22 we're not looking at 3,000 jobs or 85 percent of south

23 Dallas. We're looking at this entire Metroplex. We're

24 looking at the effects of 3 million lives just right in

25 this particular area. We're looking at a lawsuit from
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1 Oklahoma just from the stuff that goes from Texas into

2 Oklahoma. If we can't clean up our air now, within 20

3 years, we won't have a chance to. I left here and we

4 had the cleanest air in the country. I got out to

5 California, and I couldn't see the people in front of

6 me. When I was in California last year, it looked like

7 Texas did when I left. I got back to Texas, and it

8 looked like California did when I left.

9 And if we can't get ahold of the grips -- I

10 realize cattle, cotton, and oil runs Texas. Has all my

11 life, always will. We've got to protect all three of

12 them. We've got an industry right now that's got well

13 over a trillion dollars in assets, and that's the oil

14 industry right here in Texas. They can afford to clean

15 these powerhouses up. They can afford to either

16 transfer over to gas or put precipitators without any

17 cost over a period of time because of medical reasons to

18 the public.

19 And I would really appreciate the fact,

20 when y'all go back to DC, hopefully we don't get a

21 lawsuit put against the EPA. I've realized y'all have a

22 lot of problems with our state here because of their own

23 ideals. We've got to change that. I don't know what

24 it's going to take. It would be nice to see people show

25 up at the polls, but that's not happening either. We
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1 can't fight big money, so what are we going to do?

2 You're going to have to figure out a way to get this

3 Congress to clean up the air and (inaudible) citizens

4 are going to have to take care of themselves. I

5 appreciate your time. Thank you.

6 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you, sir. Next, we

7 would like to invite up Jeralynn Cox and Sharon Ritchie.

8 On deck, Susan Brown and Ken Sambell.

9 MS. COX: Are we ready? Jeralynn Cox. I

10 want to tell you about the problems for persons in my

11 age category, that would be 70, who live in Fort Worth,

12 Texas. When it gets to be August, everyone who can

13 flees Texas for Colorado anyway, because it's so hot.

14 But the sky, as you look out, if you're driving on a

15 freeway bridge, is kind of a dirty brown color, kind of

16 a red -- you know, a red dirty brown. Not sky color.

17 It didn't used to be that way. When you

18 take a deep breath on a day like that, it actually

19 hurts, you know? Walking vigorously in the park is not

20 the thing that I think I should do. My dog, who thinks

21 I should walk him vigorously every day, has a different

22 opinion. But the truth is, when it hurts to breathe,

23 you begin to think, I may be in the wrong place.

24 And you will probably have heard a bunch

25 from oil industry representatives or coal industry
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1 representatives, people who don't think we need clean

2 air as much as we need industry, but if your workforce

3 dies off on you, you're in trouble. And for sure, if

4 your Social Security disability benefits go up or your

5 Medicare costs go up or just your general everybody

6 else's health care costs keep going up as well, clean

7 air is not affordable.

8 There's got to be someplace where we say,

9 oh, you know, we really would like for this planet to be

10 habitable for the next generation, and if that is to

11 happen, we need to start cleaning things up as quickly

12 as we can. The letter that I wrote to you, which I

13 guess we'll -- I hope will go in the record, referred to

14 the studies done by Cooks Children's Hospital in Fort

15 Worth.

16 I'm proud of my community's children's

17 hospital, and I share their concern for the fact that

18 asthma rates in Fort Worth/Dallas are three times higher

19 than the rest of Texas. That ought not be happening.

20 We've had a huge influx of growth in Fort Worth/Dallas.

21 We've also had a huge influx of traffic. You know, it's

22 more pollution from the cars. We are in the downwind

23 path of the coal-fired plants from east Texas, and we

24 are in the downwind path from the cement plants in

25 Midlothian.
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1 Those things make a toxic combination for

2 our air. If you can reduce the ozone -- if you can

3 improve the ozone standards, you have a chance of

4 helping many people whom you can't see because they're

5 not here today. They may not be born yet. But the

6 truth is we deserve a planet that is habitable. You

7 have a chance and the power to do something that can

8 make it more habitable, and I very much hope that you

9 will take that chance and do that for us. Thank you for

10 your time.

11 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Is Sharon

12 Ritchie present and available? If not, we will call up

13 Susan Brown and Ken Sambell, please.

14 MS. BROWN: Good afternoon. My name is

15 Susan Statton Brown with the Longview Chamber of

16 Commerce. I'm the advocacy and communications director

17 there. I'm here on behalf of the Longview Chamber of

18 Commerce. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today

19 to your board. Being in the heart of east Texas and the

20 service area of AEP SWEPCO (inaudible) City of Longview

21 in east Texas provides goods and services for the trade

22 area representing 13 counties and 3,000 citizens.

23 Our trade area boasts to being the home of

24 Eastman Chemical, Sabine Mining Company, U.S. Steel

25 Jupiter Products, Flint Hills, Westlake Manufacturing,
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1 Martin Resources, as well as more than 10,000 other

2 registered businesses, including manufacturers,

3 technology companies and varied industries.

4 There are recommendations that the Longview

5 Chamber of Commerce proposed to the EPA regarding

6 greenhouse gas emissions. I'm going to just go over

7 those recommendations. This is a document that has been

8 submitted. The Longview Chamber of Commerce requests

9 that the EPA issue new guidelines that allow Texas and

10 other states to establish policies that are in the best

11 interest of Texas and the nation.

12 This would include, one, respect for the

13 privacy of Texas by allowing Texas to develop plants

14 that establish performance standards and (inaudible)

15 flexibility in establishing compliance mechanisms. Two,

16 maintain an adequate reliable affordable electrical

17 generating fleet. Three, be based on EPA for cost

18 effective, achievable reductions at the affected power

19 plants rather than for the State of Texas. Four,

20 establish emissions guidelines based on adequately

21 demonstrated systems that are fuel and technology

22 specific. Five, provide credit for existent emissions

23 reduction already being made. Six, avoid premature

24 retirement and stranded assets. Seven, be fair and

25 equitable to all electricity consumers.
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1 Further, the Longview Chamber of Commerce

2 recommends that state legislators work with other

3 policymakers in Texas, such as environmental, financial,

4 and agricultural regulators, Attorney General, economic

5 development and government to, one, provide comments to

6 EPA on the legal reliability, affordability,

7 achievability, timely implementation, scheduling, and

8 other issues that need to be considered for individuals

9 and groups of states to eliminate (inaudible) before it

10 should drill.

11 Two, jointly develop state implementation

12 plans to protect residential, industry, and commercial

13 electricity users and ensure reliability of the electric

14 system. And three, continue to engage EPA and other

15 relevant federal agencies and congressional delegations

16 after the regulation is finalized to avoid making or

17 minimize the aforementioned risk and consequences.

18 Copies of this resolution in its entirety

19 have been submitted to the EPA, also to Texas

20 legislators, heads of Texas Offices of the Environment,

21 Agricultural, Economic Development, Energy, Financial

22 Regulation and the attorney general as well as the mayor

23 of Longview. Thank you for your time.

24 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you.

25 MR. SAMBELL: Good afternoon. My name is
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1 Ken Sambell. I have lived in Arlington for over 50

2 years and have seen the brown cloud come from nothing to

3 what it is today, and by you folks being here, you'll

4 probably shorten your life by so many days. I'm sorry

5 about that.

6 We don't have to put up with this. The

7 latest technology in Europe is available and, as we

8 know, when you have newer technology, that brings new

9 jobs, which increase our GNP. So I strongly propose the

10 adoption of the 60 parts per billion. It will bring us

11 into a reasonable chance for life. Thank you very much.

12 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. At this point,

13 we're going to take a ten-minute adjournment, and we

14 will be back at about 3:40.

15 (Break taken from 3:30 p.m. to 3:45 p.m.)

16 MR. NIEBLING: Okay. Ladies and gentlemen,

17 welcome back. Thank you for the break. We are ready to

18 hear from more people. So, if Caroline Vornberg and

19 Byron Mathis.

20 MS. VORNBERG: Okay. It's nice to come in

21 after a break. Everybody's going to be able to pay

22 attention. I'm Caroline Vornberg. I'm a retired

23 teacher, and I have seen what asthma does for many years

24 now. I'm also a Sierra Club big advocate of clean air

25 and clean water, and I thank the EPA for everything
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1 they've done so far, sincerely.

2 My husband has just tried to figure out

3 what's happened to him in the last three months. He's

4 had persistent cough, and this happens at the -- on the

5 cusp of that. My grandchildren have asthma. His son

6 has asthma. It's just too widespread to ignore. And I

7 support the EPA's progress toward the 60 PPM (sic),

8 because if we don't jump in there ahead of this game, we

9 will be scrabbling and in very, very, very sad straights

10 if we are having to force ourselves into something that

11 is much worse than what we have now. That is certainly

12 bad enough.

13 And the EPA by its very name is going to

14 protect us from that horrible possibility. It is up to

15 all of us. We all are on this same planet, hurtling

16 forward, and we all have to do our job, and I'm really

17 supportive of EPA doing your job to get us in the best

18 shape as we can for the future for now and for the

19 future. I just say this from personal and other

20 convictions. Thank you very much for listening.

21 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you.

22 MR. MATHIS: First of all, I apologize if 23 I --

24 MR. NIEBLING: If you pull the microphone

25 over.
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1 MR. MATHIS: You can't hear me?

2 MR. NIEBLING: I can, but I think the court

3 reporter may want to as well.

4 MR. MATHIS: I may bump my -- I'm not used

5 to these things. Hello. First of all, I apologize.

6 Whatever I am about to say is not to hurt anybody's

7 feelings, but I've been at this a while, so I think my

8 perspective should be heard. So I traveled up here from

9 San Antonio to give it to you. My name is Byron Mathis.

10 I'm 72 years old, and it appears that I may not be with

11 us too much longer. So all of a sudden, when that

12 happens, perspectives change, and you start looking at

13 life and what I'm doing differently.

14 1960, I was introduced to the concept of

15 human rights violations, one human being hurting another

16 human being for no apparent reason, and although that

17 was a gruesome thing for me to watch, to see, it

18 launched me in the career of about 30 years. This

19 wasn't what I was paid to do. This was something I did,

20 and I don't have time to explain it to you, but I did

21 write it down in little booklets that I give out

22 whenever.

23 In 2003, I retired from the UTSA where my

24 job was to help students realize that with a degree,

25 they did not necessarily automatically gain a job, and
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1 so I would create internships and so on like that. And

2 I retired from that. 2006, I found out I had cancer and

3 I started losing my eyesight. In 2013, after years and

4 years and years of coming to these meetings, years and

5 years of writing hundreds of letters -- and in those

6 days when I wrote the letter it had a carbon copy on the

7 end of it, a lot of trouble.

8 After all of those years, I decided that

9 the whole concept of what we do here doesn't work. Not

10 for the people who it's meant to help. That isn't any

11 fault of anybody here in this room, but it has not

12 helped and I could go back again. I can't do it in five

13 minutes. So I quit. I, in essence, quit. I went home.

14 I have a little grandson I'm going to hang out with as

15 long as I can, and then this -- I was invited to this

16 and, immediately, I said, no, I've gone to enough where

17 people just talk, everything that everybody said will be

18 given to you, but you're kind of a buffer.

19 That's as I understand it. You're going to

20 take all this and take it back to your bosses, and then

21 somehow it's all going to get buried, and that's what I

22 believe, and that's what has happened in many of the

23 cases that I've been involved in. So I said, no, and

24 then all of a sudden, finally, a friend of mine was

25 coming, and I value her highly and wanted her -- so I
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1 came, and what happened since I've been here is it was a

2 good thing.

3 First of all, I rode on the bus with some

4 young people, the saviors, the ones that are actually

5 going to pull us out of what we created, and so we

6 talked and we talked and we talked, and I think I got my

7 point across. Whether they agreed or not, I think they

8 understand a little different perspective of somebody

9 who's been at this a long, long time. And I got here

10 and I started talking to some other people out there.

11 I'm a people person. I love talking to people.

12 And all of a sudden, we didn't start off

13 agreeing, but in the end, we sort of were getting closer

14 to agreeing, and then I listened out in the patio to a

15 mother who was explaining talking over the microphone

16 and explaining how her nine-year-old -- for nine years,

17 she has watched her child in an environment that was

18 detrimental to that child's health. Nine years, she

19 watched this. I can't fathom this. I don't know how a

20 person could do this. If I found out my child had

21 asthma and was living, I'd be in my car, gone

22 immediately.

23 And then a doctor gets up, a doctor, and

24 talks about half of his child's life has been spent in

25 the same kind of environment, and he even had the little
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1 girl there. And I'm saying to myself, I'm more and more

2 convinced that nothing will happen here unless the

3 people who are not here are here. If the Sierra Club --

4 and I don't even know how you guys are involved in

5 this -- but if they can't get out in the streets and put

6 the people in here and San Antonio, and again, this is

7 nothing to do with you, but it's the whole concept of

8 what we do here.

9 They murdered a child, a young man in our

10 community, and we held this big rally to get somebody

11 interested, and 12 people showed up. 1.4 million, they

12 murdered one of our citizens and four -- and 12 people

13 show up. So, whatever you do to go back, you're going

14 to be dealing with bosses, and they're going to listen

15 or they're not going to listen, and these people are

16 going to go home, possibly with the idea that something

17 good might happen, and it won't.

18 And until we can get out there and start

19 inviting these people in, start pulling them in, paying

20 them if you have to, to show them that this country is

21 in deep trouble, the environment is in deep trouble, and

22 if we can't get you guys -- I've been to your big

23 building in Washington. Holy mackerel, that is a huge

24 building. What in the world are they doing in there if

25 they can't, in 40 years, make anymore changes than
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1 they've made in saving the people from themselves? And

2 that's it. Thank you.

3 MR. NIEBLING: Next up Sandra DenBraber.

4 If Steven Davidson or Sharon Ritchie are in the office,

5 please check in with the registration desk and let them

6 know that you're here. David Griggs.

7 MS. DENBRABER: Hi, my name is Sandy

8 DenBraber. I live less than 600 feet from 22 natural

9 gas wells that were drilled in the Shale, and based on

10 my medical records, the TCEQ gave a violation to Carrizo

11 Oil and Gas with enforcement because of how sick they

12 made it. Two years prior to the drilling, I had a total

13 of ten doctor visits, most of those were related to

14 going to have a hip replacement and thereafter.

15 After that, within a very short period of

16 time, I had over 79 doctor visits. I tested positive

17 for their drilling chemicals. The local office proved

18 those drilling chemicals could come from no other source

19 than the Carrizo drill site. My disability is severe

20 multiple hypersensitivities, so I'm not like a typical

21 person in society.

22 I live in a very controlled environment. I

23 don't go out shopping to big malls. I'm very careful

24 where I go, because if I get into perfume, it'll make me

25 sick. So a lot of times, I just avoid, and I shop at
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1 places like Whole Foods to get my food. I order things

2 online so that I can control my environment and where I

3 go. So that makes me the perfect guinea pig, so that if

4 I'm getting sick from drilling, and then it's really

5 used to set off my carbon monoxide detector, especially

6 in the middle of the night, and I have no gas in my

7 home, and it would smell like I was in the middle of an

8 oil refinery, something has to be done to make it safe

9 for people, not just me, for everybody.

10 The problem is that the drilling never goes

11 away. Those wells are still there, and the older a well

12 gets, it is known that they leak more and more. There

13 are still frack water recovery trucks that come daily,

14 and those trucks sometimes leave -- are sitting there

15 idling with all their diesel exhaust, which affects me,

16 and I can't go outside.

17 What I need from you is help, not just with

18 all the major ozones that you focus on, like

19 automobiles, but also the focus on the natural gas

20 drilling and how it's done, because it's people like me

21 that it's cost me the money. The oil and gas refuse to

22 help pay for the medical bills I had, and I had an

23 extremely large amount of medical bills. It's

24 protecting someone like me, because the U.S. Government

25 had to end up paying for the 80 percent of my bills
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1 because of Medicare.

2 So, why should the government have to pay

3 for my medical bills when it was the natural gas? But

4 the natural gas, if it would have been regulated

5 properly, wouldn't have made me sick. It should have

6 never been done in an urban setting too close to homes,

7 too close to children, and the pollution can be

8 astronomical and deadly.

9 What I'd like to do now is just ask you,

10 please pay attention to what's happening with natural

11 gas drilling, because it does affect, people and it can

12 be very, very toxic to many. It's been a couple of

13 years since the major drilling was going on, but, like I

14 said, the drilling does not go away. This morning, I

15 could smell fumes outside my home that comes from the

16 drill site.

17 When -- there are times when they have a

18 24/7 monitor there, but if it reads high, the TCEQ will

19 say, oh, well, there was something wrong with the

20 monitor that day and disallow that reading, and that's

21 not right. I don't trust the TCEQ because a year after

22 the violation, they sent me a letter dismissing it with

23 no plausible reason. Theirs was just some little

24 excuse. So the only one we have is you to protect us.

25 Thank you.
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1 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Next, we would

2 like too call up Aaron Wesley and Sue Pope. Okay, David

3 Griggs, then.

4 MR. GRIGGS: Good afternoon, my name is

5 David Griggs, and I'm an attorney and also an adjunct

6 instructor at Brookhaven College over in Dallas. But

7 today, I'm here representing the Sierra Club Lonestar

8 chapter as a member of its executive committee and as a

9 concerned citizen of north Texas. Incidentally, I'm

10 also a former public servant. I served for 22 years as

11 a civil prosecutor with the Federal Trade Commission, so

12 I applaud all of you for your efforts as public servants

13 to try to do your job to protect the public health.

14 I had many opportunities to help with

15 regulatory rules that we enforced to help protect the

16 public from deceptive trade practices, so my thoughts

17 are with you as you attempt to try to put together a

18 rule that will give us maximum protection for the public

19 health and to fully implement all of the aspects of the

20 Clean Air Act and all of its protege.

21 What I'd like to talk about first is that

22 very federal-state partnership that was supposedly to

23 help us implement all of the efforts of the Clean Air

24 Act, and as you all are very aware that in many states,

25 that partnership with the states has not proven to be
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1 totally workable. So it does take the efforts of the

2 EPA to try to work hard to implement a standard that

3 will achieve those goals and be accepted everywhere.

4 The good thing about what you're trying to

5 do is that all of these rules and standards that you

6 have tried to put forward actually do kind of work

7 together, and a lot of the public doesn't understand

8 that. Some of the media don't get that either. The

9 final mercury and toxic standard rule, the regional haze

10 rules, some of us went to recently testify in during the

11 comment period, and of course, the proposed clean power

12 plant, which I'm sure you're quite familiar with, do

13 work hand in hand to try to achieve these goals and to

14 help the states meet the proposed standards together.

15 In fact, your own projections show that a

16 vast majority of counties with monitors would meet the

17 proposed standards by the year 2025 just with the rules

18 and programs that are now in place or soon to be,

19 hopefully, underway. So that's a great effort on your

20 part to try to make all of these parts to the puzzle

21 work, and some of us in the public really do appreciate

22 your efforts in that regard.

23 Plus, you're giving the states time to meet

24 these standards. It's not like this is something that

25 has to happen five years from now or even six or seven
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1 from now. We're looking off into the future a decade or

2 more before we, you know, have to have all of these

3 things come together. But yet, the standards are tough,

4 and you believe in protecting the public health, and

5 that's what these standards will do and that's a good

6 thing.

7 One of the other issues that I think is

8 important here is disclosure. As I mentioned, when I

9 worked for the Federal Trade Commission, we were all

10 about requiring businesses to disclose things to people,

11 and as long as they understood what was happening, then

12 they were informed; then they could make their decision.

13 These standards allow information to be put out there so

14 that people will know what the standards are. They'll

15 know when their health is in danger, and of course, your

16 own supportive materials show that the public health is

17 at risk, children -- particularly seniors and children

18 with asthma have huge health risks today. And so it's

19 important for these laws to be put into effect.

20 Plus, you're using science as the basis of

21 what you're trying to do. That is a good thing as well.

22 And you know, the world is looking to the United States

23 right now for leadership and public policy. Our

24 President has taken the world stage recently with his

25 efforts with China and the climate change in general.
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1 We need to, as an agency and as federal servants, to try

2 to do the very best we can to implement those standards,

3 and I think in this particular case, you're doing a

4 great job, and I applaud your efforts in doing so.

5 And having said that, I think that we need

6 to try to deliver the most protective standard possible

7 at the lowest end of the range recommended by your

8 science advisors. If we're going to trust science,

9 let's trust our scientists to tell us what we need to

10 do. If 60 parts per billion is not achievable, at least

11 65. Let's do the best we can to protect the public

12 health. Thank you for your time.

13 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Next, I'd like

14 to invite up Erin Wesley and Sue Pope and Sara Campbell,

15 and Reggie James on deck.

16 MS. WESLEY: Good afternoon, my name is

17 Erin Monroe Wesley, and I serve as the executive vice

18 president and chief operating officer for the Baton

19 Rouge Area Chamber in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. On behalf

20 of the investors of the Baton Rouge Area Chamber and the

21 region's business community, we stand before you today

22 to express our significant concern regarding the

23 proposed National Ambient Air Quality Standards for

24 Ozone rule issued by the EPA on November 25th, 2014.

25 The Baton Rouge Area Chamber continues to
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1 vehemently oppose the proposed reductions in ambient air

2 quality standards from the current level of 75 parts per

3 billion. BRAC believes in and stands for cleaner air

4 and environment. For roughly ten years, BRAC has a

5 hosted a Baton Rouge Clean Air Coalition, a group whose

6 existence and work spans the past 25 years.

7 These efforts were critical to the success

8 of the Baton Rouge Area achieving ozone attainment.

9 Since the EPA first proposed lowering the 2008 ozone

10 index, the Baton Rouge area has seen four major

11 industrial projects, totaling 2,000 direct and indirect

12 jobs and more than 7 billion in capital investment

13 either put on hold or go elsewhere. These losses are in

14 direct correlation with the uncertainty created by the

15 newly proposed ozone standards rule.

16 In 2014, BRAC worked with four specific

17 chemical manufacturers that were investigating major

18 investments in the region. This included two companies

19 that executed purchase agreements on large industrial

20 sites with intent to develop. Subsequently, all four of

21 these companies indicated that the EPA's proposed new

22 standards and availability of emission reduction credits

23 influenced their decisions to look elsewhere or not

24 proceed.

25 The direct impact on the Baton Rouge area,
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1 in terms of new payroll created from the projects

2 themselves, would have been over 86 million annually in

3 wages for the local economy. This does not include any

4 indirect or spinoff investment or payroll created. Let

5 me be very clear. These projects were put on hold or

6 lost under the current scenario at the very mention of

7 the proposed changes and the prospect of the region

8 returning to nonattainment status due to the EPA's

9 proposed lowering of the ozone air quality standards to

10 the 65 to 70 parts per billion range.

11 Economic development professionals have

12 projected that in the future, the Baton Rouge area will

13 not even be approached for these types of projects, much

14 less compete for them. The same effect is happening to

15 the U.S. as a whole as these policies decrease foreign

16 direct investment, export, and new manufacturing

17 expansion. The Baton Rouge area has been extremely

18 successful in creating economic improvement. Recently,

19 the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis ranked Baton Rouge

20 among the top ten of the nation's fastest growing metro

21 areas in terms (inaudible) standing in gross domestic

22 product.

23 Furthermore, Business Affiliate listed

24 Louisiana as having the fourth best business climate in

25 the nation, second for economic potential, and Baton
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1 Rouge as the top national area for economic growth

2 potential in 2013. On April 4th, 2014, the Louisiana

3 Department from (inaudible) announced that the EPA

4 determined that the Baton Rouge area is currently

5 attaining the 2008 eight-hour ozone standard. This

6 (inaudible) was based on a recent review of air quality

7 data from 2011 to 2013.

8 The state has decreased ground level ozone

9 in Baton Rouge, which improved air quality and human

10 health for the 800,000-plus residents. Preliminary air

11 quality data for 2014 continues to show that the area

12 meets the 2008 eight-hour ozone standard. Louisiana is

13 now developing a plan to show how the (inaudible) area

14 can maintain compliance with the ozone standard for the

15 next ten years.

16 Clean air is a priority for the state as a

17 whole and certainly for the Baton Rouge area business

18 community. Economic development and environmental

19 stewardship do not have to be mutually exclusive goals,

20 and this region's businesses are committed to both. The

21 EPA has not even fully implemented its 2008 NAAQS

22 standard across the nation, but it still proposes more

23 stringent standards that could deeply ruin economic

24 advantages for metropolitan regions like the Baton Rouge

25 area that are already in attainment.
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1 It is our strong recommendation that the

2 standards not be lowered from 75 parts per billion.

3 Prior to implementing any huge reductions in the ozone

4 NAAQS, EPA should investigate and create a toolbox for

5 states and regions to use in creating new and innovative

6 ways for achieving lower standards of emissions and

7 implementing emissions control mechanisms.

8 This could include a nationwide rule

9 allowing (inaudible) training, intersource trading, and

10 even creation of a blueprint for emission reduction

11 credit clearinghouse to match up companies requiring

12 emission credits with potential projects that will

13 achieve new offsets. The Baton Rouge Area Chamber

14 strongly urges the EPA not to proceed with implementing

15 any changes that include lowering of the ozone standards

16 at this time. Thank you.

17 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Sue.

18 MS. POPE: First, I want to say thank you

19 for coming here and listening to us for our needs, and

20 we have needs and therefore the betterment of the whole

21 generation. By any chance, do any of y'all have asthma

22 or a person in your family that has asthma? So you know

23 what it's all about? And we focused on that today. I

24 live in a -- in the DFW area in a town. It's called

25 Midlothian.
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1 Approximately 20 years ago, I was among a

2 group of people from the (inaudible) At Risk

3 organization who came to Washington to discuss the poor

4 air quality near the Midlothian complex 20 years ago.

5 Carol Brown was the EPA administrator at the time.

6 Countless unfortunate circumstances have occurred since

7 then. Many of us have come here today to request a new

8 ozone standard of not more than 60 parts per billion,

9 and that's for a reason, and I think there's a number of

10 people that have demonstrated their reason today.

11 By the EPA's own numbers, the reduction of

12 ozone to 60 parts per billion would reduce asthma deaths

13 in the U.S. by 95 percent. Sympathetic elected

14 officials, industry finance studies, and corporate

15 employees will say there are no real benefits to

16 reducing DFW smog. That same group insisted that global

17 warming did not exist. We know better now. Bad air

18 days initiate asthma attacks, heart attacks, missed

19 schools, premature deaths, among other health effects.

20 When you have an asthma attack, and it's a

21 really bad one, it's like you jumped into a swimming

22 pool and you can't get to the top, no matter what you

23 do. You just can't breathe. Industry is opposed to

24 additional pollution controls because of the expense. A

25 bad air day and asthma medication can also be quite
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1 expensive. Like one of the girls said, she couldn't

2 afford it. She needs what she talked about.

3 A bad air day, a passing out in Kroger's

4 grocery store can cost you over a thousand dollars for

5 the ambulance plus mileage and the ride to take you to

6 the hospital, not to mention the cost of treatments that

7 are almost 5,000. Because of the poor air quality days,

8 the hospital emergency ward is beyond capacity. The

9 only spaces in the hall is on a gurney until the

10 following day. The staff for treatment is terribly

11 limited, and there are no rooms available for

12 admissions. My oxygen alone is $750 per month.

13 For young families and those without

14 insurance, asthma can be extremely expensive. Families

15 that have children with asthma face spending as much as

16 $245 a month for just a little puffer and $198 a month

17 for inhalation solution, the cost of the machine to

18 administer it, plus all the doctor's fees. When I was

19 on the American Lung Association board of directors,

20 their (inaudible) was, when you cannot breathe, nothing

21 else matters, and it doesn't. It is God given and we

22 want and need cleaner air to breathe. And we hope you

23 can provide that for us. Thank you.

24 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Next, I would

25 like to invite up Eileen Brown and Sara Campbell,
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1 please.

2 MS. BROWN: I come here today from Austin,

3 Texas. I am a concerned citizen, a real estate

4 appraiser, and professional, and most of all, a mother

5 of four young girls. I have a few concerns.

6 MR. NIEBLING: I'm sorry, would you please

7 state your name for the --

8 MS. BROWN: Eileen Brown. I have a few

9 concerns, well, more than a few, but we're here today to

10 talk about the ozone level being reconsidered, which is

11 a no-brainer. It's hard telling young, smart,

12 intelligent children why we're still going towards

13 things that -- when we know better. We have renewable

14 alternatives, and we're not doing it, and money for a

15 few isn't worth health of all. It doesn't just affect

16 our daily events. I don't even know if with the -- with

17 my right mind, I can let my daughters swim in the green

18 belts that I grew up swimming in when we go walk down

19 there because they're so polluted. And I don't even

20 know that I should have been swimming in them when I was

21 a child. So I do have concerns there.

22 But professionally, I've seen people now --

23 I've done appraisals on people in over their head

24 because of the drought. I've seen people affected by

25 the floods, and it's all connected. So you can't talk
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1 about coal without talking about fracking and without

2 talking about oil. It's not just affecting us daily.

3 It's affecting people financially. Now they're starting

4 to say it's not a good idea to vacation in places that

5 are practicing fracking. Well, oops for Texas. So we

6 really need to think about this now. We should have

7 thought about it years ago.

8 But we can't afford to tell these kids that

9 their future is for sale. We can't. They're smarter

10 than that and we -- if it takes money to do it,

11 economically, Texas is going to take a hit real soon

12 with the pollution and, you know, it's big business, but

13 when it starts hitting tourism and real estate, I've

14 personally known a lady that recently, within the year,

15 relocated her grandson and her daughter from the Houston

16 area to Austin because of their asthma problems, and she

17 said that she grew up there, her father was in the

18 refinery business. You know, it's in her blood but she

19 can't take it anymore.

20 She said, they're not going to fool me

21 anymore about putting moms and pops out of business.

22 I'm not going to have my grandson grow up in it anymore.

23 So she moved to Austin, but Texas has a problem, in

24 general. So what about when people start moving out

25 because Texas is too polluted? That does affect our
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1 economy, our children. I want to see my children be

2 able to swim in a river in their home state. I want to

3 see them have healthy children, and most of all, I don't

4 want to see them relocated because of pollution. They

5 should be as proud of their state as I have grown up.

6 So thank you. Thank you for your time.

7 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Sara.

8 MS. CAMPBELL: Good afternoon. Firstly, I

9 want to thank you for holding this hearing and for the

10 challenging work that you do every day to try to protect

11 our countries environment. My name is Sara Campbell.

12 I'm here today as a member of the Missouri Sierra Club.

13 I have flown 500 miles to be with you today in order to

14 share with you why the tightening of the ground level

15 ozone standards is so important to me.

16 In Missouri, we face above average rates of

17 asthma, particularly in children living in our

18 communities with unsafe air. The entire greater St.

19 Louis, Missouri, area has long been in nonattainment

20 zone for ozone, and parts of the city are also in

21 nonattainment for sulfur dioxide as well. St. Louis

22 ranks in the top ten most polluted cities in the United

23 States.

24 There are four coal-fired power plants in

25 the greater St. Louis area, three of which do not have
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1 modern pollution controls. My family are already living

2 in an area with dangerous air. I live in downtown

3 Kansas City, Missouri, which has been designated as a

4 nonattainment for sulfur dioxide. In the heart of that

5 zone is also an outdated coal-fired power plant. Nearly

6 half of all Missourians are currently living in areas

7 with high ozone pollution. But since the standard has

8 not been updated, most people do not even know they're

9 at risk.

10 That certainly goes for Kansas City, which

11 would be in a nonattainment for ozone when the EPA

12 changes the standard. My sister and I both have

13 adult-onset asthma. My adult daughter and my sister's

14 ten-year-old daughter have asthma as well. My niece,

15 like many kids with asthma, has had a difficult time

16 managing her symptoms. Her most recent flare-up landed

17 her in the emergency room, lethargic, with her skin

18 turning blue. For people like us with asthma, sometimes

19 even the very air we breathe can be bad for our health.

20 Smog aggravates my asthma symptoms, leaving

21 me struggling to breathe. It can often feel like a

22 sharp pain of a muscle cramp in our lungs or even as if

23 a 300-pound weight is crushing my chest. The sensation

24 of not being able to catch one's breath is truly

25 terrifying. My symptoms keep me home in bed during
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1 flare-ups and send me to the emergency room for more

2 severe attacks.

3 As a disabled Army veteran, I am sure that

4 this causes a considerably large expense for my local

5 veterans' hospital. Living in downtown Kansas City

6 comes with many amenities, but in order to live there

7 with asthma, I must always keep my apartment windows

8 closed and use air purifiers in addition to the regular

9 use of expensive medications and breathing treatments

10 which are another expense to the Veterans

11 Administration. Missouri residents deserve to know

12 whether their air is clean or not, and so we are

13 counting on the EPA to use the best available science to

14 set an accurate standard.

15 Fourteen Missouri state legislators have

16 submitted letters to the EPA calling for the agency to

17 issue a stronger smog pollution standard in order to

18 protect public health. Tightening of the smog standards

19 will not hurt the economy but will create more jobs as a

20 result of invasion and investment in new technologies.

21 Smog-related healthcare costs far outweigh any industry

22 costs to comply with EPA standards, and healthcare costs

23 are the leading cause of bankruptcies in this country.

24 I urge you to stand strongly against the

25 relentless industry pushback in order to protect our
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1 public health. Toward that goal, I encourage you to

2 lower the ground level ozone standard from the current

3 75 ppb down to 60 ppb. Thank you again for your time.

4 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Next -- ladies

5 and gentlemen, I -- we appreciate your enthusiasm, but

6 this is an opportunity for everyone to be heard equally,

7 so we ask that this not be audience feedback as well,

8 but we offer up Reggie James and Faith Chatham.

9 MR. JAMES: Good afternoon. I'm Reggie

10 James. I'm the interim director of Sierra Club's Lone

11 Star chapter in Texas. Our office is in Austin, and I

12 really appreciate y'all listening to folks down here and

13 I hope you listen very carefully, which I'm sure you

14 are. I know that it's a very rough job. A few of us

15 have worked for government agencies, and it can be

16 awfully thankless sometimes, but all you can do is just

17 do your job, and I know you want to do the best you can

18 do.

19 In this particular area, it's a

20 science-based standard. So, a lot of times in

21 government, you have to make really tough calls, but I

22 think in this case, you don't, because it is a

23 science-based standard. And the Supreme Court has

24 upheld that it's a science-based standard. I've heard a

25 lot of people come up and tell you that the cost is
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1 going to be high, that it's going to affect jobs, and

2 that can be debated. But this docket is not where

3 that's supposed to be debated.

4 I think your job or your boss' job in this

5 docket is to look and see if the science is sufficient

6 to tell you that you need to change the standard, or do

7 you need to keep the standard the same. I think it's

8 pretty clear that the science supports lowering the

9 standard. I think it's pretty clear that the actual

10 science -- there's lots of studies. There's no lack of

11 them. Several of them have been co-sponsored by EPA.

12 All of the major -- not all, but several

13 major universities and government, national institutes,

14 the health national institutes of environmental health

15 have done studies on effects of ozone. Some of them are

16 on elderly. Some of them are done in VAs, children. So

17 I think that science is there.

18 So, all you have to do is what it supports,

19 and actually, the science supports a standard lower than

20 60 percent, but we're supporting the 60 percent. We

21 have to start somewhere. And I think all the evidence

22 kind of shows, especially for (inaudible) populations,

23 that something quite a bit below 75 is going to be more

24 protective than what we have. So we do strongly support

25 the 60 percent PPM.
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1 I mention that it's a science-based

2 standard and I just want to -- I'm assuming that you

3 know this, that the Supreme Court did uphold just

4 recently -- not that long ago -- I think it was October

5 of 2014, a case where the 75 PPM standard was

6 challenged. You've heard from lots of people from

7 Sierra Club, you've heard from a lot of citizens, so I'm

8 not going to repeat the things that they said, but

9 there's one thing that I want to point out.

10 People have talked about all of the

11 different health risks from respiratory disease,

12 cardiopulmonary disease, elderly, children, asthma, the

13 particular risk to outside workers, which we have a lot

14 of and a lot of whom are low income. But I wanted to

15 just touch on obesity. And the reason that I did is

16 because obesity -- the rate of obesity has doubled in

17 children and quadrupled in the last 30 years. It's an

18 epidemic. It's a problem. It's a huge problem in

19 Texas.

20 Texas ranks with all of the states that

21 have the highest obesity rates. We're not number one,

22 but we have been, and we probably will be again. Thank

23 goodness for Mississippi and Alabama. We're 16th -- I

24 mean, we're -- 16 percent of children in Texas are

25 obese. Nationally, 6- to 11-year-olds have increased
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1 from 7 percent to 18 percent from 1980 to 2012. 12- to

2 19-year-olds, it increased from 5 percent to 21 percent.

3 The reason that I'm -- one of the reasons I'm bringing

4 this up is that obesity is one of the things that

5 exacerbates asthma.

6 I mean, it's like ozone. Ozone exacerbates

7 asthma. It causes onset and exacerbates, and obesity

8 does the same thing. When you add obesity to ozone, I

9 mean, how is a kid going to breathe? It's a bad deal,

10 and it's a deal that's getting worse. So I think that

11 there's a reason to offer even greater protection and

12 try to -- hard to alleviate this. There's several

13 studies.

14 One was the American College of Chest

15 Physicians. That was adults. Another one is at North

16 Carolina Chapel Hill. That was in children, but they

17 show the same thing of the correlation between obesity's

18 stronger effects on asthma and the correlation of the

19 two with ozone. The -- to -- I'll try to wrap this up,

20 but one of the other things, to me, and I think it's

21 more illustrative of a bigger problem, is when you think

22 about obesity and the fact that it's increasing that

23 it's hereditary, it's -- has a lot to do with income

24 level. It's a lot to do with lifestyle.

25 And for an obese child or for a child with
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1 asthma -- let's take an obese child with asthma, worst

2 case scenario, and we have lots of ozone days, and it's

3 not just where they're technically ozone days. We're

4 talking about high risk populations that are

5 particularly vulnerable, so it can be something quite a

6 bit below the legal standard where they're at risk, but

7 they have to stay inside. And isn't the thing we really

8 want obese kids to do is to get more activity, if we

9 can, in a safe way, and being outside is a great way to

10 do it.

11 The other thing is, is if there -- if they

12 are outside and they're exposed to ozone, they're at a

13 greater risk, especially, you know, if there are -- kids

14 that are obese with asthma, they're at the greatest

15 risk. It's like we don't want them to go outside, and

16 we don't want them to stay inside. So I think that

17 really is a good argument for, let's be protective of

18 them, and that's just the point that I wanted to make.

19 So I really support what you're doing, support what

20 we're doing.

21 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Okay.

22 MS. CHATHAM: Thank you. I'm Faith

23 Chatham, and I put two copies of my statement on your

24 desk at the break. I live about ten blocks from here,

25 and I'm representing DFW Regional Concerned Citizens. I
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1 have a prepared statement, but I'm going to add to it.

2 After hearing Mr. Smith and the gentleman with the oil

3 industry make some statements, I cannot let this rest.

4 Breathing the air in the DFW Metroplex is

5 difficult for some on many days and especially hard for

6 others on every day. TCEQ is not doing its job, and

7 you've heard from some people today that are good

8 examples of the pressure that is on them. There are

9 times in the past, the distant past, when EPA didn't do

10 that great a job.

11 But I will tell you, Mr. Smith, when he

12 started talking and mischaracterizing Dr. Al and the job

13 that was done by your agency under him, he was lying to

14 this body. And he was lying to you, because the job

15 your agency did under Dr. Al was exemplary. It was

16 honorable, and it was in the best interest of the people

17 in the United States. And I applaud you, and the man

18 was self-serving, and the words he said, well, his nose

19 is very long. We know he was after his own pocketbook

20 instead of after wells.

21 The study that he mentioned about EPA about

22 the SMU study, it was an inventory of the sources of

23 emissions in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, and he was the

24 first person that noted that there were no oil and gas

25 sources listed on that SIP. This oil man does not even
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1 want the sources listed of the oil and gas on the SIP.

2 Come off here.

3 Then his compadre starting citing

4 Dr. Honeycutt as an authority that we should trust when

5 it comes to what is good human health. Dr. Honeycutt on

6 the payroll of the State of Texas, and he does what the

7 governor and the prior governor wants him to do, and

8 they're only interested in the what the oil companies

9 who give them money do. And I'll tell you, we heard

10 from a very respected doctor from Dallas today who was

11 representing thousands of medical professionals who see

12 patients day in and day out and knows what happens.

13 He's credible. Honeycutt isn't.

14 If Honeycutt were credible, Ms. (Inaudible)

15 would not have the TCEQ remove the enforcement issues on

16 her charge. Breathing the air in this area is

17 difficult, but there are solid medical scientific

18 evidence that the current National Ambient Air Quality

19 Standards are inadequate to protect human health.

20 Residents of this nation deserve healthy air, and in

21 this region, we do not have it.

22 Other regions which had much worse air than

23 we did took action. Now Houston and California have

24 cleaner air than the DFW Metroplex. We need you at the

25 EPA to act to protect the people of this region. If we
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1 had to live with the air because it was unavoidable,

2 that would be tragic enough. There are some things that

3 are natural that you can't do anything about.

4 However, in our case, here in the DFW

5 region, it is avoidable. There are things which are

6 known, proven, attainable, possible, practical,

7 available, and reasonable, yet TCEQ refuses to consider

8 them and to include them in the current SIP. I find it

9 totally unacceptable not to do what is possible to clean

10 up the air.

11 Instead, Texas officials operate on

12 arrogance. Instead of constructive action, the reality

13 here is inaction. Ignoring the law, citing junk science

14 like you heard a couple of gentlemen earlier this

15 afternoon do, ignoring medical experts who really know

16 what's happening with people's bodies, in attempts to

17 construct false premises and to spin why inaction will

18 be sufficient to get the job done when we all know that,

19 absolutely, it will not.

20 In appearing here today to urge you to

21 reject the SIP that is being submitted by TCEQ to your

22 agency, it is empty and does not comply with the Clean

23 Air Act. They have not included any significant

24 available control technologies or methods in this SIP.

25 They did not even attempt to take credit for some of the
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1 things which the industry is doing voluntarily which

2 would clean the air.

3 We need the stronger standards met.

4 Attempting to work with TCEQ through the air check group

5 for the North Texas Central Texas Council of Government

6 this year has been a exercise in futility because they

7 didn't listen to the citizens, and they didn't listen to

8 the experts. For example, I was especially encouraged

9 to hear that -- the results of a study where actual

10 measurements were taken of the emissions from sources on

11 oil and gas sites. There was good news.

12 In the past, when we do a permit by rule,

13 they have always just done a calculation. They pull a

14 number out of the head, they calculate it, and they

15 figure the emission. They didn't measure it. This

16 time, they went out and measured them, and I thought,

17 wow, we might be getting somewhere. Some of the

18 sources, there were less emissions than what they'd been

19 calculating, but there were significantly more emissions

20 coming off of the engines on these pad sites.

21 So, I proceeded next to an engineer, and he

22 basically asked this question. He said, what would

23 happen if you were to electrify the motors and have them

24 solar generated? Can you model that? TCEQ says, well,

25 yeah, we could probably model that. He says, would you
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1 put it -- would you model it and put it in the SIP. The

2 draft comes back, they haven't modeled it; they haven't

3 included it. I asked the same person, why haven't you

4 put it in there? They said, oh, it would be too hard on

5 the grid.

6 I said, on the grid? We asked about solar.

7 Did you consider solar? Oh, no, we didn't do that. So

8 I went to the representative over (inaudible), and he

9 said, well, bring it up when we do the draft. A couple

10 of weeks ago, in this very room, they did the draft of

11 the SIP. They didn't even put it in. They still acted

12 like they'd never even heard it. Now, what we were told

13 in that meeting was that it would probably bring it down

14 to zero. So I know I'm getting past my time.

15 MR. NIEBLING: We're happy to take the

16 balance of your remarks in writing, so if you --

17 MS. CHATHAM: I'm simply asking you to

18 reject the SIP, to enact the higher standards, to listen

19 to the medical doctors who are actually treating

20 patients, rather than the people that are paid by the

21 State of Texas, and to hold the TCEQ's feet to the fire.

22 Thank you.

23 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Next up, I'd

24 like to invite Margaret DeMoss and Harriet Irby.

25 MS. DEMOSS: Good afternoon, Margaret
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1 DeMoss. I'm a citizen and not a member of an

2 organization. First, I want to thank you all for being

3 here and for your service to the EPA. As I've been

4 sitting here, I want to thank all you folks here. There

5 has been some eloquent testimony, and I've been

6 impressed with people who have come such a distance.

7 I've testified here before. I've also

8 testified at state and regional regulatory meetings. So

9 have many of the other people in this room, and as we

10 are nearing the end of the day, I'm sure you have heard

11 the same facts and figures over and over again. You've

12 heard the plea for cleaner air and for more regulations

13 over and over again. You will continue to hear the same

14 over and over again the rest of the day.

15 May I remind you that we here in this room

16 are the precious few who have taken the time off work or

17 away from other responsibilities to drive, in some

18 cases, many miles to be here. If others were able,

19 they, too, would tell you, over and over again, the same

20 thing. We in this room represent an army of people who

21 are sick and tired of being sick and tired of dirty air

22 and sick and tired of a government who has elevated

23 business interest above the health of its citizens.

24 So I do have written testimony which I

25 would like to enter into the record now. I've lived in
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1 the Dallas/Fort Worth area for over 40 years, and during

2 that time, my son has suffered from asthma, and the rest

3 of my family has endured a variety of complications from

4 the bad air, the ozone days, and the like.

5 My concern about the health problems led me

6 to seek a master's degree in public health in 1998 with

7 a thesis on asthma education. The problem with dirty

8 air is ongoing, specifically in the DFW area. Because

9 our region is now one of the fastest growing in the

10 country, we can expect more people, more cars, more

11 construction, and because of the Barnett Shale, more gas

12 wells drilled.

13 All of that adds up to more pollutants in

14 our air. It is essential that the EPA step up and

15 require what the Texas Commission on Environmental

16 Quality has not, and that is to reduce the smog standard

17 from 75 parts per billion to 60 parts per billion.

18 Nationwide ozone is the cause of thousands of premature

19 deaths and millions of work and school days missed due

20 to asthma and breathing-related illnesses.

21 With DFW now one of the worst areas in

22 Texas and in the country, a required smog reduction

23 would make a significant difference in the health and

24 the longevity of the most compromised, our children and

25 our elderly. The DFW Metroplex is unique. It is
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1 downwind from a gaggle of plants to our south, several

2 coal plants on the southeast, and the usual industrial

3 suspects all around us and the newest arrival, gas

4 drilling and fracking mainly to the western side of the

5 Metroplex.

6 The toxic soup from all these sources can

7 be reduced by technology already in place and proven.

8 Whether in the United States, implemented in states with

9 stronger regulations, or in Europe where dirty air is

10 not tolerated, companies have and -- they have and they

11 use tools to make their air cleaner. But they will not

12 do what they do not have to do. It is your job to raise

13 the standards for the country and to protect the health

14 of the citizens. And I thank you very much.

15 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Harriet.

16 MS. IRBY: Good afternoon, and I'd like to

17 thank you all for the long journey to Texas. My name is

18 Harriet Irby. I live at 3400 Peach Tree Lane, Pantego,

19 Texas. As a person with COPD not caused by smoking, I

20 feel compelled to come here. A Texas state health

21 publication, Breathe Across Texas 2014, and I thought, I

22 wonder if I could breathe across Texas. But the

23 publication states that over 1 million Texans have COPD.

24 Some 100,000 to 150,000 of us have never smoked.

25 Instead, we were poisoned by other toxins
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1 in the air, the ambient air. Ozone, methane, and VOCs

2 can all destroy lung tissue. COPD, in a nutshell, means

3 early death and a lot of medical expenses. According to

4 the state publication just quoted, the average hospital

5 stay for a routine COPD admission is 30,000. Doctor

6 visits average about 140, and I can tell you from

7 personal experience, that's really close to the money.

8 When you put together asthma and COPD

9 hospital admissions in 2014, you're coming up to a bill

10 of $1 billion. You know you could buy a lot of

11 pollution control equipment for that. But instead,

12 people like me get to pay the bill. We pay for the lack

13 of equipment rather than industry paying for the

14 presence of equipment. It's a rather unique conundrum.

15 Most of us here (inaudible) ozone is bad,

16 expensive, and it kills people. The EPA, y'all

17 definitely know it. The EPA report titled, Integrated

18 Signs and Symptoms for Ozone and Related Photochemical

19 Oxidants in 2013 concludes with ozone poses serious

20 health threats to human beings. We all pretty much

21 concur. What we lack is not the knowledge, but the

22 will. But after hearings like this -- and it's

23 interesting to point out, concurrently with this

24 hearing, our Congress is voting on Keystone right now.

25 I don't know how it's come out, but it
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1 looks as though Keystone will pass, but not pass as a

2 veto-proof bill. Makes me kind of wonder about the

3 timing of this hearing. I think that's rather neat.

4 But here in Texas, dirty air is what we deal with, and

5 it's time to change this sad local scene of dirty air

6 and perpetual noncompliance.

7 According to the American Lung Association,

8 the DFW area is the location only eight rungs above the

9 very bottom of the chart for ozone pollution. My ZIP

10 code, 76013, gets an F for 2014, period. F quality

11 dirty air is killing me and other people. The TCEQ

12 refrain of compliance doesn't cut it for me and

13 thousands of other COPD sufferers, some of whom live on

14 my block.

15 Second point, air issues are complicated.

16 We've argued about standard amounts, equipment to use,

17 equipment to test, measuring tactics and equipment types

18 are debatable. I get that. Most people here get that.

19 You are paid to get that and you do. But the TCEQ and

20 industries mangle the emission of environmental

21 protection agencies. TCEQ simply sues you and hires its

22 (inaudible) scientists to protect the revenue stream.

23 Dr. Tingler, UTA Austin, seismic researcher recently

24 hired by the TCEQ says, it's the duty of TCEQ to protect

25 the revenue stream. Not people, the revenue stream.
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1 Revenue is important, but the environment

2 and human health come first. I noticed I've run over

3 and I apologize. I do have an editorial from the

4 Longview News Journal, hardly a liberal area of Texas,

5 but the editorial says Texas must stop ways -- find ways

6 to stop suing and find ways to improve air quality. And

7 I have a copy for each of you and thank you for your

8 time.

9 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Next we'd like

10 to invite up Kim Feil and Zachary Craft.

11 MS. FEIL: Hi, I'm Kim Feil, and I live

12 several blocks away. I've been blogging through a

13 wordpress.com website called Barnett Shale Hell about

14 three years now. I almost have 500 blog entries, and I

15 have to refrain because my head is filled with so much

16 information because I've been researching the oil

17 industry for the last seven years, and the information

18 -- the more that I learn, the more I want to tell

19 people.

20 Recently, I joined Livable Arlington.

21 We're a coalition, right now, of women, that will want

22 to help regulate the oil and gas industry here in

23 Arlington and eventually get it banned. When Dr. Robert

24 Haley came up, he mentioned something about the 40 parts

25 per billion ozone. Well, you know, that's a pipe dream,
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1 but he was really driving a point home to me in my

2 heart, because over the last seven years, I recall

3 reading something from American Scientific that said to

4 be completely protective of public health, you really

5 need 35 parts per billion.

6 So we're sitting here talking about 65, 70.

7 No, we need 30. That should be our goal. We really

8 shouldn't be aiming so low. I remember when I first

9 moved here from living by the refineries and I thought,

10 oh, gee, I put up with that. My kids went to a

11 different school where I had to drive them maybe 15, 20

12 minutes every morning, and I remember, right after

13 fracking started, that when I would take my kids across

14 town, I'd come home and I'd cough for half an hour. And

15 I thought, wow, this is something new.

16 So that's when I kind of got the idea that,

17 oh, I might have asthma. Well, I'm a musician, and I

18 was a musician. I kind of gave that up so I could blog

19 about fracking. But one day, I decided I was going to

20 do this Easter egg hunt for my church and entertain, and

21 so there was this rap that I liked to do, and I couldn't

22 do it. I kept breaking my rhythm.

23 There was a (inaudible) bus, dropped all

24 the kids off for the Easter egg hunt, and I tried to

25 take my deep breath, and I thought, oh, no, I don't have
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1 enough, I can't do this one. Just to tell you what it

2 was I was trying to do. Oh, help me father God to live

3 outside my skin, my flesh and blood, this world that I'm

4 in, must I live in my heart, how far to dig to start to

5 see my purpose in your plan, rule over sin. I couldn't

6 do it. Had to breathe four times. And you know, black

7 people start looking at me like, she can't rap. I can

8 rap. I just can't do it on that day.

9 It is a game when we manufacture, and we

10 pollute our water, and we pollute our air, but we have

11 these trinkets. I'm all for jobs, but we really need to

12 get over this consumptive society. We really need to

13 get back to basics. They had these little kids from

14 Africa the other day on WFAA, and they were doing a

15 little dance, and they were saying, it's cold here. We

16 can't wait to get back home.

17 They had it -- they nailed it. They didn't

18 care about all this consumerism. They didn't have cell

19 phones. These kids realized they have it good back

20 where they lived. They understand. They have

21 perspective. You know with the price of crude going

22 down, I see this is a great opportunity to put the

23 squeeze on the fossil fuel industry to store a new

24 business profile. They need to help us get on the move

25 to renewables.
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1 We can't do it without them. They brought

2 us our prosperity here in the United States, but their

3 era has changed. Their time is done. They are obsolete

4 in my book. Now that renewables are at a cost parity,

5 we need the EPA to seize the day and get this ozone

6 standard and put a final squeeze so we can move on and

7 through the fossil fuel era. If we want to survive on

8 this ever increasing hostile planet, you can save the

9 world. Because the United States likes to boast that

10 they're leaders.

11 Now, whatever Obama did with China the

12 other day that he was boasting about on his State of the

13 Union message that, we're taking these steps with China.

14 I just saw like a blurb this morning on my computer, and

15 I didn't get a chance to read about it, but it has

16 fracking involved in it. You had these people here

17 earlier saying, oh, we've got to get these coal plants,

18 natural gas. Wrong.

19 Cradle to grave, emissions from, you know,

20 methane leaks blowing us to climate change. You know,

21 we got to keep the EQ -- they don't believe in global

22 warming. Our EPA does, though. So, you know, something

23 is happening in Midlothian right now is that there's a

24 tire fire. Our state of implementation plan doesn't

25 account for all the little tire fires and all the little
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1 burps and explosions and pipelines. And this stuff is

2 only proliferating. Thank you for your time.

3 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Zachary.

4 MR. CRAFT: Good afternoon. My name is

5 Zach Craft, and I represent the Texas Oil and Gas

6 Association of Texoma. It is a nonprofit organization

7 representing the interest of the oil and gas industry in

8 the State of the Texas. Our more than 5,000 members

9 produce more than 90 percent of Texas's crude oil and

10 natural gas, operate nearly a hundred percent of the

11 state's refining capacity, and are responsible for the

12 vast majority of the state's pipelines.

13 In fiscal 2014, the oil and gas industry

14 employed 418,000 Texans, providing wages and salaries

15 for over $50 billion in Texas alone and generating

16 capital investments providing significant secondary

17 economic benefits for Texas. So, we appreciate the

18 opportunity to present at this hearing, and for the

19 reasons that follow, we believe the EPA should not

20 change the ozone national air quality standards.

21 First, Texas has led the nation in reducing

22 ozone. Without having the EPA set a standard as low as

23 the 65, 70, in range -- Texas ozone levels fell 24

24 percent in 2013 which was twice as fast as the national

25 average of 12 percent. The success is attributable to
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1 Texas air programs that often involve members. For

2 example, Texoma members upstream oil and gas operations

3 are subject to stringent requirements to use best

4 management standard practices (inaudible). As another

5 example, Texoma members (inaudible) emissions trade in

6 programs that have controlled ozone in urban areas.

7 These actions have cleaned the air without EPA

8 intervention and can be expected to continue.

9 Considering the impressive air quality

10 gains Texas has already achieved, Texoma does not

11 believe in lowering ozone standard will provide a new

12 environmental health protection beyond the current

13 standards. EPA's proposal is sweeping estimates for

14 health benefits from less ozone, but the science does

15 not support this conclusion. In fact, there's no

16 evidence that ozone below the current standard will

17 significantly improve public health and welfare.

18 EPA's docket (inaudible) study results that

19 do not match the EPA's conclusions. Many results are

20 conflicting or statistically or clinically

21 insignificant, yet EPA concludes that new standards

22 should be set well below the levels in which ozone is

23 known to cause harm. EPA's (inaudible) is also called

24 into question by a case where the EPA -- more of the

25 study offers a warning that EPA is misinterpreting this
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1 study. (Inaudible) recognizes the ozone for natural

2 background and non-U.S. sources could prevent attainment

3 of the standard proposed range. It has failed to fully

4 consider the background to reduce the standard by not

5 weighing the risks, the risks of ozone below background.

6 EPA's assessment merely evaluates exposures

7 and risks from all sources including natural non-U.S.

8 and U.S. (inaudible) sources and thus fails to

9 characterize the risk that could be addressed by a

10 change in NAAQS. Much of the risk the EPA identifies is

11 not controllable. In light of Texas dramatic air

12 quality improvements and lack of evidence (inaudible) in

13 production could be beneficial, EPA should frankly

14 evaluate the trade-offs. EPA's pressed portrayal of the

15 options and guidelines to meet the new ozone standards

16 to secure the methods if they're necessary to obtain.

17 If EPA changes the standards, it is

18 essential that all flexibility mechanisms, such as

19 permanent grandfathering in (inaudible). EPA's press

20 announcement included a statement that most of the U.S.

21 could attain under business in the usual scenario.

22 However, closer reading of impact analysis reveals that

23 this portrayal greatly understates that. For example,

24 the EPA's air quality modeling suggests that the way for

25 Texas urban areas to obtain is a direct (inaudible) of
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1 controls throughout Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas,

2 Oklahoma, and parts of Kansas. Many parts of this

3 region, especially rural areas, may lack viable options

4 to reduce emissions in the ozone.

5 EPA's list of control options includes

6 measures that would impact Texoma members. For example,

7 EPA has called for substantial controls in oil and gas

8 emissions, engines and turbines, and refinery equipment.

9 Given the EPA's analysis also shows that much of needed

10 productions might have to come from future technology or

11 legally untested measures such as the EPA's proposal on

12 power plant gas emissions. The ozone standards populate

13 to require overcontrol of the oil and gas industry.

14 Regardless of whether those controls have

15 any meaningful environment benefit, they will increase

16 and cost for domestic production and promote U.S.

17 dependence on foreign sources of oil and gas. At the

18 same time, U.S. producers (inaudible) oil prices. Taken

19 together, these details contravene the picture of health

20 improvement and ease implementation in EPA's press

21 package and emphasize the standards. EPA should

22 acknowledge the enormous burden and cost that come with

23 ozone standards while also recognizing that science does

24 not support changing the standards.

25 In conclusion, Texoma supports retaining
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1 the current NAAQS which would help with the environment

2 with an adequate margin of safety and further changes

3 for a tremendous cost for gains. We appreciate the

4 opportunity to present at this hearing and will submit

5 written comments. Thank you.

6 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Next, we'd like

7 to invite up Scott Johnson and Bob Fazen.

8 MR. JOHNSON: Good evening. My name is

9 Scott Johnson. I'm here speaking on my own behalf.

10 People are suffering due to air pollution, and I've

11 witnessed it. I have suffered some as well. As I

12 travel around often abroad each year, I see intense

13 pollution events that, while they're greater here in the

14 U.S., are causing tremendous harm, and sometimes our

15 emissions get transported to their air shed and

16 sometimes their emissions get transported to our air

17 shed.

18 So we've done a lot of transporting in the

19 past in terms of our emissions going across borders, and

20 we're doing better, but we still need to do much better

21 still in order to harmonize the planet both for air

22 quality, safe health, and the benefit of the planet.

23 The standard needs to be lowered to 65 parts per billion

24 or lower. My greatest concern is actually for the

25 direct exposure of pollutants that come from the tail
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1 pipe or come from the factory or come from the lawn

2 mower, the boat engine, the construction equipment, or

3 other sources such as fueling stations, generators, et

4 cetera.

5 If the standard is lower, I believe it

6 should be, and the science backs it up -- the direct

7 exposure coming from engines and fuels will be lowered

8 or lowered over a time frame that will impact favorably

9 public health. Texas' growth is explosive, and Austin's

10 growth is even more explosive where I live. One of my

11 concerns is that the growth is having dramatic impact on

12 affordability, and so people in Austin are -- and other

13 places are keeping vehicles longer, and once they're

14 beyond 24 years old, they're not checked under air check

15 -- Texas, they're not checked for emissions, some of

16 them are keeping their landscaping equipment longer,

17 their boats longer, et cetera.

18 I speak from experience because in 1997, I

19 created and codeveloped a program called the Central

20 Texas Electric Lawn Mower Program. It was the second or

21 third such program in the U.S., and it was a program --

22 I didn't know about these other programs until I found

23 out about some of them. And when I had the program, we

24 highly incentivize trades. We'd give a small discount

25 for people that are new buyers, but a higher discount or
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1 higher rebate for people that are trading in their lawn

2 mowers. And some of the ones that are traded in, I'll

3 ask people, when did you buy this? And they'll say, I

4 bought it back in the '80s or early '90s.

5 And as you well know, before 1997, there

6 were not emission standards for walk-behind, gas-powered

7 mowers. So one of the challenges is that the growth and

8 the cost of living I think is undermining progress in

9 this area, so these standards are needed even more.

10 Please keep that in mind. Something that's overlooked

11 by the community that I work with in my town is that

12 ozone itself is a greenhouse gas. It's significant.

13 Its contribution to climate change is not as well

14 understood as probably the oxide and methane, but

15 there's cobenefits in all these rules and efforts that

16 EPA is engaged with, and this is an example.

17 There are many, many benefits that will be

18 attained, health benefits and benefits to people in the

19 long term. So again, I encourage you to change the

20 standard to be more protective of public health with the

21 margin of safety. And finally, I would like that --

22 this opportunity to say thank you as well for having

23 this hearing, and I hope that we can move forward with

24 the new standard and that the law will be favorable for

25 us to implement it quickly and effectively. Thank you
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1 very much.

2

3

MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Bob.

MR. FAZEN: How are you? Welcome to Texas.

4 You folks have come a long way, you've been listening to

5 a lot of good discussion all day, and I have submitted a

6 statement kind of -- I'm not being really clear here

7 because I'm going to go off the statement. The

8 statement has been submitted. It's there. My name is

9 Bob Fazen. I'm from Cooke County, Texas. It's up near

10 the Red River. I have spent the last five years working

11 with a -- or working against, really, a sand mine. It's

12 a fracking sand mine and processing plant that's

13 attempting to do an air quality permit. They're three

14 miles from us. And so I learned a lot of stuff that I

15 didn't know in the last five years.

16 It seems -- all of this testimony, one

17 young lady just said, we don't lack the knowledge. You

18 guys have built the knowledge, you've built the science.

19 It's all there. What we lack is the will. And so my

20 statement is about how do we get the will? How do we

21 fill up this room where people are swarming and you

22 will -- the results are obvious. Our politicians --

23 Texas, of course, you're looking down the jaws of the

24 lion here in Texas. I'm surprised you even came here.

25 You've got it -- you know what has to be
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1 done, but you can't get the word out. My point to you

2 and my formal statement is that -- just think outside

3 the box. If you really want to get something done, you

4 want to get this over with, recognize that we're in a

5 war with the oil companies. It's a media war. It is --

6 it's their $4 million budget against what you guys know

7 as science. So let's do what they did with the smoking

8 campaign -- antismoking campaign. Let's put some videos

9 out there. Let's do some social media. Let's overwhelm

10 the oil companies with facts.

11 You've got the facts, but use it in a

12 pictorial sense. Get people that have had COPD as a

13 result of working for an oil company for 20 years and

14 get them out there on a camera. Let them talk. And I

15 think you guys can really do that. You'd change the

16 whole spectrum if you do that. The second thing I

17 propose is that we've got a lot of good folks out here,

18 like even from our community, that have gone through the

19 horrendous TCEQ process. And by the way, TCEQ approves

20 all applications.

21 One of our people suggested that we get rid

22 of the TCEQ -- really could -- and just have a phone

23 recording that says, application approved. Just approve

24 the application. Approve them all, and you guys know

25 that. It's a joke. And therefore, what I'm thinking
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1 you could do is take our little groups, spend a couple

2 hundred thousand -- that's really all we need to go

3 through that whole process -- and fight these guys. We

4 were one of the few people that really -- they ended up

5 with two administrative law judges because we were

6 creating such a (inaudible).

7 We just needed money and we needed -- we

8 got an expert witness. We paid him a lot, and he was

9 pretty good. You might even know him. We just needed

10 money and the expert witnesses, and we need the money

11 for the attorneys. If you guys would back a little

12 group or little groups all over Texas, you don't have to

13 get into this media war with the governments and say, we

14 don't want the EPA around here. He's going to be

15 dealing with thousands of little people just like us

16 that are saying, hey, let's -- we can fight the TCEQ.

17 We've got the money. EPA is going to help us with that.

18 And I think this problem will take care of itself just

19 with those two factors.

20 The other thing I want to bring up is this

21 -- this is really interesting. I was looking at your

22 website. You folks say that your second most -- or

23 second highest priority is water for America. And I

24 thought, well, you know, we're not talking about water.

25 Obviously, I -- by the way, I'm in favor of your latest
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1 proposal for the smog control of particulate matter.

2 It's obvious we have to do that. But let's just move

3 into water just for a second. If I can get to my notes

4 here and figure out where that was.

5 Essentially, this sand mine was -- what got

6 our attention is they were going to use 5 million

7 gallons of water a day according to their TCEQ

8 application. 5 million gallons of water a day, guys.

9 And that's coming out of the aquifer. I don't know if

10 your EPA is concerned with the aquifers. I would hope

11 that they are. That is significant. These folks are

12 putting 24 wells in their site. They're obviously going

13 to use 5 million gallons of water a day.

14 If the TCEQ -- I mean, if the EPA is

15 interested in fighting these guys, let's get some media

16 out there and let's support us little folks that are

17 trying to beat the TCEQ and the Texas governors at their

18 own game. Thanks very much.

19 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Next, we'd like

20 to invite Sandra Breakfield and Linda Cooke, please.

21 MS. BREAKFIELD: My name is Sandra

22 Breakfield. I live in Dallas, Texas. I didn't come

23 very prepared today. I'm an accountant, and I've

24 been -- this is a busy time of year for me, but I

25 thought this was important enough that I needed to come.
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1 And now that I hear people coming from Missouri and

2 Oklahoma, and New Mexico, I don't feel bad coming from

3 Dallas.

4 What I've listened to today -- I've

5 listened to these speakers that represent industry, and

6 to them, a robust economy is more important than the

7 public's health. And they give lots of statistics about

8 the cost of lowering the ozone standard, jobs lost,

9 incomes lost, we have to go back and start buying

10 foreign oil. But you can't breathe money, and you can't

11 put a price on the value of clean air and good health.

12 And by law, the EPA cannot consider the

13 costs in determining the level that is safe for public

14 health and welfare. So please lower the ozone standard

15 to 60 parts per billion. And I'd also recommend the EPA

16 take over the air permitting and the revision of the

17 state implementation plan from TCEQ.

18 (Audience applause.)

19 MR. NIEBLING: Please keep your pause. We

20 have a long list of people that need to speak. So

21 please.

22 MS. COOKE: Hi. My name is Linda Cooke. I

23 also live in Dallas. And what she just said is exactly

24 what I wanted to say. The TCEQ does not protect the

25 interest of citizens in Texas. They are beholding to
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1 the oil and gas interest and other big polluters in this

2 state. That is their primary focus is to support the

3 growth of business, not the health of the people who

4 live here. That is primary in my focus.

5 I also come from Cooke County. I don't

6 know the person who was just here, but I own mineral

7 rights about ten miles away from the sand mine that he

8 was just describing, and I wasn't aware of that sand

9 mine because I don't live there. I only found out about

10 it late in the show, but it was a show. The people who

11 live in that area really got no say into the development

12 of that mine, and it's going to make a big difference in

13 that area, particularly air pollution. Not just water

14 pollution, but air pollution.

15 It's unfortunate that that goes on all over

16 the place. I mean, it's just everywhere you go now.

17 The destruction and impact of fracking oil and gas in

18 this area is disheartening, and you can feel it in the

19 air when you breathe in the air. You can feel that. So

20 I appreciate that the EPA would come here and take into

21 consideration the comments of the residents of Texas

22 because we are not being protected by the state and even

23 our local elected officials in Dallas. They tried to

24 bring fracking to -- inside the city limits and the city

25 parks. Even though it was illegal, they said, well,
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1 we'll sign this contract, we'll get $30 million and then

2 we'll figure out how to do it later since it's illegal.

3 So that's the kind of thing that goes on

4 here, and I want you to be aware of that. Thank you

5 very much for your time.

6 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Next up is

7 Sharon Speiss and Jim Moffett.

8 MS. SPEISS: Good afternoon. My name is

9 Sharon Speiss, and I'm a resident of the wonderful city

10 right here called Denton, Texas. Excuse me. I just

11 lost my thing. Just a second. I appreciate the

12 opportunity to speak here today. I am here to request

13 that the EPA set a standard of 60 ppb ozone threshold.

14 I draw from my own personal experience primarily with

15 one industry to make this request. However, mine is not

16 a unique situation but one that is like thousands of

17 others in our city of Denton and across this country.

18 I have lived in this area for over 35

19 years, and I've seen and felt the deterioration of the

20 quality of the air we breathe. In Denton, we are

21 particularly susceptible to the worsening air quality.

22 The air blowing in from the south carries with it the

23 cost of emissions from the concrete plants just south of

24 Dallas. Closer to home, however, we have the volatile

25 organic compounds that are continuously leaking from all
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1 of the fracked oil and gas wells within our own city

2 limits.

3 I became involved with the efforts to ban

4 fracking in Denton because of several reasons. The

5 catalyst, however, was the quality of the air we

6 breathe. I went to one of the wells being drilled in

7 town. To say that the noise from the pipe being pounded

8 into the ground was very loud and continuous is an

9 understatement. Within about 20 seconds of exiting the

10 car, I inhaled the caustic deplorable odors emitting

11 from the drill site. I gagged so violently that I

12 doubled over in the middle of the road and nearly threw

13 up. No one should be forced to live near and breathe

14 that disgusting air.

15 I then learned about the videos that showed

16 the VOCs continuously emitting from the wells. The

17 Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has been

18 ineffectual in stopping the oil and gas companies

19 operating in our state from allowing these VOCs to

20 escape their wells. There are three times more

21 childhood cases of asthma from residents living on the

22 Barnett Shale than anywhere else in Texas. There are

23 known cancer-causing chemicals that are continuously

24 emitting into the air from the fracking process. These

25 statistics and facts are not acceptable.
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1 Our state government will not protect us,

2 hence the ban on hydraulic fracking passed in Denton.

3 The EPA is the federal entity that is entrusted with the

4 task of protecting our environment, and it's no easy

5 task, I'm sure. The Clean Air Act requires the EPA to

6 set the national ambient quality standards that will

7 protect public health including the health of sensitive

8 populations with an adequate margin of safety. The

9 EPA's own Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee

10 concluded that there is adequate scientific evidence to

11 recommend a range of levels for a revised primary ozone

12 standard from 70 ppb to 60 ppb.

13 I am respectfully requesting that the EPA

14 protect all of us by mandating and enforcing the ozone

15 standard of 60 ppb. I thank you for your time.

16 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Jim.

17 MR. MOFFETT: I'm Jim Moffett from

18 Lewisville. I've been in the Dallas/Fort Worth area

19 since 1982 and have gotten -- first of all, I want to

20 make some comments before I get into my concerns

21 regarding the appreciation for the EPA and the work that

22 you do in lots of areas. I am a climate advocate, and I

23 know we have to depend upon you to bring about the

24 changes to save us from global warming and the impact

25 that it has on climate change. So keep up the good
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1 work.

2 But I also understand you've got a hard

3 task because I think there are people who believe that

4 you are supposed to supply the labor department and

5 provide jobs for everybody instead of doing the things

6 that you do best to protect us from abuse of the

7 environment. And then there are others who expect you

8 to do the job of the economist department and the

9 banking agencies to make sure that the economy keeps

10 rolling along, so don't stir any water or solve any

11 problems.

12 My concerns began back in 1998. I had

13 joined in a club of children, the elderly, and people

14 with respiratory impairments that suffer in global --

15 when the ozone concentrations exceed desired levels.

16 Dallas/Fort Worth has had a particular problem. Hadn't

17 been in compliance with the EPA standards for nearly a

18 decade at that time, and there's been little progress

19 that's been made since then.

20 I have two problems. The most important is

21 the anger I have because this situation now is 15 years

22 beyond that and precious little has been accomplished.

23 Part of it I understand is because of the resistance

24 that you get from -- as many people have already

25 expressed, the TCEQ seems to be dead with respect to
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1 attempting to listen to people, what people are telling

2 them. They seem to hide information, make it very hard

3 to get information, and it just contributes to the

4 problem.

5 It appears that every five years that the

6 Texas SIP for ozone gets approved and can never, ever

7 solve the problem. They accept anything, and nothing is

8 ever done. It isn't clear that anybody is responsible

9 or even evidence that anybody really cares about it.

10 Although there's still going -- suffering and

11 inconvenience and expense that people have that were

12 affected by the ozone.

13 Second, given that there's still a problem,

14 there's difficulty in determining the status of -- I

15 hear on the morning news that it's an ozone alert day,

16 but it doesn't -- I never find out any additional

17 information. And once upon a time, there was a website

18 that I think was supported by the TCEQ that apparently

19 became inconvenient for them to tell us that

20 information, but it's no longer available. And it gave

21 a pretty good indication of what the state was, that it

22 was reported on a realtime basis, and what the status

23 was, and where the problems were, the dangers and the

24 intensity of it, and there's nothing to supplant that.

25 And in addition, it is not easy to get the information
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1 on a realtime basis. There's -- you can dig at it, but

2 I didn't want to spend my life doing that.

3 I guess once I finally -- I'm also an

4 advocate for climate change, and they both have emission

5 factors that are closely related to the ozone problem.

6 I recommend an alternative to eliminate the revenue

7 neutral carbon tax with a hundred percent dividend to

8 decrease the need for fossil fuels which is responsible

9 for a lot of the problems, and this will impact that

10 over a period. The proposal is by James Hanson, and it

11 is to be implemented over a period of time that doesn't

12 cause in ten years so that it wouldn't allow people to

13 make adjustments for that.

14 So I really appreciate your being here and

15 taking to heart the needs of the people in this air

16 especially have.

17 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. I would just

18 offer to you the EPA offers a tool called AirNow where

19 you can check your air quality. There's an app that you

20 can download on the smartphone and everything. So we do

21 have a tool that we make available for you. You can

22 find it on our website. Airnow.gov, I'm told.

23 Next up, Tammy Carson and Bob Fusinato,

24 please.

25 MS. CARSON: Hi. I'm Tammy Carson, and I
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1 live in Arlington, and probably some of the things I

2 will say you will have heard before. It's been a long

3 day for you, I'm sure. I have no credentials, I have

4 very few statistics, but I did want to come and speak.

5 I appreciate the chance to speak. I want to talk about

6 the effects that fracking has on our air quality.

7 Arlington has about four pad sites -- four

8 wells per square mile, and there are three pad sites

9 near my house, and when my grandkids come to play -- I

10 have younger grandchildren -- and they wind up with

11 chronic upper respiratory infections and frequent and

12 severe nosebleeds. And it hasn't been too long ago in

13 this room when I was relaying the story to City council

14 to try to get them to not approve more drilling in our

15 city. And one of the council members said to me

16 privately that (inaudible) in Arlington (inaudible)

17 needed to be addressed.

18 So this is a serious -- it's a serious

19 issue. And we've heard a lot of statistics today about

20 the rate of asthma, the number of children that wind up

21 with asthma that's so much greater, but when my

22 grandkids have these upper respiratory infections and

23 these serious nosebleeds, they're not statistics. This

24 is my family, and this is happening to my neighbor's

25 families, and we need to make this better. We don't
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1 need to leave this for the future generations. These

2 are not statistics. These are people. This is why I do

3 what I do. This is why I'm here.

4 And I am really -- I'm also very touched.

5 My heart goes out to the oil and gas industries and to

6 the cities that want to regulate their own air, make

7 their own rules. It would be really sad if -- that they

8 would be significantly impacted if we have a better

9 quality of air. But one of my grandkids and our

10 neighbors have these serious infections. They are

11 significantly impacted, and that's what really counts.

12 It's not about the money. And I'm hoping that you will

13 do the right thing and make stricter rules. Make --

14 help us make the changes that are going to keep our

15 children healthy.

16 And I know you've heard this before, but

17 there are no jobs on a dead planet. Thank you for

18 listening to me.

19 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you.

20 MR. FUSINATO: Hello, my name is Bob

21 Fusinato. I live in Richardson, Texas. How low can you

22 go? That's the question we're here to answer. And I'm

23 not a scientist, so I can't tell you for sure, but your

24 experts do tell us that the standards are not low enough

25 as they are. My daughter who suffers from asthma will
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1 tell you, the lower, the better.

2 We know that this region is one of the

3 fastest growing in the nation. As more people move into

4 the area, there are more and more sources of pollution

5 and more people who will likely suffer from the

6 consequences. On a recent trip down I-35 to Austin, I

7 could see how much has changed since we have been making

8 that trip since the early 1980s. I thought to myself

9 how much Texas is turning into industrial wasteland.

10 Well, some things such as cars and trucks

11 seems to be polluting less. Others such as industrial

12 plants and construction equipment seem to be polluting

13 more. And certainly, there are more of them. We know

14 that we'll be growing further in the coming decades, but

15 without a strong standard, that growth will lead to

16 greater harm in public health and safety and to the

17 environment than necessary. We have choices in how we

18 provide the needs of the future, and we know, for

19 instance, that wind and solar, along with other

20 (inaudible) can provide a cleaner future than building

21 more coal-fired power plants.

22 It's much easier when designing to a

23 cleaner future standard for a cleaner standard to do it

24 from scratch rather than have to go back and retrofit

25 later. So I urge you to proceed without delay where the
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1 standard is low -- in the low 60s so that we will be

2 building towards a cleaner future now and not having to

3 continually catch up in the future. Thank you very

4 much.

5 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. At this point, I

6 think we'll go take another ten-minute break and

7 reconvene about 5:35 or so.

8 (Break taken from 5:27 p.m. to 5:41 p.m.)

9 MR. NIEBLING: Okay. Welcome back again.

10 Thank you for the break. And next up, we'd like to

11 invite Elizabeth Hendler and Terry Burns to speak.

12 MS. HENDLER: Good afternoon -- maybe good

13 evening. My name is Elizabeth Hendler. I'm the project

14 manager for the 8-Hour Ozone SIP Coalition, and our

15 coalition is comprised of members from the energy

16 industries with the common interests of achieving the

17 goals of clean air and a strong economy for Texas. Our

18 refining, petrochemical, and electric generation members

19 have been strong supporters of clean air improvements.

20 Our companies have, by themselves, invested over

21 $2 billion in state-of-the-art emissions controls since 

22 2001.

23 The coalition believes the EPA should

24 retain the current primary ozone standard. We'll be

25 submitting detailed written comments on this. Today,
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1 I'd like to focus on the inconsistencies between EPA's

2 public presentations on the nature of the control

3 strategies that would be required to reach attainment

4 versus the analysis provided in the regulatory impact

5 analysis. These inconsistencies are dramatic. We

6 believe the approach is inconsistent with the

7 Administrative Procedures Act which requires EPA to

8 fairly disclose to the public what the agency is

9 proposing.

10 EPA has provided a presentation to the

11 public outlining key aspects of the proposal including

12 implementation information. In this document, EPA

13 provides a map showing that, based on current data, 358

14 counties would violate a proposed standard of 70 ppb,

15 and a total of 558 counties would violate a proposed

16 standard of 65 ppb.

17 EPA then presents a map entitled EPA

18 Projects Most Counties Would Meet the Proposed Range of

19 Standards in 2025 which shows that only nine counties

20 outside of California would continue to violate a

21 standard set at 70 ppb, and only 68 would violate a

22 standard of 65 ppb. This series of slides leads the

23 reader to believe that, as a result of federal control

24 strategies, EPA has established a federally-driven glide

25 path to meet the new standards.
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1 EPA's language implies that, in most areas,

2 state and local governments, small business and industry

3 and individual citizens will not be called upon to make

4 draconian emission reductions to reach attainment of the

5 new standard. Unfortunately, a detailed analysis of the

6 regulatory impact analysis shows that this plain

7 language interpretation of EPA's presentation materials

8 will be mistaken.

9 As the RIA reveals, many states that are in

10 attainment of the standard will be subject to new

11 controls to help other states that are not, the amount

12 of new emissions reductions needed far exceeds the EPA's

13 glide path assumptions, and a significant percentage of

14 new reductions needed come from currently unknown

15 controls.

16 For example, in addition to new controls in

17 the Houston and Dallas/Fort Worth nonattainment areas,

18 EPA's estimates reveal that substantial new NOx control

19 strategies will be needed across the entire states of

20 Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and parts of

21 Kansas to reach 70 ppb by 2025. In fact, in order to

22 achieve attainment of a 70 ppb standard in the small

23 number of counties that EPA predicts will not attain by

24 2025, EPA estimates that new control measures will be

25 needed in 479 additional counties. And to achieve a 64
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1 ppb standard, all but 14 states would need to implement

2 wide ranging and even more strict new rules to bring the

3 remaining nonattainment areas into compliance.

4 In addition, EPA's summary presentation

5 does not convey to the public that their projections

6 include a sizable portion of NOx emission reductions

7 that are beyond known control. In the eastern half of

8 the country, the percentage of unknown NOx reductions

9 rises from 23 to 66 percent as the standard level

10 decreases from 70 ppb to 60 ppb. But the Clean Air Act

11 does not give states additional time to allow technology

12 to develop. Only areas with the worst air quality like

13 California get the take this into consideration in their

14 clean air plans. All other states must submit plans

15 that somehow contain control strategies that the EPA

16 cannot yet define.

17 Finally, EPA's glide path approach to

18 attainment ignores the timing issues associated with

19 implementation of a new standard. In most of the

20 nation, areas will be classified as marginal

21 nonattainment and be required to attain the standard by

22 2020. That's five years before EPA estimates that most

23 of them can. Many of these areas will fail to attain

24 and be bumped up to a moderate nonattainment

25 classification. They'll then be required to perform
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1 costly photochemical modeling and submit a new clean air

2 plan that includes new controls that will demonstrate

3 how they'll reach attainment by 2023, still two years

4 short of EPA's 2025 future year date.

5 In other words, on the way to the 2025

6 estimated attainment date, many areas will complete two

7 rounds of expensive and time consuming regulatory

8 processes to achieve the same goal. For these reasons,

9 we believe that EPA has failed to provide adequate and

10 accurate information to the public about the true nature

11 of the control strategies that will be required to

12 achieve attainment by 2025. Without this information,

13 parties cannot reasonably assess whether they'll be

14 affected by the new standard and thus cannot

15 meaningfully comment on this proposal. Thank you for

16 the opportunity to speak today.

17 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Terry.

18 MR. BURNS: Good afternoon. My name is

19 Terry Burns. I come here from San Antonio. I speak

20 both as the cochair of the Alma Group at the Sierra Club

21 and as a physician, a member of the Texas Medical

22 Association, pathologist, with a long interest in

23 pulmonary disease and publications in environmental lung

24 disease.

25 I strongly support new EPA ozone standards
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1 and I recommend 60 ppb for implementation. I believe

2 the history of the Clean Air Act is known to you

3 certainly, and we are dealing with grandfathering issues

4 that date back decades in some cases. It's been almost

5 30 years since the new source review grandfathered a

6 number of power plants, and we still suffer the

7 consequences from this mistake of legislation because it

8 was felt at the time that newer technologies or removal

9 of those plants would occur in reasonably short order.

10 These companies are still resisting best

11 available retrofit technology even today, and I would

12 think that, over this period of time, they would have

13 been able to find the budgetary means to pay for these

14 technologies. In healthcare, we do not continue to use

15 30-, 40-year-old technology because newer technology is

16 too expensive. We make progress because it's the best

17 thing to do for patients, and the cost is a secondary

18 matter -- an important one admittedly -- but a secondary

19 matter. Primary is patient health. And I remind you

20 that the Clean Air Act in the situation you're dealing

21 with here puts health primary.

22 These cost issues that you've heard a lot

23 about are really irrelevant in terms of where you set

24 the standard. The impact analysis is of interest and

25 certainly another ten years are being given in this
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1 process, so we'll be out almost 50 years. I think that

2 should be enough. As you know, our Texas Commission on

3 Environmental Quality, as it's called, opposes your

4 proposed lower standards as unscientific without

5 significant health benefit and too costly. Among the

6 statements that Dr. Honeycutt -- there is the

7 implication that raising ozone standards will lower

8 asthma rates. Some of us question his scientific

9 interpretations.

10 You've heard a lot about the epidemiology,

11 and Dr. Honeycutt gives an example of association saying

12 that mortality in hospital patients goes up in -- during

13 winter holidays, so I do not think we want to eliminate

14 winter holidays in order to reduce hospital mortality.

15 There is something to be said about causation. As a

16 pathologist, I know a lot about causation in medicine

17 and ozone pathological effects on the body. And you've

18 heard about these things before, but clearly, it

19 irritates the bronchial (inaudible) spasm and increases

20 secretions, reduces immunity, enhances susceptibility to

21 infection.

22 High ozone levels worsen (inaudible)

23 emphysema and are associated with all of the health care

24 cost that you heard about earlier. It also is

25 associated with increased cardiovascular disease,
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1 including heart attack and sudden death. Ozone

2 particulates and other factors, cofactors that impact

3 negatively in the cardiovascular system. Some of us

4 don't have as strong an effect as others under these

5 matters because we're relatively immune, so to speak.

6 Other people have greater individual susceptibility from

7 their own health characteristics.

8 Your scientific data are very robust and

9 strong, and I strongly urge you to follow the data and

10 implement a standard of 60 or at most 65. I urge you in

11 a secondary standard to protect the agriculture and

12 rural areas with the eight-hour secondary standard that

13 I would also recommend be in the 60 to 65 parts per

14 billion range. I would also point out that other

15 countries around the world have standards below 70 as we

16 speak. Canada is implementing a 63 parts per billion

17 standard. There's really no reason why this advanced

18 industrial nation cannot achieve the same standards that

19 other advanced industrial nations are achieving.

20 I urge you to move forward and thank you

21 for all your good work in protecting this country's

22 people and our health. Thank you.

23 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Next up, we

24 would invite John MacFarlane and Mahdi Ahmadi.

25 MR. MACFARLANE: Hi. My name is John
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1 MacFarlane. I live in Fort Worth, Texas. First and

2 foremost, I am a father of two young children, and I am

3 also the conservation chair for the Greater Fort Worth

4 Sierra Club.

5 So first and foremost, I care about the

6 health and my two-year-old daughter, my six-year-old son

7 and recommend that you lower the ozone standard to 60

8 parts per billion to protect their health and the

9 overall public health of the population of the United

10 States. I'll just go through some bullets that I have,

11 and then I'll move on to another story.

12 We all know that lowering the ozone

13 standard would, you know, protect the general public

14 health of the U.S. Many studies have proven -- EPA's

15 included -- that it will lower asthma rates and the

16 rates of lung disease. It will save millions if not

17 billions of dollars in health care cost, fewer emergency

18 room visits, and overall benefits in health. Of course

19 it'll make breathing easier in the Metroplex and other

20 nonattainment areas. It will cause -- hopefully it will

21 cause Texas to make meaningful changes to the air

22 quality plan. And it would potentially draw more

23 companies to corporate -- or to Texas that care about

24 the clean environment and clean air.

25 Okay. Now I'll move on to the -- our
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1 lovely TCEQ. As you all know, back in 2010, or about

2 that time, EPA had to take over or assume issuing Texas

3 PSD permits for greenhouse gases because TCEQ disagreed

4 with the EPA's program to regulate greenhouse gases and

5 its unwillingness to comply with those regulations. So

6 being the good stewards that you are, you took over that

7 program, and up until late last year, you gave it back

8 because they said they'd be willing to take that over

9 and revise their permitting standards.

10 So now I'm going to recommend that EPA take

11 over the entire air program for TCEQ because they have

12 not proved that they're serious about cleaning up air --

13 the polluted air in Texas in the Metroplex and other

14 nonattainment areas such as the Houston, Galveston,

15 (inaudible) area. They have consistently chosen big

16 business over clean air and are not serious about

17 cleaning up Texas air pollution.

18 So their -- TCEQ is currently revising

19 their SIP, our SIP, and they have not done enough, if

20 not -- they have not done anything to improve that SIP

21 to clean up air standards or air quality and meet the

22 existing standards. They could do simple things like

23 requiring all large stationary sources to have SCR like

24 to submit plants in Midlothian and the coal fire power

25 plants in the east -- East Texas. They could but they
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1 choose not to regulate oil and gas industry by requiring

2 green completions on all gas wells and compressor

3 stations and electrifying engines.

4 So I would urge, first and foremost, that

5 EPA reject Texas -- revise SIP until they make

6 meaningful changes, and I also recommend as a parent

7 that you lower the standard ozone criteria to 60 parts

8 per billion. Thank you.

9 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you.

10 MR. AHMADI: Hello. Thank you very much

11 for giving me an opportunity to testify. My name is

12 Mahdi Ahmadi, and I live in Denton, Texas. I'm a

13 graduate student at the University of North Texas and

14 studying both mechanical engineering and philosophy

15 focusing on air pollution modeling and environmental

16 policy and justice.

17 So when I moved to the United States around

18 four years ago, besides some personal reasons, I had few

19 dreams in mind to satisfy. First, I wanted to practice

20 and enjoy freedom of speech. Second, I wanted to travel

21 around and see the spectacular nature of North America.

22 And third, I really wanted to live in a healthy and safe

23 environment. Now after four years of living in one of

24 the most polluted Metroplexes in the United States, I

25 should say that I'm disappointed.
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1 Let me tell you something else, that I

2 still believe that the phrase "I have a dream" never

3 gets old unless you die in your early 30s from heart

4 failure or asthma attacks caused by air pollution. As

5 far as premature death is not on my wish list, I'm here

6 today to stand behind EPA and support them for their new

7 proposal for ozone pollution.

8 Now, instead of referring to hundreds of

9 scientific studies proving the link within the exposure

10 and serious health problems, I'd like to respond to some

11 criticisms against EPA new proposal. First, it's been

12 mentioned that most of the scientific research that

13 shows the association between ozone and asthma are not

14 independent because EPA itself had sponsored them. So

15 first of all, given that is true, we should all be

16 grateful to the EPA for spending money on what is

17 necessary to be done rather than denying the air

18 pollution problem.

19 Second, with more than ten years of

20 scientific experience, I'm telling you that independent

21 the study, the industry is talking about -- is a myth

22 because science does not happen in the vacuum. There

23 are always assumptions and (inaudible) preferences at

24 the core of scientific research. That is not a threat

25 to scientific objectivity or integrity. That is
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1 actually a very natural part of science, and it doesn't

2 mean in any way that scientists would manipulate the

3 results to make up the conclusions they wanted.

4 So instead of accusing thousands of

5 scientists and the EPA (inaudible), isn't it better to

6 try to understand the dynamics of science, to be able to

7 see the truth from a moral perspective. Second, it's

8 been said that air quality is improving without

9 regulatory change and the (inaudible) is not necessary.

10 That is not true. Ozone formation is a complex

11 phenomenon that depends heavily on the factors, and

12 actually, recent studies at the University of North

13 Texas show that at least in DFW area after 2010

14 (inaudible) adjusted ozones or manmade ozone has

15 increased.

16 But assuming the diagram is true and

17 manmade ozone pollution is actually decreasing, we have

18 to ask whether or not is it decreasing fast enough

19 because you know opportunity -- we are not going to live

20 for a hundred years to see the mercy of the industry.

21 Finally, the critics are saying that now that the

22 economy is recovering, it is not the right time to

23 enforce title regulations. The question is, when do you

24 think is the right time to do that? We are suffering

25 from air pollution right now so that we cannot really
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1 appreciate the benefits of the economy growth that they

2 are talking about.

3 There's always up and down in the economy

4 and industry will always find an excuse to postpone what

5 is necessary. So finally, if anyone thinks it is not

6 the right time, I simply refer them to this graph that

7 shows how much the United States is behind as a nation

8 in protecting the rights of their citizens. This graph

9 basically shows that the United States has divorced

10 ozone (inaudible) that is only comparable to industrial

11 (inaudible) in China.

12 So do you think that all these countries

13 are -- the economy recovery and don't have anything else

14 to spend their money on, or simply they care more about

15 their citizens and they have the will to protect them?

16 So if the United States wants to be one of the greatest

17 countries in the world, it must also be a place where

18 people can breathe, and that is why we should all either

19 move to another country with a better air quality, maybe

20 one of the (inaudible) countries, or stay here and stand

21 up and support EPA for their new and absolutely

22 necessary proposal. Thank you.

23 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Next up, please,

24 is Anne Morton and Elizabeth Riebschlaeger. I would

25 also note, we're running a few minutes behind and we
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1 have a number of people that want to speak, but we will

2 stay here so that everyone can get heard, so --

3 MS. MORTON: Hi. Yes, my name is Anne

4 Morton. I'm from Dallas, and I am with the Sierra Club

5 here today, and I want to talk to you and urge you to

6 please increase the restrictive standards to 60 parts

7 per billion.

8 I am one of those asthmatics that you've

9 been hearing about all day. I've had asthma for many

10 years, and it is getting worse. I think that the

11 asthmatics that you've heard about, we're the canaries

12 in the mine field, and this little canary is getting

13 really tired of using this all the time. This is an

14 inhaler, and this is meant to open up the spasms in our

15 bronchial tube that the air -- the bad air causes. Now,

16 what happens when this thing quits working, and there

17 are a lot of us out there, and there are a lot of people

18 with other related respiratory diseases.

19 So the air quality very much is very, very

20 personal. And my point today is that, as an individual,

21 I can only do so much about the air. Very little. I

22 can do some things. I can drive a certain kind of car

23 and other things, but you, you can. You have certain

24 powers in government that I don't have. Your mandate,

25 you were created for the purpose of protecting human
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1 health and the environment. There's nothing in your

2 mandate about jobs, the economy, any of those things.

3 Those things are important, we all agree, but there are

4 other agencies of government that are meant to take care

5 of those constituents and those problems. Your job is

6 the environment, the air that we breathe, our health,

7 and safety.

8 We don't have anybody else. We depend on

9 you. Who is our advocate if you're not? You're people,

10 too, and you have families just like we do. I have

11 children and grandchildren in the area, and I worry

12 about their health as well as mine. So I implore you

13 today to please restrict the ozone and have it at 60

14 parts per billion. Thank you so much.

15 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you.

16 SISTER RIEBSCHLAEGER: Good evening. Thank

17 you for this opportunity. I'm going to shorten my

18 statement since we're running short of time, at least

19 the official statement.

20 My name is Sister Elizabeth Riebschlaeger.

21 I'm a Sister of Charity of the Incarnate Word with the

22 administrative offices at 4503 Broadway in San Antonio,

23 Texas. Since 1869, we have operated and sponsored

24 (inaudible) essentials and hospitals in San Antonio

25 metropolitan area administering health care to children
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1 and adults. After 146 years of experience in health

2 care, we are here today to affirm that commitment. As a

3 congregation, we are particularly concerned for the

4 current serious deterioration in air quality in San

5 Antonio and other cities in Texas.

6 In general, we have grave concerns for the

7 people living and working in the San Antonio area,

8 especially for children and students in educational

9 institutions there, including our own sponsored

10 University of Incarnate Word. We are thankful for the

11 higher standards being proposed by the Environmental

12 Protection Agency, as written. Specifically, we fully

13 support the phrase and the statement in your statement,

14 "according to the Clean Air Act, the EPA must use health

15 based criteria in setting standards and not consider

16 estimates of compliance cost."

17 We believe with the previous doctor that

18 human life and health conditions must always remain the

19 primary value in all governmental policies and decision

20 making. We also believe that future experience of

21 improved air quality would demonstrate that the overall

22 impact to the national economy will be improved when any

23 added cost to industry or improved technology will be

24 offset and balanced by decreased cost of medical care to

25 children and families to medical care facilities and to
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1 employers by reduced absenteeism among their workers.

2 We also appreciate the efforts of the EPA

3 in evaluating cost, quote, to include effects on soils,

4 water, crops, vegetation, manmade materials, animals,

5 wildlife, weather, visibility and climate, damage to and

6 deterioration of property, and hazards to transportation

7 as well as effects on economic values and on personal

8 comfort and well being. Such destructive impacts of air

9 pollution are rightly considered when assessing the cost

10 of businesses as a counterbalance to industry's concerns

11 about cleaner air cost to their business. Such cost to

12 preexisting businesses from industry's pollutants are

13 often overlooked and discounted.

14 We thank the Environmental Protection

15 Agency for their work on behalf of cleaner air and

16 improved health conditions. We fully support the 60

17 parts per billion standard for control of industrial

18 pollutants in our cities, towns, and rural areas. That

19 finishes my officially approved statement on behalf of

20 our congregation.

21 Now, if I can make a few personal comments,

22 please, with the remaining time. We have heard the same

23 comments from industry with every single new increased

24 standard. My mother used to say, what you're doing

25 speaks so loudly, I can no longer hear what you're
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1 saying. We know it's costly. We have heard tonight

2 testimony from industry representatives that they know

3 how to do this better, that they -- what you're

4 proposing is not going to be as effective as what they

5 could do. I repeat, as my mother used to say, what you

6 have been doing for the last 10 or 20 years speaks so

7 loudly that we can no longer hear what you're saying.

8 As far as the TCEQ, I would like to point

9 out that we have our own history of that experience in

10 the San Antonio area. In 2010, I attended the Eagle

11 Ford Shale held in San Antonio. I think it was the

12 first one. Peter (inaudible) who was the air

13 enforcement official from ACOG the (inaudible) area

14 council gave a PowerPoint presentation at that meeting

15 to industry officials, to county officials, to

16 legislators who were present, even to congressmen who

17 chose to come to this gathering.

18 In that presentation, Peter gently showed

19 by graphic presentation a deterioration record of air

20 quality over the last year because, although it had been

21 in nine years in compliance under his direction, it is

22 now beginning to deteriorate to the point where San

23 Antonio was one point out of compliance just away from

24 being one point out of compliance. Then he showed

25 studies done by a Baylor University wind directional
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1 scientist who had studied the airflow patterns out of

2 the county south of San Antonio, the Eagle Ford Shale

3 protection at that point in time, and now even worse,

4 drifting into San Antonio. His statement was, I'm not

5 blaming you, but I'm just asking you to look at the

6 record. This was science.

7 In 2014, the TCEQ helped to fund a -- with

8 Peter and ACOG another study. The results came in, and

9 Peter posted the results on his ACOG website at which

10 point the TCEQ reprimanded him and ACOG saying that this

11 was their study and they had the right to release the

12 results. It seemed to be a question of who's going to

13 release these results and when and how rather than what

14 are the results, what is it showing about the impact on

15 human health and air quality and what can we do together

16 about it.

17 This speaks typically of the priorities

18 that the TCEQ has. They want control, but they will not

19 allow us to deal with our air quality standards. They

20 tend to be protective of their agencies. Again, this is

21 not the view of my own congregation. It's my personal

22 experience. I travel to Eagle Ford Shale a lot. I

23 watch oil and gas developments over the last year since

24 it began. I visit prisons in (inaudible) counties, so I

25 drive straight down 35. I live and work in the area of
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1 DeWitt County which is one of the most productive areas

2 of the Eagle Ford Shale.

3 The San Antonio Express News ran an

4 excellent series on showing the air -- the flaring

5 problems in South Texas, and to my shock and to the

6 shock of many others, in a few -- in a couple of months

7 after that, the Texas treatment held a forum on a -- a

8 forum, a series of panels on the Eagle Ford Shale and

9 Barry Smitherman had the Texas Railroad Commission --

10 was interviewed at the lunch.

11 MR. NIEBLING: Madam --

12 SISTER RIEBSCHLAEGER: Yes?

13 MR. NIEBLING: -- would you please conclude

14 your remarks?

15 SISTER RIEBSCHLAEGER: I will. Thank you.

16 So the bottom line was, Mr. Smitherman, when asked about

17 that report, said, I had not heard of it until just this

18 morning. I did not know this was going on at the Eagle

19 Ford Shale, and we thank the San Antonio Express News

20 for calling this to our attention.

21 My statement is and my conclusion is that

22 the TCEQ commission are either not really following

23 what's happening or covering up what's happening or in

24 denial about what's happening. We rely on the EPA to

25 please stand on reality and to protect our health.
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1 Thank you.

2 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Next up, we have

3 Sonja Arnquist and Shammara Norris, please.

4 MS. ARNQUIST: Hello. I guess we go ahead

5 and get started. Thank you so much. I know y'all are

6 tired. I'm Sonja Arnquist. I'm a teacher and I'm a

7 mom. I have two grandkids. I've lived in the area not

8 far from here in The Colony, Texas for 32 years. I am

9 from North Carolina. I grew up right outside of North

10 Carolina and I remember the fresh air and running and

11 playing every day all through the summer as a child, and

12 I actually smelled some fresh air fairly recently a few

13 years back when we drove eight hours -- at least six to

14 eight hours north into Arkansas. The air was fresh.

15 It's really a shame that I have to drive that far to

16 smell fresh air.

17 I'm really, really, really upset with

18 Texas, and if y'all can do anything to -- if y'all can

19 get it down to 60 parts per billion, then maybe Texas

20 would at least get it down to like 75 here or something.

21 I've just heard -- I'm really getting more aware of this

22 and I thought, they're going to be hearing my voice down

23 in Austin. I'm just very upset about this. I'm very

24 upset with these cowboys down here running this thing.

25 But to get back to my point, I developed
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1 high blood pressure about six years ago, and I've always

2 been a runner and I've been an outside sports enthusiast

3 and I went to my heart doctor and they really weren't

4 sure, they thought maybe I'm just kind of high strung.

5 I know salt is not good. And I just realized they just

6 closed down this plant in Frisco that was putting way

7 too much iron out in the air, but thank God that did

8 close. And so I know y'all are making progress, and I

9 do appreciate that.

10 I'm a late graduate. I just -- I have been

11 driving to Denton, Texas to go to TWU starting in about

12 2011, and I just graduated in 13 -- 2013, and driving to

13 Denton, I noticed I would get stuffy headed, especially

14 in the summer hot months and I had congestion in my

15 chest, and I've got my little mask here I want to show

16 you. I took an environmental science class about ten

17 years ago, and that is so depressing. You know, that

18 really depresses you how bad our environment is. And I

19 think around that time, the summers are so bad here, I

20 went ahead and bought this thing and I put it on when

21 it's really hot, you know, and we've got the ozone and

22 it blocks carbon -- it's got a carbon filter, so it

23 blocks carbon and stuff.

24 So I would put that on when I drove to TWU

25 and it would help moisture -- I would smell that
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1 moisture up, and it did seem to help. Also so the blood

2 pressure, and I just want to tell you about that. And I

3 had a new grandbaby in June, she was born the end of

4 June, and I get alerts on my phone that message -- the

5 Sierra Club messages me when the ozone days are high,

6 and there was about four I think right after my baby --

7 the grandbaby was born that -- she lives in Dallas, you

8 know, right there, Frankford and end of toll road in an

9 apartment, and I, you know, called my daughter and put

10 it on Facebook that it's not safe for -- to bring the

11 baby out, so don't take her out.

12 And I actually bought an air purifier, a

13 really good air purifier for the apartment because it

14 smells kind of moldy and stuff in there, so that's

15 really to clean the air. And they don't have the

16 filter. They ran -- the filters, they changed it and I

17 had to buy another one. Sorry, I'm kind of nervous.

18 And I've been noticing the air quality is not too good.

19 I really worry about that little apartment right there

20 by the toll road and stuff.

21 Also, I'm a preschool teacher. I was a

22 preschool teacher for years, and I remember -- you know,

23 I know how the kids and even in the school system, they

24 can't go out when the ozone days are high, you know, the

25 orange and red. I just talked to a friend of mine who
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1 owns a daycare now and she said that, yes, they --

2 because they go all summer in daycares and they do not

3 go out when the days are orange or red. Luckily, last

4 summer, it wasn't too bad, she thought. You know, they

5 didn't have too many of those days.

6 But they do go out about every day to get a

7 little fresh air, she says, but she said, quote -- I

8 talked to her this morning. She said, we go out for

9 fresh air, what little there is left, and then she said,

10 there really isn't any fresh air left. She's very

11 concerned. She said the kids are always streaming in

12 for their breathing treatments. This has been going on

13 when I was a preschool teacher 15 years ago. The kids

14 were always coming in the office and be sitting in there

15 for their breathing treatment. And this has not

16 changed. It's not getting -- so we still have work to

17 do because there's too many kids coming in for breathing

18 treatments in the daycares.

19 Our summers are really bad here, guys. I

20 don't feel good here in the summer. I go vacationing in

21 North Carolina. There's -- my sister has a home in

22 Jefferson, and when I go there, I just start feeling

23 better. I feel better, and my attitude -- you know, I

24 just really feel better in every way. And then I come

25 back here in the summer and I start feeling bad again.
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1 You know, I have the congestion.

2 Also, I talk -- I was getting Starbucks

3 right before I came and I asked the guy out at the

4 window and he's right at some major intersections of 121

5 and Main Street in The Colony, and his window, he has to

6 open it all the time, and I said, do you have any

7 problems with the smog, you know, when it gets bad,

8 probably more in the summer? And he says, actually the

9 summer is the only time I get any kind of allergy

10 issues. So that's probably due to the smog and he

11 thinks so, too.

12 So I'm all in favor of lowering it all the

13 way to 60. I sure hope that y'all can do that so we can

14 all have a little more peace of mind and improved health

15 and then maybe Texas would come down a little further.

16 And anything you can do to sock it to Texas, please do,

17 and thank you very much.

18 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Shammara.

19 MS. NORRIS: Hello. Thank you for allowing

20 me to speak today. My name is Shammara Norris, and I am

21 the President and CEO of Asthma Chasers, and I'm also an

22 asthma advocate. First of all, let me tell you, I love

23 people, and I believe in people, and I believe they're

24 God's greatest creation. I am for 60 parts per billion

25 air quality for standard today.
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1 My organization business, Asthma Chasers,

2 we raise awareness to the individuals and especially

3 children in the most vulnerable ZIP codes and economic

4 disadvantaged communities here in Dallas. We provide

5 screening, asthma management, and foremost, education.

6 Our goal is to spark each one of you to take a bold

7 action today around poor air quality in children who

8 suffer with asthma.

9 Our specific message for you today is that

10 constantly high ozone layers across North Texas region

11 are impacting the well being of our children and

12 endangering the lives of children here with asthma. We

13 need to think poor air quality in children hinders them

14 to live a healthy and successful life. I know today

15 you've heard a lot about asthma and the statistics on

16 asthma, but I think it's important that we hear that

17 because when you see the faces of the children that

18 suffer in the community with asthma, it's important to

19 know the statistics.

20 Asthma is considered a chronic disease.

21 Nationally, 7.1 million children have asthma. The

22 disease costs the United States $56 billion a year.

23 Approximately here in Dallas, 180,000 children in the

24 Dallas and Tarrant County have asthma. An emergency

25 room asthma exacerbation can cost up to $3,000 just for
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1 one visit that day. In 2012, 1500 children in Dallas

2 County visited the emergency room or were hospitalized

3 for asthma.

4 Dallas County has the highest number of

5 children that have asthma hospitalizations. Currently,

6 the prevalence of asthma among children as far as race

7 goes, 8.2 percent are white, 6.6 percent are Hispanic,

8 and 11.7 percent are African-American, and 7.1 percent

9 are other. Each day, nonAmericans die from asthma here

10 in the United States of America. African-Americans are

11 three times more likely to die from asthma.

12 I'm going to tell you a story, and it's a

13 personal story of my own. I get asked the question a

14 lot, why do you care so much for asthma, why is it so

15 important to you, did you lose a child from asthma, did

16 somebody in your family die from asthma? Well, the

17 answer's no. You see, I'm a respiratory therapist by

18 trade. I've seen asthma from the diagnosis of the

19 disease to the death of the disease.

20 I moved to this beautiful State of Texas in

21 2007. I'm pretty sure you can tell that by my nice

22 accent. I worked in Virginia as a respiratory therapist

23 taking care of adults and children for several years.

24 Yet, in my career in Virginia, I didn't see any deaths

25 related to asthma. I moved here in 2007. Before moving
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1 here in 2007, I worked at four different hospitals in

2 one system in Virginia and never saw a death. I moved

3 to Texas and I began to work here in Texas at several

4 hospitals in Dallas, and I began to see people die from

5 asthma at a very young age. I became very afraid and

6 scared and concerned and wasn't quite sure what was

7 going on, so I began to look into asthma more deeply.

8 Even though I'm a respiratory therapist, we

9 treat several respiratory diseases, but asthma, I'm

10 seeing children and young people die from asthma, and I

11 was confused. Well, I began to do my own research and

12 study more about asthma here in Texas. To be one who is

13 caring for a patient, a child who can't breathe, I was

14 there trying to intervene and manage the ventilator and

15 taking critical steps towards asthma.

16 Watching a parent lose their child right in

17 front of your eyes while you're doing CPR, breaking ribs

18 on a child, and helping them breathe was very difficult

19 to do. I thought, I'm trained for this, I can handle

20 this, I went to school and they taught us how to handle

21 these situations. But the cry from a mother and almost

22 collapsing brought tears to my eyes. The face you see

23 in the room is something you'll never forget. Oh, yes,

24 this particular family I'm discussing today was an

25 African-American child that was eight years old. The
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1 child died and didn't make it that day.

2 So today, I'm in support for positive

3 outcomes for people with asthma. Disadvantaged kids not

4 only breathe a disproportionate amount of bad air, but

5 they also can be more vulnerable to the ill effects of

6 bad air. Of course there are many other barriers that

7 exist for children and their families, but this is the

8 most important. The severity of children with asthma

9 can be affected by asthma triggers in the environment

10 where the child lives, learns, and plays, but especially

11 the air they breathe. Thank you so much for your time

12 today.

13 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Next we would

14 invite up Jane Lynn and Scott Berthel.

15 MS. LYNN: Hello. My name is Jane Lynn.

16 Do you need my address or just -- I'm from Arlington,

17 Texas, and I brought this bracelet with me today because

18 a teacher from one of the public schools in the area

19 gave it to me. They give this to the children. It

20 says, because it's the right thing to do. And I just

21 thought, wow, what an appropriate theme for what we're

22 discussing today and what we're -- lowering our ozone

23 standard possibly to 60 parts per billion.

24 I realize there are multiple sources of

25 emissions which contribute to air pollution in our
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1 Metroplex, but I'd like to focus on fracking. Since I

2 have personally witnessed a visible change in our air

3 quality since its inception and have smelled many

4 strange odors, have felt my eyes and my lungs burn from

5 pollution since the time that gas drilling was known for

6 our neighborhoods.

7 If it were not for fracking, I would not

8 even be here today speaking with you because on April

9 11th of 2011 my family was gassed in the middle of the

10 night by a Chesapeake well that had spewed natural gas

11 into our bedroom, and we live two blocks away from the

12 drill site. But what was even more disturbing than

13 being poisoned in our own beds in the middle of the

14 night was the manner in which our City and the industry

15 and TCEQ handled this incident. They all play down what

16 actually occurred and the City gave Chesapeake a free

17 pass to drill six additionally wells at that very drill

18 site.

19 When TCEQ arrived on the scene, which

20 happened to be about nine hours later, the air testing

21 found nothing because the wind blew all the toxins away.

22 Recently, I accompanied Sharon Wilson of Earthworks to

23 capture some flare images throughout the Arlington area,

24 and we actually had videos of emissions that are

25 invisible emissions spewing off numerous drill sites and
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1 a compression station. I will be happy to provide those

2 to you upon request. And I experience health effects

3 when I was near that compression station in South

4 Arlington and I went ahead and filed a formal complaint

5 with TCEQ. And curiously, their flare camera

6 malfunctioned during that investigation.

7 You know, most people cannot afford to lose

8 time from work or school due to illness or pay for

9 expensive hospital admissions or doctor bills, but

10 industry can afford a mission control technology, but

11 they won't take the steps to protect public health

12 unless our government mandates this. This is because

13 industry rarely does something because it's the right

14 thing to do. Our state hasn't done the right thing in

15 the way of enforcement and I speak of TCEQ. Our cities

16 haven't done the right thing in the way of drafting

17 protective ordinances for their residents.

18 The EPA is proposing an ozone standard of

19 65 to 75 parts per billion, but I ask you to do even

20 more. I ask you to strengthen it to 60 parts per

21 billion because it's the right thing to do. According

22 to the EPA, 60 parts per billion would prevent

23 1.8 million asthma attacks, 1.9 million lost school

24 days, 6,400 premature deaths. How can we teach, our

25 future generation to do something because it's the right
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1 thing to do if our leaders and rule makers won't set an

2 example for them to follow.

3 So I ask you, the EPA, to do the right

4 thing, help protect our air shed, our planet, and the

5 health of this generation and future generations because

6 I do miss breathing fresh, clean air. Thank you.

7 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Scott.

8 MR. BERTHEL: Good evening. My name is

9 Scott Berthel. Thank you for the time you put in to all

10 of us, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to speak to

11 you about why my family and I would like to see the EPA

12 take the important step for setting the new standard of

13 ozone commonly known as smog at 60 parts per billion

14 rather than the currently proposed new range of 65 to 70

15 parts per billion. While you will undoubtedly hear from

16 business and manufacturing interests that would

17 encourage a standard at the high end of the newly

18 proposed range or suggest that the standard remain at

19 the current level of 75 parts per billion, my family and

20 I would like to offer a different perspective on what

21 needs to be protected and why.

22 As an educator with nearly 30 years of

23 experience, I currently oversee a middle school in the

24 DFW area with 500 students and over 50 faculty and staff

25 members. On an annual basis since moving to the
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1 Dallas/Fort Worth area ten years ago, I've watched as

2 students in my school each year have been unable to

3 participate in either physical education classes when

4 they are held outdoors which we're fortunate to be able

5 to do oftentimes in our area and/or their intergalactic

6 sports activities because of asthma or upper respiratory

7 problems that are often brought on by the air quality.

8 Though I'm fortunate to work in a school in

9 which my facility's operations manager works hard to

10 ensure the air quality inside of our buildings, his work

11 and our investments as an institution can be easily

12 undone, have been easily undone when our students go

13 outside for PE classes and practices or contests and

14 haven't always been able to participate when they

15 struggle with asthma or respiratory problems.

16 While our lives are set in a time that

17 often is concerning for me as an educator with the

18 cultural pressures, societal pressures, and

19 environmental constraints and everything, it is an

20 exciting time as an educator because of the advances of

21 neuroscience. Over the course of the past five or ten

22 years, my staff and I have learned volumes about the

23 significance of brain development as it relates to

24 learning, and we've been fortunate to be able to do that

25 in the unique time.
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1 As a result, I'm even more passionate about

2 addressing the many factors which influence the health

3 of the children in my care at my school.

4 Along with simple steps like getting

5 adequate sleep and a healthy diet, things that a parent

6 can easily influence and manage at home, the value of

7 physical exercise and clean air has been proven by

8 neuroscience to be another important element in

9 contributing to the growth of a healthy brain that is

10 ready and able to learn. To be a parent to be able to

11 say, let's go outside and play, the air quality is

12 something that's beyond our people, and you have the

13 authority to influence that.

14 Selfishly, I want clean air in our area for

15 my ability to go outside and play with my two daughters.

16 I want it because I enjoy long distance running and

17 bicycling and enjoy being outside, but professionally,

18 when I come back and consider my students, it would lead

19 me to respond to any business or manufacturing interest

20 which would say, don't lower the ground level ozone

21 standard. I would point out that it's time to take the

22 bold step to protect the most valuable resource we have

23 in the country which is the brains, the minds of our

24 children who will become our future leaders.

25 And now I'd like to turn my microphone over
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1 to my wife, Sally, who's going to share a brief,

2 personal perspective for our family.

3 MS. BERTHEL: Good evening. Thank you for

4 giving us this opportunity to speak. My name is Sally

5 Berthel. My youngest daughter and I have asthma.

6 Between the two of us, we share five inhalers. Two of

7 those five inhalers I use twice daily, and I order them

8 every three months, and it cost $1,275. The other three

9 inhalers that we use cost approximately $520 a year.

10 This is our rescue inhaler, and we do not leave the

11 house without it.

12 My daughter has one at school, an extra one

13 at school that we keep in the nurse's office because

14 there are times typically when it's warm outside that

15 she will need to use it after she plays at recess. I

16 don't leave the house without this either. When I go

17 out for a walk in the morning, I check the Air Quality

18 Index to see if I need to take a puff of this before I

19 go outside which would help me not to wheeze while I'm

20 walking.

21 So I think we know that smog triggers

22 asthma attacks. I'm sure you've pretty well got that

23 today and heard a lot about that today and know that

24 from your own research. What I'm hoping is the research

25 that was conducted by the Cleaner Scientific Advisory
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1 Committee clearly shows that public health will benefit

2 from lowering the parts per billion standard, and I

3 strongly encourage them to cast opinions and fears --

4 rely on the science and the facts and the research. Set

5 the standard for ground level ozone to 60 parts per

6 billion, make a difference for my daughter and I and for

7 children and adults throughout the Dallas/Fort Worth

8 area. Thank you so much.

9 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Next we would

10 like to bring up Marshall Smith and Becky Bornhorst,

11 please.

12 MR. SMITH: Hi. My name is Marshall Smith.

13 I live in Denton, Texas, and I really appreciate

14 y'all -- I mean, I know this is your job, but you guys

15 have been hearing this -- these comments since this

16 morning, and I probably can't really add anything as far

17 as facts and figures or anything that you haven't heard

18 before, and I definitely don't have any kind of

19 really -- I've been very fortunate, my family's been

20 fortunate not to have any serious asthma or health

21 issues related to the air quality. But I am here

22 because I'm very concerned with the air quality in North

23 Texas.

24 I have two married daughters, three

25 grandchildren, and probably another grandchild that's
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1 going to be on the way soon. We all try to take good

2 care of our health and watch our diets, we exercise, the

3 boys are in organized -- my two grandsons -- the older

4 grandsons are in organized sports, we all live in the

5 Dallas/Fort Worth area, we filter our water, we try to

6 be careful as far as really reading labels, buying

7 healthy foods, organic, when possible, we do food

8 supplements that we believe probably is the reason we're

9 all in good health. None of us smoke.

10 The one area of our lives that we have very

11 little control over is the air that we breathe. I try

12 to do my part. I bike as much as possible. I mow my

13 lawn by hand, I don't use any motor tools, any leaf

14 blowers or any of that kind of stuff. I try to keep my

15 thermostat so that I use as little natural gas in the

16 wintertime, as little electricity as possible in the

17 summertime, but that's really not even a drop in the

18 bucket as far as trying to keep the air clean.

19 I am not a scientist, but I'm very

20 comfortable with science. My father was a scientist. I

21 was on a math science track completely from junior high

22 through high school. I had two chemistry classes,

23 advanced placement in chemistry in high school. I

24 started college as a chemical engineering major. My

25 younger daughter teaches science at Guyer High School in
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1 Denton. I belong to the Union of Concerned Scientist.

2 Where I'm going with this is science is not Greek to me.

3 I feel very comfortable with science, and I feel that

4 when science is independent in seeking answers to

5 questions, it's something we need to listen to, not when

6 it has the answers already and is seeking to frame the

7 questions to fit similar answers.

8 Unfortunately, Texas, as with many other

9 political entities, is ruled by the golden rule in that

10 he who has the gold makes the rules, and that is why in

11 Texas -- in North Texas we are really dependent on you

12 with the EPA and the federal government to give us

13 reasonable levels of the environmental protection. We

14 are not going to get this from a state agencies. This

15 is -- other people have documented. You know, I'm sure

16 you've already heard many times over the needless

17 suffering and even deaths that can be attributed to

18 excess ozone, and I don't need to go over these figures

19 and facts again.

20 I just want to thank you-all for being here

21 for listening to our concerns and our comments and

22 considering them when the agency sets the limits for

23 ozone in our area, hopefully setting them at 60 parts

24 per billion. We just need all the head room we can

25 have. One little closing out, I find it really ironic,
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1 Texas is so well situated for alternative forms of

2 energy. We could replace every bit of energy we use

3 with wind solar geothermal, we could get some wave

4 action from the coastline.

5 But anyway, I appreciate you so much for

6 being here and listening to our comments, and thank you

7 so much.

8 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Becky.

9 MS. BORNHORST: Becky Bornhorst. I live in

10 southwest Dallas County. I'm a (inaudible) at risk and

11 Sierra Club member. I want to thank the EPA for coming

12 to North Texas. You are truly in the valley of the

13 beast here. And if you have any doubt about that, in

14 today's Dallas Morning News, right in the middle, the

15 most smoggy days nearly a Dallas exclusive, and you can

16 see Dallas at the top, but out of this list of 22

17 cities, there are five Texas cities, and that's a pretty

18 good percentage.

19 In Texas, we really need the EPA since our

20 state officials do not act. They're not acting, they're

21 not helping us. They don't care that the Cooks

22 Children's Hospital has declared an epidemic in

23 childhood asthma rates in Dallas/Fort Worth with rates

24 twice the state average. They don't care that Dallas

25 County has the highest number of child asthma
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1 hospitalizations in the state. My children are now 28

2 and 30, but they've lived their entire lives in air that

3 is unfit to breathe.

4 I've been coming to EPA and TCEQ hearings

5 for 20 years and asking for your help in cleaning up the

6 air for my kids and now for their kids. So EPA, please

7 help us out here in Texas. I fully support your

8 proposal to lower the ozone standard to 60 parts per

9 billion, maybe even lower than that. I fully support

10 you using whatever big stick you have in your power to

11 make the state bring us into compliance with the current

12 rates as well as the new lower rates.

13 We all know what it will take. We know

14 what the cement plants need to do, we know what the

15 power plants need to do, we know what the oil and gas

16 industry needs to do. There is no mystery, but there is

17 a state government that is in the back pocket of

18 industry. So again, I ask the EPA to step in and help

19 us here. We're all holding our breaths. Thank you.

20 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Next up, we have

21 Carol and Ed Soph.

22 MS. SOPH: Hello. My name is Carol Soph,

23 and I come from Denton, Texas, and I'm a member of

24 Denton Drilling Awareness Group in Denton. I am here to

25 ask the EPA to lower the amount of ground level ozone to
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1 60 parts per billion. I would like to tell the panel a

2 little bit about Denton first before giving me reasons

3 for the request.

4 Denton is a city of concerned citizens that

5 has taken measures on its own for several years now to

6 reduce air pollution in the city, ground level ozones

7 being one of the bigger problems. Denton uses

8 40 percent of its electricity from wind power making it

9 number one in the state in the use of clean renewable

10 energy. It offers the best energy incentive program for

11 homeowners to make their homes more energy efficient.

12 They can also get a rebate to put solar panels on their

13 home.

14 The city and university uses green belting

15 standards and the University of North Texas installed

16 three wind turbines on its campus to power its athletic

17 conducts. Even with all these new sources of clean

18 energy, Denton's air quality has progressively gotten

19 worse to the point of making the air of this region a

20 major health issue. Denton has done its part to try and

21 offset this problem, but it isn't enough. We need the

22 help of the EPA to bring our air quality back to a

23 healthy level.

24 In November, Denton citizens voted to ban

25 hydraulic fracking of gas wells within the city's
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1 limits, but we already have 281 wells in the city. Some

2 are located close to homes, schools, parks, and

3 hospitals. If the standards of ground level ozone are

4 reduced to 60 parts per billion, it will encourage best

5 available control technology on these well sites to

6 reduce toxic emissions which are a health risk to

7 citizens who live near them. Increasing rates of asthma

8 and chronic breathing problems, especially in children,

9 are occurring around these sites.

10 In closing, Denton has done its best to

11 keep our city's air healthy, but it's not enough. We're

12 asking you to please help us now with your efforts.

13 Thank you.

14 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you.

15 MR. SOPH: Hi. My name is Ed Soph. I'm

16 Carol's husband, and Carol and I are on the board of the

17 Denton Drilling Awareness Group which is the grass roots

18 organization that put the campaign together that got the

19 city to pass a fracking ban.

20 My wife said most all that needs to be

21 said. I'll just follow up and say that 60 parts per

22 billion is absolutely necessary to protect the public

23 health. In fact, anything that you can do to reduce

24 greenhouse gas emissions in VOCs and to aggressively

25 promote renewable energy resources is crucially
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1 necessary given the unhealthful and possibly fatal

2 future that science increasingly forecasts. This is no

3 longer a political issue. It's a humanitarian issue.

4 Thank you.

5 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Next up, we have

6 Ranjana Bhamdari and Wendi Hammond.

7 MS. BHAMDARI: Good evening. I'm Ranjana

8 Bhamdari, and I'm here to speak in support of the

9 national ozone standard of no more than 60 parts per

10 billion. I've lived in Arlington for 22 years, and --

11 sorry, I didn't know you were coming. I'm sorry, I

12 started. I've lived in Arlington for 22 years, and I

13 represent a group that was recently created by a few

14 Arlington residents called Livable Arlington. The

15 motivation was our real serious concern about

16 deteriorating air quality here, our inability to get the

17 state and the city to do anything about it, and our

18 concern for our children's health.

19 In this area in Dallas/Fort Worth, we have

20 very poor air quality. Every time we go in to our

21 doctor or to our children's doctors with allergies,

22 sinus infections, respiratory illness, we hear that our

23 air is really bad. Arlington air is, in fact, the worst

24 in the area. We have ozone alert days often when our

25 schools do not let our children go out for recess. Many
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1 industries contribute to it, and in the last few years,

2 fracking has done a very -- has caused severe harm to

3 our air qualities. Hydrocarbons and VOCs emitted by

4 (inaudible) add to the ozone in the air.

5 The state of Texas and the TECQ have no

6 reasonable, sensible plan whatsoever to improve the

7 situation. In fact, our only hope lies in having a

8 federal standard on ozone to make these industries curb

9 their emissions, and hopefully, that should protect our

10 children's health a little bit. A lot of what I wanted

11 to say has been covered by speakers before me in much

12 detail, so given the lateness of the hour, I'm going to

13 be very brief.

14 Asthma has come up a lot, and what I

15 learned while I was preparing for -- to speak here today

16 was that childhood asthma rates in this area are twice

17 the national average and three times the average for the

18 state of Texas. That should be absolutely unacceptable.

19 We need to do better for our children. In fact,

20 according to the EPA's research, a new ozone standard of

21 60 parts per billion would eliminate roughly 1.8 million

22 asthma attacks, 1.9 million missed schooled days, and

23 6400 premature deaths nationwide.

24 We heard from some speakers earlier from

25 the oil and gas industry about their math, about what
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1 they bring to our economy and the dollars that they add

2 and how those numbers would be hurt if we tried do

3 better for our children, for our citizens by improving

4 air quality. What I would like to say is that your

5 math, your research, your science is absolutely

6 incontrovertible. There is no way to compare my child's

7 health and health of our young people and compare it

8 with what the oil and gas industry might have to spend

9 on emissions control or trying to do a better job.

10 They're also told that if you try to

11 regulate oil and gas more, especially in this part of

12 the world, our economy will slow down. The engine of

13 our growth will start sputtering. I don't think that's

14 the case of -- the speaker before me talked about

15 renewable energy. I, in fact, have been very, very

16 concerned about what's been happening to the air

17 quality. The data is there, but I can actually

18 experience it. We are more tired, we're more sick. If

19 we get stuck in traffic near a gas well, our children

20 have nosebleeds.

21 So given the inaction of the state, I

22 decided to do my little bit. I started driving an

23 electric car. I've driven 21,000 miles on it to date,

24 and it's been a marvelous success, so I know the

25 alternatives exist. People as me, where do you get your
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1 electricity from? I have solar panels on the roof now,

2 and I know that it's an option. It's not symbolic.

3 It's more than that. It shows us that we have

4 alternatives, and we need to stop listening to what oil

5 and gas is telling us, that our way of life will come to

6 an end if we try to improve our air quality.

7 So once again, in closing, I just want to

8 say thank you for giving us this opportunity to speak,

9 and I strongly, strongly urge you to impose a new ozone

10 limit of 60 parts per billion or even better, if you

11 can. Thanks again.

12 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Wendi.

13 MS. HAMMOND: My name is Wendi Hammond.

14 I'm an attorney that represents nonprofits throughout

15 (inaudible) environmental issues. My main focus is air

16 quality and the renewable sources of energy, and I am

17 here today representing a group called Cops for Clean

18 Air in Navarro County.

19 Cops for Clean Air definitely supports a

20 .06 parts per billion new standard to be reduced to. I

21 am not going to address that specifically. I'm going to

22 address other issues that the EPA requested comments on,

23 specifically regarding monitoring changes and modeling

24 PSD changes. And if I have time, I'll get back to the

25 0.60 (sic) parts per billion.
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1 First off, on the monitoring, on -- cost

2 for clean air is concerned about some of the vague

3 statements within this -- the federal register that

4 states that you will be providing more flexibility to

5 the lower states to develop the monitoring plans for the

6 area, and I'm going to give you three reasons why that

7 scares citizens in the state of Texas tremendously.

8 First off, a U.S. Congressman Joe Barton

9 had asked a TCEQ commissioner if having more monitors

10 will probably help us solve our DFW area -- this was

11 back in 2005 -- 1995, 2005. A long time ago. That

12 commissioner was under oath and he actually testified

13 truthfully and said, well, of course, the more

14 information, the better. But not many people really

15 want to add more monitors because it just shows more

16 problems.

17 Going to East Texas in 2007, meeting with

18 the local regional air quality out there, it was a

19 meeting of the local groups and the power plants

20 complaining about the air monitors in that area, and

21 they were like, well, where are you going to cite it?

22 And the COG leader said, oh, don't worry, we're not

23 going to cite it, it's not going set one up where it's

24 going to have more problems.

25 The other issue is the exact group that I
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1 actually represent, even EPA standards aren't good

2 enough for them because they don't require an actual

3 monitor to be placed in Navarro County. It is through

4 the group of this group and pressure on the local

5 elected official state representatives that actually got

6 an air monitor to be put into their area. So for a

7 1,080 foot square mile in Navarro County, there is one

8 monitor. And everybody thought, oh, well, there's not

9 going to be any violations there.

10 Well, the 2012, the three-year average was

11 70 parts per billion. In 2013, it was 72 parts per

12 billion. In 2014, it was 68 parts per billion. So you

13 can see why Navarro County definitely thinks the current

14 standard is not good enough. There are people there

15 that need help, and a lower standard is necessary for

16 it. But if you provide the state of Texas to determine

17 the monitoring requirements for this area, you are not

18 going to be solving problems. It is just going to leave

19 another gaping hole out there that will not work to

20 clean our air.

21 Another gaping hole that is out there deals

22 with PST permitting requirements. I'm very happy to see

23 that the EPA is starting to address this issue. This

24 was raised initially back in 2006 and 2007 in Texas

25 dealing with coal fire power plant permits.
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1 Specifically it was raised that these coal powered power

2 plants emitted so much emissions that the plume would

3 travel several distances and impact the DFW

4 nonattainment area. But according to the EPA standards,

5 and since this is a SIP approved area, the agency kept

6 saying, we don't have to review it, we don't have to

7 review it, and the permit application definitely doesn't

8 have to do anything about it as well.

9 What the citizens were able to do was they

10 went to court and argued that even if you're not

11 required to do it, it is a rebuttable presumption that

12 you will not have an impact at a far distance. It makes

13 absolutely no sense for a nonattainment demonstration

14 for nonattainment areas that TCEQ can take credit for a

15 NOx reduction within a 2200 kilometer radius from a

16 nonattainment area of 2.8 tons from the Alcoa plant --

17 power plant in Rockdale, Texas to the DFW area but not

18 consider a 17.22 to 43.2 tons per day NOx increase in a

19 permit from a power plant that is going to be located

20 even closer to the DFW area.

21 The citizens put up the money, had a UT

22 professor actually provide modeling, use it in a

23 demonstration of only seven monitoring days and it

24 proved that it could increase up to 2 parts per billion

25 at one monitor. That one monitor isn't representative
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1 of everything. It was just a needle in a haystack and

2 it still showed a problem.

3 In conclusion, thank you for looking at

4 these issues, but we need it a lot more stringent and

5 you have to give exact guidelines to the state of Texas

6 of what needs to be done. And if you are going to allow

7 for grandfathering of (inaudible) permitting, you have

8 to make it perfectly clear that the citizens are allowed

9 to present rebuttal evidence that there is, in fact, an

10 impact on a nonattainment in the air quality control

11 region. Thank you.

12 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you very much, Wendi.

13 Next up, Calvin Tillman and Christine Walker, please.

14 MR. TILLMAN: Thank you very much for

15 listening to me today and listening to all this

16 testimony. My name's Calvin Tillman. I live in Aubrey,

17 Texas. I am a director in an organization called

18 shelltest.org, and I support reducing the ozone limits.

19 Shelltest.org provides environmental

20 testing for those impacted by oil and gas development.

21 In the shell test arsenal, we have state of the art air

22 monitoring equipment, including the gas finder camera

23 which is made by Clear. The gas finder allows us to see

24 smog-producing volatile organic compounds that cannot be

25 seen with a naked eye. And these are routinely coming
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1 from oil and gas facilities.

2 Several years ago, Dr. Armendarez produced

3 a study that shows oil and gas development, produced as

4 much smog for ozone is all the vehicle traffic here in

5 the DFW area. That was later affirmed by the Texas

6 Commission on Environmental Quality after they initially

7 discounted that study. Since that time, the oil and gas

8 activity here in the Barnett Shale has approximately

9 doubled. So the -- so as the emissions would have

10 increased significantly as well.

11 And so I'm not only the -- a former local

12 official and a director of a nonprofit, but I'm also a

13 -- and much more importantly -- a father. I'm a father

14 of a 12-year-old son who has asthma, a son that's grown

15 up here in the DFW area and unfortunately only gets to

16 breathe clean air whenever we go on vacation out of

17 state. I firmly believe in property rights and people

18 should be able to use their property as they wish

19 providing that they don't impede on the rights of

20 others.

21 Those of us that are living here have done

22 our share of sacrificing, as you've probably heard

23 throughout today. So it's time for us to share the

24 sacrifice and I urge you to lower the standards to

25 protect the health and welfare of our future which is
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1 our children. Thank you.

2 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Christine.

3 MS. WALKER: Good evening. My name is

4 Christine Walker, and I live in Grand Prairie. I am a

5 board certified nurse executive with over eight years of

6 pediatric experience at Cook's Children's Medical Center

7 in Fort Worth. I have over 20 years experience in

8 pediatric emergency department (inaudible) registered

9 nurse professional. I have a Master's degree in nursing

10 as well as a Master's degree in business, and I'm

11 currently pursuing my doctoral program in nursing

12 practice.

13 More than any license or certification I

14 have, I stand before you today the mother of an

15 asthmatic child. I am here today to represent the views

16 of the emergency nurses, health care providers, nurse

17 educators, researchers, and parents who are greatly

18 concerned about clean air for our patients and families.

19 Approximately 7 million children and over 17 million

20 (inaudible) in the United States have asthma. During an

21 asthma episode, the airways constrict, they become

22 swollen, the chest feels tight, and it is difficult to

23 breathe.

24 There were nearly 2 million emergency

25 department visits in 2007 attributed to asthma episodes.
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1 The CDC in 2007 stated that the annual cost of asthma in

2 the United States was more than $53 billion. Asthma

3 episodes keep our children away from school accounting

4 for 10.5 million lost school days in 2008. Children who

5 miss school suffer academically. By middle and high

6 school, chronic absence is an indicator that the

7 students will drop out. It doesn't matter if the

8 absence is excused or unexcused. Missing school

9 represents loss time in the classroom which negatively

10 impacts academic achievement.

11 Children face special risks from air

12 pollution because their lungs are still developing, and

13 so they are more susceptible to the damage. They are

14 often outdoors for longer periods of time, and they are

15 usually playing hard with their friends increasing the

16 amount of polluted air they inhale. Research has found

17 that teenagers who grew up in more polluted areas faced

18 increased risk of underdeveloped lungs. This drop in

19 lung function demonstrated a similar impact as growing

20 up in a home with parents who smoked.

21 Children rely on us. Our children are

22 relying on you as adults and parents to create the

23 environment in which they live. They are unaware of the

24 threats to their health and they rely on us to protect

25 them and create a healthy environment. As a pediatric
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1 nurse, I have seen firsthand that asthma episodes can

2 kill children, and we should do everything in our power

3 to minimize this risk. The CDC reports that nine people

4 die from asthma every day which is over a 3200 people a

5 year. Research studies have shown there is a

6 relationship between ozone exposure and mortality, and

7 this is witnessed by emergency department nurses and

8 health care providers every day nationwide.

9 The air quality standards must not only

10 protect the average healthy individual but must be

11 strong enough to protect the vulnerable populations that

12 cannot stand for themselves such as our children, older

13 adults, and those with lung disease. As a nurse leader

14 and a parent of an asthmatic child, I am advocating for

15 the most protective standard under consideration of 60

16 parts per billion. This is a public health issue.

17 Poor air quality threatens our community

18 health, especially those most vulnerable like our

19 children and our grandparents. Our community deserves

20 to breathe clean air. Our children should be able to

21 play outside without fear that it is harming their

22 lungs, without the risk that it may lead to a stay in

23 the hospital. Parents should not have to have apps on

24 their phones alerting them to a red air day so that they

25 have to change their picnic plans to indoor sports in
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1 order to minimize the risk to an asthma episode. I

2 should not have to tell my child that he cannot ride his

3 bicycle to school today with his friends because the air

4 is too dangerous for him.

5 As a nurse and a mother, I am calling on

6 the EPA to set the most protective health standard of 60

7 parts per billion for ozone that will protect our

8 community and the vulnerable people who live in it. Our

9 children are counting on you.

10 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Next, we would

11 like to invite up Tane Ward and Rita Beving, please.

12 MS. BEVING: Good evening. My name is Rita

13 Beving. I'm the conservation coach here of the Dallas

14 Sierra Club, and I'm also a former member of the North

15 Texas Clean Air Steering Committee when that was in

16 existence when officials still had the wherewithal to

17 even have a committee. I very much applaud EPA on its

18 newly proposed ozone standards, and I would fully

19 support an ozone standard of 60 parts per billion.

20 Let's examine today why we're here. In

21 2011, according to the Dallas Morning News Austin

22 Bureau, Texas was number one in NOx, number one in CO2,

23 number one in mercury, VOCs, and particulates. We also

24 had the great distinguishing honor of being the number

25 one state for those lacking health insurance. Imagine
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1 the horror of those parents and the children that had to

2 endure the ozone days during 2011.

3 So in April 2014, Texas Impact and the

4 Texas Tribune put out an article called Texas Pollution

5 Worsens as Budget Shrinks. And to me, this is the why

6 we need EPA to set the standard at 60 parts per billion.

7 In the year 2011, the Texas legislature cut the TCEQ

8 budget by 30 percent and its workforce by 8 percent.

9 Yet, if you look at the emissions between 2011 and 2012,

10 those emissions jumped by 23 percent. When the 2013

11 legislator rolled around, little was changed as far as

12 financing the state agency for budget standards.

13 So as we know, in the year that followed

14 that, after 2011 and '12 where emissions jumped

15 23 percent, in 2012, those toxic emissions increased by

16 14 percent, and in 2013, jumped another 2.7 percent

17 according to the TCEQ's report the Texas legislative

18 budget board. As we all know, the TCEQ has failed to

19 have the political will and the financial capability of

20 doing its job.

21 As someone who's worked on the North Texas

22 Clean Air Steering Committee since the '90s with failed

23 SIP after failed SIP, this is why we need the EPA to

24 step in with the 60 ppb standard because that's the only

25 way this agency will be forced to move the football in
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1 this particular state. I just want to give you an

2 example. In one of the years that I served on the North

3 Texas Clean Air Steering Committee which has been

4 dissolved because there are no officials that no longer

5 want to serve on that economy to have the TCEQ hijack

6 the process and give us another failed SIP, one year,

7 Margaret Kelleher, a Republican county judge headed that

8 committee. We had a cement kiln subcommittee of that

9 group that I served on with Jim (inaudible) of Down

10 Winters at Risk, Greg Cook I believe was also on that

11 committee and others.

12 At that time, Judge Kelleher proposed that

13 we try and help the cement kilns in Midlothian finance

14 new pollution technology to help those kilns clean up

15 and prove that it could be done despite the Portland

16 Cement Associations suggestion that it would not work.

17 It was the citizens that brought to the attention of the

18 committee that the new pollution controls were already

19 working in Germany and Italy. Yet when Margaret

20 Kelleher suggested that we get financing for the cement

21 kilns to be able to try this new pollution control

22 technology, they still fought the committee tooth and

23 nail because they knew if we had SCR or SNCR, it would

24 set precedent across the country and all cement kilns

25 might be forced to adopt that technology.
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1 So in closing, that is why we need you at

2 the EPA to help us just like we need you to help us on

3 the haze rule because we have had dirty coal plants,

4 dirty cement kilns, a lack of political will and a lack

5 of the financing by which to force our state agency to

6 do their job. Thank you.

7 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you.

8 DR. WARD: Good evening. My name is

9 Dr. Tane Ward. I represent an organization called

10 (inaudible) which works with native people across the

11 Americas to improve their ties to their land. I also

12 work with the Sierra Club and I'm a father. I have

13 extended family all over this country and Mexico as

14 well.

15 And I want to talk to you-all about

16 approving the 60 parts per billion standard because this

17 is something -- what we need, not only for all of the

18 many reasons that people have said in terms of helping

19 people's health, but really, it brings us to a concept

20 of justice. It really speaks to the values that I carry

21 and I believe that this country needs to uphold. At

22 even 70 parts per billion, a healthy grown man like me

23 can breathe well, but when we start looking at these

24 parts per billion and the way that it affects the

25 breathing of the elderly, of people with illnesses, of
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1 children, and especially with infants, we see that it's

2 much more damaging to these people.

3 Those who have the least power are the most

4 affected by these sensitive rules. This is an issue of

5 justice because -- also the people who oppose the strong

6 hold, the energy companies, are doing so because it's in

7 their own financial interest, and the TCEQ has been

8 appointed by politicians who are receiving millions and

9 millions of dollars which is all open public record

10 coming from the same corporations that are benefitting

11 from not having to clean up their dirty air.

12 Now, I don't have millions of dollars.

13 Most people don't have millions of dollars to give to

14 these politicians, and that's another injustice that's

15 happening. Those with the most are having the most

16 influence on our government and our decision makers, and

17 those with the least have the least power to make these

18 decisions. So we're seeing that injustice is cutting

19 several ways into the way that we live, and you can't

20 take away people's asthma. There's no way to do that.

21 It's impossible. You can't deasthmafy. All you can do

22 is prevent.

23 And right now, we have the opportunity to

24 prevent more people from having asthma, and we have an

25 opportunity to hold a higher standard of justice to
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1 bring up our values and the way that we live and the way

2 that we treat each other, and I implore you to use the

3 strongest standards possible with the understanding that

4 those are the standards that stack our people, our

5 culture, our country towards justice. Thank you.

6 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Next, Sharon

7 Ritchie and Terence Thorn, please.

8 MR. THORN: I'm not Sharon.

9 MR. NIEBLING: I was guessing as -- well,

10 if you're ready.

11 MR. THORN: Yeah, I'm ready.

12 MR. NIEBLING: Proceed.

13 MR. THORN: I'm a little confused. My

14 agenda said drinks will be served at 7:00.

15 MR. NIEBLING: There's a water fountain out

16 there.

17 MR. THORN: I'm Terry Thorn. I'm a board

18 member representing here today Air Alliance Houston.

19 We're an air quality public health advocacy group that's

20 been around for about 25 years, and we've worked very

21 hard on the health impacts of air pollution and

22 particularly ozone in the Houston area. We're going to

23 file some testimony for the record.

24 My background is a little bit different

25 than what you've heard today. This marks my 40th year
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1 in the oil and gas. I've been a CEO, I've been the

2 chief environmental officer of A Fortune 100 company.

3 I've also worked on six continents building power plants

4 and pipelines, and I've worked with engineers who have

5 solved about every problem thrown at them all over the

6 world. And our attitude in the business side of the

7 industry, and I hate to see the industry like we've

8 seen, is one of a can do attitude and one of continuous

9 improvement.

10 It's fascinated me that we move over to the

11 environmental compliance side. The can do attitude

12 changes to a can't do attitude, and I just don't get it.

13 You've had an interesting day. You're now experts in

14 the famous Texas dance for two step. We call it the

15 regulatory two step here. You can picture this has been

16 going on now for decades. The beat is slow, slow,

17 quick, quick, as you move across the dance floor, and

18 you can picture the regulators moving across the dance

19 floor staring at their feet repeating the cost benefit

20 is not there, the science is wrong, and you can have

21 clean air, or you can have a job. That's not going to

22 change.

23 I make this point simply that it's been

24 said 20 times today, Texas will only do what federal law

25 minimum requires, and they're only going to do that
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1 after they've exhausted every possible appeal process.

2 That's a sad, sad story and a big surprise for me. I

3 want to shift gears for a second and talk about a small

4 town south of here that some people may not have heard

5 of called Houston, and that's been my primary concern.

6 Houston has never met an ozone standard. That's the bad

7 news. The good news is we have steadily reduced ozone

8 pollution since the 1970s.

9 We've done that mainly because of the

10 Houston (inaudible) nonattainment plan, we've done that

11 with using the current SIP. So we have empirical

12 evidence that these types of regulations work. It's

13 been a good experience. Now, my group is closely

14 looking at some new research device showing an increase

15 of cardiac arrest and asthma related to ozone increases.

16 Because of that, what we looked at there, we've

17 concluded that we have to support and will support the

18 60 parts new standard. I support this as a businessman.

19 It's my oil and gas industry because my experience has

20 been that incrementally improving things often costs

21 more than once and for all solving a problem.

22 So you go down a few parts this year, then

23 ten years a few parts, and spend more money, attack this

24 problem and (inaudible) the same thing. The other thing

25 that is kind of unique to Houston is that we have to
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1 develop a plan that addresses both NOx and VOCs. You've

2 probably seen in the similar studies that says that NOx

3 could cause more ozone in Houston and we really need

4 guidance from EPA to work with us, not just in Houston

5 but in the state on this combined approach. I mean, we

6 just have to tackle it in that way.

7 So let me summarize quickly. One, only a

8 strong rule will propel action in Texas. Secondly,

9 you've got to tell them what to do and when to do it and

10 that shifts the conversation to the right people.

11 That's the engineers are going to have to solve these

12 problems. Once we get it to that level, they will do

13 it. Our experience in Houston has shown that they will

14 do that.

15 Fourth, now we need your help, as I

16 mentioned on this combined approach on the NOx and VOCs.

17 And number five is, will somebody please open the bar.

18 Thank you very much.

19 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you very much. We're

20 getting close to that point. Next up, Kim Limberg and

21 Dwayne Quertermous.

22 THE REPORTER: I think that mike is off

23 again.

24 MS. LIMBERG: My name is Kim Limberg. I'm

25 a resident of Irving, Texas, and I'm here representing
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1 myself as a resident and in this North Texas area. And

2 also in a city that happens to be the epicenter of the

3 latest earthquake storm. I just heard about this

4 hearing, and I thought it would be a good time for me to

5 come and say a few words.

6 What we're experiencing in Irving sounds

7 somewhat like the kindergarten song, a frack, frack here

8 and a frack, frack there, here a frack, there a frack,

9 everywhere a frack, frack, here a quake, there a quake,

10 everywhere a quake, quake. We have probable cause, I

11 think, to investigate to investigate wells and hydraulic

12 fracking itself and what kind of soil and water

13 pollution that it's causing. But I've got to say, I

14 don't really feel confident that our local or state

15 officials have any intention to do that.

16 Already before any studies have begun, our

17 local official calling it natural in the media and our

18 Texas Railroad Commission seismologist already declared

19 it had nothing to do before any study has begun. Now, a

20 neighbor recently said -- forwarded me information that

21 several studies have been done throughout the country

22 already linking a disposal well and earthquakes.

23 Caldwell, Kansas, Ohio -- not Ohio -- Oklahoma. And

24 even in DFW, they supposedly closed a couple of wells,

25 the north end of DFW airport, half of which property
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1 lies. The eastern half lies in the city limits.

2 But I didn't know there were 18,000 gas

3 wells in the Barnett Shale west of Irving up to Irving,

4 and I can't -- with all the disposal wells and maybe a

5 few 5,000 or so taking all that waste fluid at

6 4.5 million gallons per 18 -- those 18,000 -- each of

7 those 18,000 gas wells, that's a lot of concentrated

8 pressure ejected at those spot locations and the

9 seismologist from SMU who smoke at our city council

10 briefing said it was compression pressure changes that

11 caused the lines to move.

12 So we're next to the (inaudible) fall zone,

13 and I don't think we're right on it. They're trying to

14 investigate close to where the epicenters might be, but

15 rather than reinvent the wheel a hundred times and

16 throughout every locale that has this problem, I want to

17 ask that the federal EPA look seriously at the effects

18 of hydraulic fracturing and disposal well so that we

19 don't have to spend a lot of money locally and statewide

20 over and over to fight the same fight to come to the

21 same conclusion eventually after a lot of damage is

22 done.

23 We have experienced damage, and that's

24 another reason that gives me pause to have confidence in

25 local government to do something because they keep
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1 reporting to the media that there's little or no damage.

2 I called for records from the City and we have 1,050

3 breaks in the past two years. Our earthquake started

4 Halloween, October 31st, 2008, and they have increased

5 significantly in the last two years, and then we have

6 the swarm. I believe it was early January, 12 quakes in

7 24 hours. So we've experienced now 3.3, 3.5, and 3.6

8 since November 22nd to the present. The quakes are

9 getting stronger. The damage to ours is not just water

10 main breaks.

11 Not all of that 1,050 are directly quake

12 related. We have moving soil, but that also could be

13 because it's part of the quakes, but yeah, I estimated

14 about 20 percent when I aligned the dates of the quakes

15 at a break point of two to three weeks for each quake to

16 the dates of all the water main breaks, and we're going

17 go further and study to some periods where there's no

18 quake time frame to see what kind of impact that is.

19 But we have water main breaks, sewer line main breaks,

20 (inaudible), three water main breaks and five sewer and

21 roadway subside where the lines separate from each

22 other. So if your tire gets caught, you can veer to one

23 way or the other into an opposing adjacent lane. So

24 they had to fix those.

25 We have significant infrastructure built
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1 right around the stadium area where (inaudible) on

2 really high 30-foot columns of separated freeway. So

3 there's a lot at stake. The house -- cracks in housing,

4 and mine has 20 piers of foundation repair in 2011, and

5 these are all new cracks since that was stabilized,

6 plumbing leaks. And another concern is -- which also

7 leads to environmental protection assistance needed is

8 transmission pipelines for oil and gas that go through

9 Irving through neighborhoods to DFW airport, and I

10 believe there is some damage to those and already

11 leaking into the soil, so we need EPA's help.

12 We need somebody to look at all this impact

13 very quickly, not waste any time. And if we could have

14 a national ban, that would probably be the best solution

15 so we don't have to keep fighting the fight. But as far

16 as the ozone, whatever you can do to help the air

17 quality. And lowering the threshold to 60, I support

18 that if it's going to do anything to improve air

19 quality. I'd -- I, like other parents, we're concerned

20 about letting children play outside in the summer. You

21 know, they're out of school during the summer, and we

22 like to have them outside, but we can't. We have to

23 think, oh, no, maybe it's not good for your health.

24 And I could go on and on about other things

25 but I think -- does that mean my time is up? Thank you.
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1 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you.

2 MR. QUERTERMOUS: All right. My name is

3 Dwayne Quertermous. I live in Arlington, Texas. I'm

4 the Vice Chair for the Lone Star Chapter for the Sierra

5 Club. So plenty of the speakers today have talked about

6 the health effects of smog and some of the more

7 technical details of the different standards whether

8 they be 60 or 70 parts per billion. But I'd like to

9 concentrate on some of the -- a little bit about the

10 economics.

11 So just one example of the economic cost of

12 smog is that a decade ago, it's from 2002 to 2007, the

13 average cost of asthma to our economy was $3300 per

14 person per year who had asthma. Now, this cost is born

15 by the public, the people who have it themselves and

16 their families. It's born by the business, businesses

17 that employ them that pay for their health care and

18 provide the health plans that they use.

19 So one of the excuses for keeping the stand

20 -- not lowering the standards to 60 or 70 to 65 is that

21 it's probusiness to keep them because it's going to cost

22 the business money. But lowering the standard to

23 60 parts per billion would save the public and

24 businesses billions of dollars a year, and those savings

25 would help stimulate the economy, because per -- a lot
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1 of -- most of the employers, most of the businesses,

2 they don't really benefit from low smog standards.

3 They're not saving money because they're not, you know,

4 because they're not a dirty coal plant or other

5 polluting industry.

6 So the EPA should not favor the bottom

7 lines of a few dirty polluting industries over the

8 bottom lines of the public and the vast majority of

9 businesses in this country. Please (inaudible) both

10 morally right for public health and would actually

11 benefit the vast majority of businesses and drop this

12 standard to 60 parts per billion. That's the one that

13 health -- the current science on health says it's the

14 most beneficial, and it's the one that -- you know, it's

15 very easily met by current technology.

16 Some businesses are going to have to pay

17 for their -- for the cost of it, but if they're not

18 going to pay for that cost, then other people -- the

19 public and other businesses are going to pay for the

20 cost of them not complying. And overall, it costs our

21 economy more to keep the higher standards. So it's no

22 probusiness, it's no pro keeping, you know, a healthy

23 economy to have a higher standard. The lower standards

24 that actually help the economy more and help businesses

25 more. Thank you.
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1 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Next up, Jimmy

2 Hosch and Robert Vaughn. If we could just have one of

3 you -- if Sharon Ritchie is here, we can invite Sharon

4 up one more time.

5 MR. HOSCH: My name is Jimmy Hosch. I live

6 in Dallas, Texas. I was born and raised in Wichita

7 Falls. Trained as an analytical chemist. I'm a Ph.D.

8 and a chemist, so I am the scientist, and I want to tell

9 you that I appreciate the science -- the good science

10 that the EPA does, and I read some of -- not all of --

11 the things you put out, and I understand them. I

12 wholeheartedly support the -- your proposal for a 60

13 parts per billion ozone regulation.

14 The fact that you have steadily done your

15 job, set the standards, is the reason we have the clean

16 air we have today. I've had the privilege of going to

17 Beijing, China. They don't have an EPA, and you can see

18 the difference. You don't have to just smell it. You

19 have heard today a wealth of reasons why you should do

20 this and reasons why Texas regulators don't do their

21 job. I can't add to that, but I can tell you a couple

22 of personal stories about the people who elect those

23 officials.

24 I'm going to talk about my relatives. I

25 was a young kid growing up in Wichita Falls. I had an
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1 uncle who owned a drilling company. We got to go out to

2 the rig one day and see how the oil was drilled. It was

3 impressive. Lots of big equipment, kids' eyes were as

4 big as saucers. We got to the mud pit, explained how he

5 just dug a hole in the ground with a bulldozer, run that

6 mud in there, and that's the way it worked. I looked

7 around and I saw, well, what's in that barrel, Uncle

8 Lloyd? Oh, well, that's the other chemical you add to

9 the mud. Well, what do you do with that when you're all

10 done with it? Oh, you just throw it off of -- throw it

11 all in the mud pit, cover it up with a bulldozer, move

12 on to the next site. I said, well, is that the way

13 you're supposed to do it? He says, if you don't get

14 caught, it's okay.

15 That attitude permeates Texas. That is the

16 attitude that says, you're not going to tell me what to

17 do. And that's why these people have been begging you

18 to please continue to do your job of setting standards.

19 Anything you can do to put teeth in those standards, do

20 that, because my uncle was not going to do what he

21 didn't -- what he wasn't forced to do if it didn't make

22 him money.

23 I was hearing a woman explaining how

24 inconvenient it was that she had to take off work to

25 take her child to the doctor because he had an asthma
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1 attack, and I looked her in the eye, and I said, well,

2 what do you expect? You're hauling him there and back

3 in the biggest SUV you can buy. And I think the best

4 explanation is she looked at me like a pig looks at a

5 clock. She had absolutely no understanding that what

6 she was doing individually had anything whatsoever to do

7 with her son having asthma. The depth and breadth of

8 ignorance in Texas takes your breath away.

9 So my plead to you is continue the good

10 work you've been doing. Thank you from the bottom of my

11 heart. I really appreciate the EPA. And please drop

12 that standard to 60 parts per billion and make it stick.

13 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you. Now if John

14 Burton, Robert Vaughn, or Sharon Ritchie are present,

15 we'll take any of you. Are you John?

16 MR. BURTON: Do I go up here?

17 MR. NIEBLING: Yeah, please.

18 MR. BURTON: I would just like to say that

19 it's very important to have a good quality of life. And

20 I'm only here -- it was very stressful because there's a

21 lot of traffic and things going on, but the smog is the

22 problem, so I hope that the EPA will do a good job.

23 Thank you.

24 MR. NIEBLING: Thank you, John. With that,

25 I believe we have exhausted our list of speakers. If
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1 there's anyone in the audience that would like to speak,

2 we will remain and listen, so please stand up now. I'm

3 not seeing anybody. I would like to thank you-all for

4 your attendance today. This public input is extremely

5 valuable to us, and I know it's been a long day for many

6 people, not just those of us here, but many of you that

7 have been here with us all day long, and we appreciate

8 that. We appreciate the deep thought that went into

9 your testimony, the deep feelings that went into your

10 testimony, the careful analysis of your testimony, and

11 also the orderly way that you helped us conduct today.

12 It's important to our process, and we're grateful for

13 that.

14 So if anyone has further thoughts that

15 they'd like to share for the written record, the docket

16 will remain open until March 17, 2015 and with that, I

17 will close tonight's hearing. 

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1 REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE

2 THE STATE OF TEXAS) 

COUNTY OF TARRANT )

3

4 I, Larissa L. McPhearson, Certified Shorthand

5 Reporter in and for the State of Texas, do hereby

6 certify that the above and foregoing contains a true and

7 correct transcription of all portions of the

8 proceedings.

9 Certified to by me this 17th day of February, 2015. 

10

11 _____________________________________ 

Larissa L. McPhearson, Texas CSR 8371

12 Expiration Date: 12/31/16

Collins Realtime Reporting, Firm No. 59

13 1700 Pacific Avenue, Suite 2410

Dallas, Texas 75201

14 (214)220-2449

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