1 MARYLAND DEPARTMENT OF THE ENVIRONMENT

2

3 Public Hearing on Maryland State Implementation

4 Plan for the Baltimore Serious Nonattainment

5 Area, 0.08 ppm 8-Hour Ozone, State

6 Implementation Plan, Demonstrating Rate of

7 Progress for 2008, 2011 and 2012 Revision to

8 2002 Base Year Emissions; and Serious Area

9 Attainment Demonstration

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11 DATE: Friday, July 19, 2013

12 TIME: 2:00 p.m.

13 LOCATION: Maryland Department of the Environment

14 1800 Washington Boulevard,

15 Conference Room 1

16 Baltimore, Maryland

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19 Before: Debra L. Maheux, Notary Public

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Public Hearing

Maryland Department of the Environment 7/19/2013

(301) 870-8025 - www.ftrinc.net - (800) 921-5555

For The Record, Inc.

1 A P P E A R A N C E S

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3 ON BEHALF OF THE MDE:

4 MARY JANE RUTKOWSKI, HEARING OFFICER

5 MOLLY BERGER, NATURAL RESOURCES PLANNER

6 Maryland Department of the Environment

7 1800 Washington Boulevard

8 Baltimore, Maryland 21230-1719

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Public Hearing

Maryland Department of the Environment 7/19/2013

(301) 870-8025 - www.ftrinc.net - (800) 921-5555

For The Record, Inc.

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

2 - - - - -

3 MS. RUTKOWSKI: Good afternoon,

4 everyone. I guess we're about ready to start

5 here. If the court reporter will turn on the

6 equipment, we'll begin. Good afternoon. On

7 behalf of the Maryland Department of the

8 Environment, Air and Radiation Management

9 Administration, I would like to welcome everyone

10 present to this public hearing.

11 This public hearing is being held

12 pursuant to federal law found at 42 USC at

13 Section 7410(A) and 40 CFR Parts 51.102 and 251.

14 It is also being held in conformance with the

15 State Administrative Procedure Act under the

16 State Government Article beginning at Section

17 10-101.

18 Notice was also posted on the Maryland

19 Department of the Environment website starting

20 on June 17, 2013.

21 Folks, would you please sign in at the

22 front of the room? There's a blue folder.
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Public Hearing

Maryland Department of the Environment 7/19/2013

(301) 870-8025 - www.ftrinc.net - (800) 921-5555

For The Record, Inc.

1 (Discussion off the record.)

2 MS. RUTKOWSKI: My name is Mary Jane

3 Rutkowski. I'm a Natural Resource Planner with

4 the Air and Radiation Management

5 Administration's Air Quality Management Program.

6 I will serve as the hearing officer this

7 afternoon.

8 First of all, I would like to get you

9 all to sign in. If you haven't signed in,

10 please do so. I think everyone has been signed

11 in. This will help us keep an accurate record

12 of the people who participate in our proceedings

13 here today. Also, a copy of the state

14 implementation plan is available on the table

15 there. There's a copy of the full document and

16 also two copies of the executive summary.

17 The hearing will proceed in the

18 following order: First, Molly Berger, a Natural

19 Resource Planner with the Air Quality Management

20 Program of the Air and Radiation Management

21 Administration will read the Department's

22 statement into the record.
5

Public Hearing

Maryland Department of the Environment 7/19/2013

(301) 870-8025 - www.ftrinc.net - (800) 921-5555

For The Record, Inc.

1 After Molly is finished reading the

2 Department's statement, I will first call on any

3 elected official or government official who

4 wants to make a statement. Then I will call

5 upon anyone else who indicated on the sign-in

6 sheet that he or she would like to make a

7 statement.

8 When giving your statement, please come

9 closer to the court reporter so she can hear

10 you, identify yourself and your affiliation and

11 spell your last name for her, please. Give your

12 statement loudly and clearly so the court

13 reporter is sure to catch your words.

14 Hearing procedure does not call for

15 question and answer sessions. Statements

16 received at this hearing event will be answered

17 in writing and published with the final state

18 implementation plan document.

19 Are there any procedural questions?

20 MR. DONNELLY: My name is Russell

21 Donnelly, Sparrows Point. Is this -- will there

22 be an open comment period after this?
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Public Hearing

Maryland Department of the Environment 7/19/2013

(301) 870-8025 - www.ftrinc.net - (800) 921-5555

For The Record, Inc.

1 MS. RUTKOWSKI: Until five o'clock

2 today.

3 MR. DONNELLY: Only until then?

4 MS. RUTKOWSKI: Yes. Anybody else?

5 All right. If the court reporter will begin, we

6 will go on record to receive comment. Molly

7 Berger will proceed with the Department's

8 statement. Again there are copies on the back

9 of the table there, if you need to follow along.

10 I may not have made enough copies, so

11 if anybody runs short, I can get you one

12 afterwards.

13 Molly?

14 MS. BERGER: Good afternoon. My name

15 is Molly Berger. I am a Natural Resources

16 Planner in the Planning and Policy Division, Air

17 Quality Planning Program of the Air and

18 Radiation Management Administration, Maryland

19 Department of the Environment.

20 This public hearing is related to the

21 air quality plan entitled the Baltimore Serious

22 Nonattainment Area 8.08 parts per million 8-hour
7

Public Hearing

Maryland Department of the Environment 7/19/2013

(301) 870-8025 - www.ftrinc.net - (800) 921-5555

For The Record, Inc.

1 ozone state implementation plan demonstrating

2 rate of progress for 2008, 2011 and 2012

3 revision to the 2002 base year emissions; and

4 serious attainment demonstration.

5 This public hearing is being held

6 pursuant to federal law found at 42 USC, Section

7 7410(A) and 40 CFR Parts 51, Sections 102 and

8 251. It is also being held in conformance with

9 the State Administrative Procedure Act, under

10 the State Government Article, beginning at

11 section 10 through 101.

12 Notice of this public hearing appeared

13 on the Maryland Department of the Environment's

14 website on June 18, 2013, and remained on the

15 website to the date of today's hearing.

16 Copies of the hearing notices and the

17 proposed SIP revision will be part of the formal

18 hearing record. Access to the proposed document

19 was made available via the website of the

20 Maryland Department of the Environment. Hard

21 copies were also available at the Maryland

22 Department of the Environment.
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Public Hearing

Maryland Department of the Environment 7/19/2013

(301) 870-8025 - www.ftrinc.net - (800) 921-5555

For The Record, Inc.

1 The purpose of this hearing is to

2 provide the public with an opportunity to

3 formally comment on the proposed document.

4 The Clean Air Act was passed in 1970 to

5 protect public health and welfare. Congress

6 amended the act in 1990 to establish

7 requirements for areas not meeting the National

8 Ambient Air Quality Standards. The Clean Air

9 Act Amendment established a process for

10 evaluating air quality in each region and

11 identifying nonattainment areas according to the

12 severity of its air pollution problem.

13 The Clean Air Act sets health standards

14 for six ambient pollutants: Carbon monoxide,

15 sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, ozone, lead and

16 particulate matter. The Environmental

17 Protection Agency establishes rules and

18 regulations to implement the Clean Air Act.

19 On February 1, 2012, EPA reclassified

20 the Baltimore, Maryland, nonattainment area as

21 a "serious" nonattainment area. As a serious

22 nonattainment area for 8-hour ozone National
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Public Hearing

Maryland Department of the Environment 7/19/2013

(301) 870-8025 - www.ftrinc.net - (800) 921-5555

For The Record, Inc.

1 Ambient Air Quality Standard, the Baltimore

2 region is required to meet the requirements

3 defined in the Clean Air Act, Section 182(d) and

4 to submit a revised serious area SIP by

5 September 30, 2012.

6 The "serious" nonattainment area

7 requirements include: Meet all requirements for

8 moderate nonattainment areas; adopting state

9 regulations to meet the Clean Air Act, Section

10 182(d); adopt a contingency plan for 2008

11 reasonable further progress; require new or

12 expanding sources to offset increased emissions

13 by 1.3 to 1; revise and submit an updated

14 attainment demonstration that reflects

15 MOVES-based motor vehicle emissions budgets;

16 demonstrate 3 percent per year reasonable

17 further progress from 2008 through 2011 and from

18 2011 to 2012; adopt contingency measures for

19 failure to make RFP in those periods, and;

20 submit an analysis of reasonably available

21 control measures for the region.

22 Consideration of comments: The
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Public Hearing

Maryland Department of the Environment 7/19/2013

(301) 870-8025 - www.ftrinc.net - (800) 921-5555

For The Record, Inc.

1 Department will consider all pertinent comments,

2 and revise the proposed plan if necessary,

3 before making a final decision to adopt the plan

4 and submit it to the U.S. Environmental

5 Protection Agency for approval as a Maryland

6 State Implementation Plan. Oral and written

7 comments may be presented at this hearing.

8 The 30-day public comment period that

9 began on June 18, 2013, for receipt of all

10 comments to the plan will close at 5 p.m. today.

11 MS. RUTKOWSKI: Okay. I don't see

12 anybody who has identified themselves as an

13 elected official here, so I'll go through the

14 list in order, and now I will call on Donna

15 McDowell.

16 MS. MCDOWELL: Okay. I do have a

17 statement I intend to read into the record, and

18 I've given a copy before.

19 Good afternoon. My name is Donna

20 McDowell. I am a Sierra Club volunteer, and

21 grandmother to two boys, 7 and 9. I am here for

22 them. I reside in a rural corner of Montgomery
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Public Hearing

Maryland Department of the Environment 7/19/2013

(301) 870-8025 - www.ftrinc.net - (800) 921-5555

For The Record, Inc.

1 County, a stone's throw from Howard County. Air

2 knows no boundaries, and we are subject to bad

3 air flowing our way from both Baltimore and the

4 District of Columbia. As you probably know,

5 both Howard and Montgomery Counties received a

6 grade of F for ozone days from the American Lung

7 Association. Only Garrett County received a C

8 in the whole State of Maryland.

9 The Baltimore metropolitan area has

10 suffered some of the worst air on the East Coast

11 with 22 Orange Or Red ozone alerts occurring

12 during 2012. We are now in day three of a Code

13 Orange for air quality just this week.

14 In the American Lung Association

15 report, State of the Air, the

16 Washington-Baltimore area ranks 9th in the top

17 25 most ozone polluted cities, and if you remove

18 areas in California and Texas, we are number 1.

19 As you know, ground level ozone

20 pollution occurs when nitrogen oxides and

21 Volatile Organic Compounds react in the presence

22 of sunlight and heat. Ozone causes a multitude
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Public Hearing

Maryland Department of the Environment 7/19/2013

(301) 870-8025 - www.ftrinc.net - (800) 921-5555

For The Record, Inc.

1 of health problems. According to the Physicians

2 For Social Responsibility, low levels of ozone

3 can cause coughing, wheezing, shortness of

4 breath and chest pain. At higher

5 concentrations, breathing ozone can lead to more

6 serious effects, including lung tissue damage,

7 reduced lung capacity, asthma exacerbation, as

8 well as increased risk of hospitalization for

9 asthma, bronchitis, and other chronic

10 respiratory diseases. It can even lead to

11 premature death.

12 Ozone pollution disproportionately

13 affects the poor, the young and the elderly,

14 groups that make up large proportions of the

15 population in Baltimore. The American Lung

16 Association estimates that close to 25 percent

17 of the Baltimore City residents live in poverty.

18 More than 20 percent are children, and close to

19 73,000 are over the age of 65.

20 Children are prone to more risks from

21 ozone pollution. Their lungs are growing. They

22 are outside and active during peak ozone periods
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Public Hearing

Maryland Department of the Environment 7/19/2013

(301) 870-8025 - www.ftrinc.net - (800) 921-5555

For The Record, Inc.

1 in the summer, and they are more susceptible to

2 respiratory infections. My grandsons, avid

3 baseball players, play several games a week and

4 are exposed to more ozone than the average

5 adult. Although most of us shield our children

6 from smoking, we alone cannot shield them from

7 ozone, and that is why we're here before MDE.

8 What will help reduce the emission of

9 dangerous nitrogen oxides which mix with

10 volatile organic compounds to produce ozone?

11 One of the best ways to regulate is to regulate

12 coal-fired power plants in this area, especially

13 those which do not have state of the art

14 controls for NOx. According to Physicians For

15 Social Responsibility, coal plants emit

16 approximately 87 percent of utility related

17 nitrogen oxide pollution, the second largest

18 source of NOx pollution after automobiles.

19 Coal-fired power plants also produce

20 high levels of sulfur dioxide and mercury, not

21 to mention particulate pollution. As an aside,

22 Baltimore City got an F for particulates from
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Public Hearing

Maryland Department of the Environment 7/19/2013

(301) 870-8025 - www.ftrinc.net - (800) 921-5555

For The Record, Inc.

1 the American Lung Association.

2 The Greeks believed that there were

3 four elements on our planet: Earth, air, fire

4 and water. Although we know that is not true,

5 the Greeks were right in recognizing their

6 importance to life on the planet. When we foul

7 one of these elements, we foul the others. Not

8 only do nitrogen oxides pollute the air, they

9 also foul the water, in this area the Chesapeake

10 Bay.

11 Too much nitrogen deposition in the Bay

12 leads to eutrophication, a process that causes

13 an accelerated growth of algae leading to oxygen

14 depletion, and as an aside, there's a fish kill

15 right in the harbor I heard driving here.

16 Garrett Hardin identified the problem

17 with pollution control in the "Tragedy of the

18 Commons." He said: "In a reverse way, the

19 tragedy of the commons reappears in problems of

20 pollution. Here it is not a question of taking

21 something out of the commons but of putting

22 something in -- sewage, radioactive waste, heat
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Public Hearing

Maryland Department of the Environment 7/19/2013

(301) 870-8025 - www.ftrinc.net - (800) 921-5555

For The Record, Inc.

1 waste, and noxious and dangerous fumes into the

2 air. The rational man finds that his share of

3 the cost of the wastes he discharges into the

4 commons is less than the cost of purifying his

5 wastes before releasing them.

6 "Since this is true for everyone, we

7 are locked into a system of fouling our own

8 nest, so long as we behave only as free

9 enterprisers."

10 That is why we must look to the state

11 to act in ways that protect all of us, that

12 protect the commons, because we all live in the

13 commons. Please recognize the unacceptable

14 costs in ill health and habitat destruction that

15 occur from ozone; please use your authority to

16 require significant reductions in NOx from the

17 coal-fired power plants in Baltimore.

18 Thank you.

19 MS. RUTKOWSKI: Thank you, Ms.

20 McDowell. I will now call on Chris Yoder of the

21 Sierra Club.

22 MR. YODER: My name is Chris Yoder, and
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Public Hearing

Maryland Department of the Environment 7/19/2013

(301) 870-8025 - www.ftrinc.net - (800) 921-5555

For The Record, Inc.

1 that's spelled Y-O-D-E-R. I'm chair of the

2 Greater Baltimore Group of the Sierra Club, and

3 I think more importantly, I'm a grandfather, and

4 the air in Baltimore threatens my health and the

5 health of my family.

6 I would also note that polluted air is

7 not attractive to people or firms who are

8 deciding where they're going to live or work or

9 establish their business, so air pollution also

10 threatens Mayor Stephanie Blake's goal of

11 growing our city as a healthy prosperous place

12 to live and work.

13 As noted before, MDE has been entrusted

14 by the people of Maryland with stewardship over

15 the air we breathe. Minimal standards for ozone

16 pollution and healthy air are well known. EPA

17 set them 16 years ago and then revised them to

18 make them stronger.

19 And so my question is: How is it that

20 air in Baltimore still does not meet even the

21 earlier lax standard, much less the current one?

22 MDE, because of that nonattainment, has
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Public Hearing

Maryland Department of the Environment 7/19/2013

(301) 870-8025 - www.ftrinc.net - (800) 921-5555

For The Record, Inc.

1 an obligation to regulation sources of ozone

2 pollution and pollution that causes ozone to

3 form. That obligation is both a legal one and

4 more importantly, a moral one to the children

5 and grandchildren who will define Baltimore's

6 future.

7 MDE can satisfy that obligation only by

8 regulations that effectively, and I'll

9 underscore effectively, address two of the major

10 sources of ozone pollution in the Baltimore

11 area: Motor vehicles and the Crane and Wagner

12 coal-fired electric generation plants.

13 Unbelievable, to me at least, in the

14 second decade of the 21st century, Crane and

15 Wagner still lack state of the art emission

16 controls for ozone causing pollutants.

17 MDE's way forward is clear,

18 unmistakable and necessary: Effective

19 regulations that actually reduce emissions for

20 motor vehicles and Baltimore area coal-fired

21 generating plants.

22 I would also like to make two
18

Public Hearing

Maryland Department of the Environment 7/19/2013

(301) 870-8025 - www.ftrinc.net - (800) 921-5555

For The Record, Inc.

1 additional points. MDE will undoubtedly hear

2 from polluters and their advocates that we need

3 balance, that it's necessary to compromise, and

4 I would observe that eight weeks ago I was in

5 the mountains of Idaho, and in the mountains of

6 Idaho, I breathed clean air.

7 And if you go outside here today and

8 take a breath, you will discover that there has

9 been compromise. The air here is compromised.

10 MDE has an obligation to bring it into balance.

11 We are now wildly out of balance, and I would

12 also address the word plan. MDE will probably

13 come up with a plan. MDE will probably require

14 polluters to come up with a plan.

15 Plans don't mean anything. I'm now in

16 the 20th year of my three-year plan to lose 20

17 pounds. I've gained 15. I think that

18 effective -- it has to be effective and

19 enforceable with consequences for the emitters,

20 and if you achieve that, then you will have

21 achieved your mandate for stewardship over the

22 air the people of Maryland and Baltimore
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Public Hearing

Maryland Department of the Environment 7/19/2013

(301) 870-8025 - www.ftrinc.net - (800) 921-5555

For The Record, Inc.

1 breathe.

2 Thank you.

3 MS. RUTKOWSKI: Thank you, Mr. Yoder.

4 I will now call on John, I'm not sure I can read

5 your writing.

6 MR. SMETON: Smeton.

7 MS. RUTKOWSKI: Smeton, S-M-E-T-O-N?

8 MR. SMETON: Correct. First I

9 completely and entirely agree with the last two

10 comments that were made. I apologize that mine

11 are not as fluent as theirs are.

12 So I was born and raised in Harford

13 County, Maryland, and am currently a rising

14 junior majoring in biophysics at Johns Hopkins

15 University. I've lived my entire life in

16 Maryland, and I've grown to love the city of

17 Baltimore over the past first years I've

18 attending school. So much so, that I want

19 nothing more than to stay in the city once I

20 graduate and soon after find a job here.

21 While it was never a problem for me in

22 Harford County, I've found that my minor asthma
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Public Hearing

Maryland Department of the Environment 7/19/2013

(301) 870-8025 - www.ftrinc.net - (800) 921-5555

For The Record, Inc.

1 has actually gotten more serious over the past

2 few years being in Baltimore, especially within

3 the past recent months.

4 I am getting shortness of breath much

5 more frequently, even though most of the work I

6 do is physical labor, and I have biked to work

7 almost everyday.

8 I'm only turning 20, so I doubt my age

9 has anything to do with it, and I have started

10 to think it's the air in the city that is

11 getting to me. Consequently, I honestly am

12 worried that I can't stay in Baltimore after I

13 graduate and live the healthy I imagined for

14 myself.

15 I don't really have a strong

16 relationship to anywhere else in Maryland right

17 now, so that might just mean that I might not be

18 in Maryland itself.

19 While I may be sounding a bit like a

20 hypochondriac, I am well aware that Baltimore's

21 water is state of the art. It was actually

22 designed by a person whose name is on one of the
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Public Hearing

Maryland Department of the Environment 7/19/2013

(301) 870-8025 - www.ftrinc.net - (800) 921-5555

For The Record, Inc.

1 buildings that some of us live in at Hopkins,

2 and that our urban green space is amazing.

3 We are leaders in air and we are

4 leaders in water -- I mean, we are leaders on

5 the land and we're leaders in water, but I'm

6 afraid that we're not leaders in the air.

7 I'm not afraid to get my hands in the

8 dirt or take a drink of Baltimore City tap water

9 afterwards, but I'm afraid that I can't keep

10 doing that in the future if I have to breathe

11 Baltimore's current air while I'm doing it.

12 As a result, I'm asking that our

13 regulations for ozone are taken further than

14 they have been in the past. Maryland's current

15 plan or this plan here to address ozone is

16 simply a rehash of its existing regulations,

17 which our inability to achieve safe ozone levels

18 as shown or not sufficient. As I said before,

19 this week alone we've three Code Orange days,

20 one of them being today.

21 And we have twice the state average

22 mortality rate when it comes to asthma,
22

Public Hearing

Maryland Department of the Environment 7/19/2013

(301) 870-8025 - www.ftrinc.net - (800) 921-5555

For The Record, Inc.

1 childhood asthma, and one of the highest

2 pediatric asthma hospitalization rates in the

3 country.

4 The plan contains no proposal or new

5 standards or regulations to address the major

6 in-state sources of ozone precursors, which

7 include the Crane and Wagner power plants

8 mentioned earlier.

9 Since these coal plants are major

10 sources of the ozone forming pollutant, nitrogen

11 oxides and several plants in the Baltimore area

12 still lack state of the art controls for these

13 nitrogen oxides. It is clear what needs to be

14 done.

15 The Maryland Department of the

16 Environment should protect the health of the

17 current and potential residents of the Baltimore

18 area by establishing health protective emission

19 limits on nitrogen oxides from the Baltimore

20 area coal plants. You guys have the authority

21 to do it, and it needs to be done, so I'm just

22 asking you to do that.
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Public Hearing

Maryland Department of the Environment 7/19/2013

(301) 870-8025 - www.ftrinc.net - (800) 921-5555

For The Record, Inc.

1 Thanks for listening to me, and I hope

2 for our health and our future that you guys make

3 the right decision.

4 MS. RUTKOWSKI: Thank you, Mr. Smeton.

5 I will now call on Chiquita Younger of

6 the Interfaith Power and Light.

7 MS. YOUNGER: Here. Thank you. Good

8 afternoon. I'm Chiquita Younger from Interfaith

9 Power and Light. I live in Cockeysville, and I

10 attend Unity Fellowship Church of Baltimore.

11 Through Interfaith Power and Life,

12 Baltimore churches and synagogues and other

13 religious communities across the Baltimore area

14 are coming together to save energy, support

15 clean energy and to take action on climate

16 change.

17 Why are the good folks in Baltimore's

18 religious communities concerned from the

19 pollution that the Crane and Wagner power

20 plants? We're concerned because all of our

21 religious traditions teach us to care for our

22 neighbors. It's not right to allow air
24

Public Hearing

Maryland Department of the Environment 7/19/2013

(301) 870-8025 - www.ftrinc.net - (800) 921-5555

For The Record, Inc.

1 pollution to make people in our community sick

2 or to keep people inside for days at a time

3 every summer.

4 And our religious traditions teach us

5 to care for the least of these, that we must pay

6 attention to the needs of the most vulnerable

7 members of our community. It is the children

8 and the elderly that suffer most from our

9 failure to put modern pollution controls on

10 Crane and Wagner coal plants.

11 When I was younger, in the summertime I

12 loved playing outside. I don't think it's fair

13 that these days my son can't enjoy summer days

14 because the air is unhealthy to breathe, and for

15 decades, we have unfairly imposed the health

16 burdens of coal-fired power plants on poor

17 communities and communities of color.

18 Sometimes we're told that getting our

19 energy from coal-fired power plants like Crane

20 and Wagner is cheap, but dirty energy isn't

21 cheap. It's expensive, and we pay those costs

22 with our health. We pay them with damage to our
25

Public Hearing

Maryland Department of the Environment 7/19/2013

(301) 870-8025 - www.ftrinc.net - (800) 921-5555

For The Record, Inc.

1 climate mand we pay by experiencing more storms

2 like Sandy and extreme heat.

3 Please commit today to addressing the

4 air pollution from the Crane and Wagner plants,

5 and please issue a stronger plan to protect us

6 all from dangerous air pollution.

7 Thank you.

8 MS. RUTKOWSKI: Thank you, Ms. Younger.

9 I will now call on Ruth White.

10 MS. WHITE: Yes. I'm a member of the

11 Sierra Club and also in a Howard County climate

12 group at www.hococlimatechange.org.

13 As previous speakers have said, I

14 understand the coal plants are a major source of

15 ozone forming pollution, and that several plants

16 in the Baltimore area still lack state of the

17 art controls. These plants need to be heavily

18 regulated or preferably shut down.

19 I am concerned for all of the children

20 and elderly people and others affected by ozone

21 and other poor air quality that results from

22 burning coal.
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Public Hearing

Maryland Department of the Environment 7/19/2013

(301) 870-8025 - www.ftrinc.net - (800) 921-5555

For The Record, Inc.

1 Asthma runs in my family. My

2 grandfather's cousin had severe asthma, as did

3 my father. I had childhood asthma, and some

4 residual impact still affects me as an adult.

5 My daughter had severe childhood asthma and

6 still has some, all Maryland residents in this

7 area. She has an infant son, and we are hoping

8 and praying that he doesn't develop asthma,

9 since it runs so much in our family.

10 Also, my husband and I are over 65, and

11 he has a heart condition, so we are both at

12 double risk for the effects of air pollution.

13 Families should not have to worry about

14 the health of their children, their older

15 members or those with lung or heart disease. We

16 need strict coal plan emissions to protect

17 everyone's health.

18 In addition, burning pollution from --

19 pollution from burning coal is a heavy

20 contributor to climate change, and I know that's

21 not the subject of this hearing, but we believe

22 we need to move strongly to wind and solar power
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Public Hearing

Maryland Department of the Environment 7/19/2013

(301) 870-8025 - www.ftrinc.net - (800) 921-5555

For The Record, Inc.

1 for our electricity.

2 Thank you.

3 MS. RUTKOWSKI: Thank you, Ms. White.

4 I will now call on Doug Aus.

5 MR. AUS: Yes. My name is Doug Aus. I

6 live in Towson, Maryland, and I volunteer with

7 the Sierra Club.

8 As one of more than 175,000 adult

9 asthmatics living in the Baltimore area, I am

10 here today to voice my support to strengthen the

11 Maryland Department of the Environment's

12 nonattainment ozone State Implementation Plan.

13 I specifically want to see nitrogen

14 oxide emission limits on Baltimore area coal

15 plants, specifically the Crane and Wagner power

16 plants. When nitrogen oxide reacts with

17 sunlight, it forms ground -- excessive ground

18 level ozone and spreads over the Baltimore area,

19 which aggravates my asthma.

20 I have brought my inhaler with me

21 today. I most often use it when I am in the

22 city.
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Public Hearing

Maryland Department of the Environment 7/19/2013

(301) 870-8025 - www.ftrinc.net - (800) 921-5555

For The Record, Inc.

1 This ozone pollution does not only harm

2 our air. The Chesapeake Bay also suffers from

3 nitrogen oxide pollutants that form ozone. It

4 accelerates the algae growth in the Bay, and

5 hindering the growth of aquatic vegetation in it

6 and depleting it of oxygen.

7 Most cities in the eastern part of the

8 U.S. have already complied with standards

9 established by the Environmental Protection

10 Agency in 1997, and that's now 16 years ago.

11 When compared to neighboring cities, Baltimore

12 has some of the worst air quality on the East

13 Coast.

14 Last year, the Baltimore metropolitan

15 area had 22 Code Orange or Red air alerts. It

16 is inadequate to continue existing standards,

17 which do nothing to address pollution from the

18 Crane and Wagner power plants.

19 I urge the Maryland Department of the

20 Environment to protect the health of Baltimore

21 area residents by imposing emission limits that

22 force these Baltimore area coal plants to
29

Public Hearing

Maryland Department of the Environment 7/19/2013

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For The Record, Inc.

1 install state of the art controls for nitrogen

2 oxide.

3 Thank you.

4 MS. RUTKOWSKI: Thank you, Mr. Aus.

5 I will now call on Russell S.

6 Donnelly.

7 MR. DONNELLY: That's me. Honorable

8 Administrators, ladies and gentlemen, good

9 afternoon. My name is Russell Donnelly. I'm

10 from Sparrows Point, Maryland, out back of

11 formerly Bethlehem Steel. After long years, I

12 did want to acknowledge in the interim here, EPA

13 and MDE for restoring the serious designation on

14 the nonattainment area where formally from 2008

15 to 2012 it was moderate, which was slightly in

16 error.

17 So the thing is we've always had pretty

18 bad air that we suffer from three areas, that

19 being Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington.

20 We're in this -- between the mountains and the

21 water, so you have this disparity in this mixing

22 that gives us more or less exceptional
30

Public Hearing

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For The Record, Inc.

1 circumstance with air quality.

2 On top of all that, though, I do feel

3 with the new SIP coming forth, there should be

4 stronger implementation and restriction on the

5 traffic tier 3 for automobiles and trucks, et

6 cetera, forthcoming from EPA as we speak, and

7 also the heightening and the implementation

8 registered in the SIP for the greenhouse gas

9 emissions that are also virtually coming

10 downhill from EPA as we speak.

11 I think that will help to offset some

12 of the damaging air quality issues we have.

13 Anything for the better would be greatly

14 appreciated, and all we can do is try to

15 maintain the efforts, and we can't be lax.

16 As far as CDC is concerned, the number

17 of 15 disease clusters here at Baltimore region,

18 15 disease clusters in the United States, and in

19 Maryland we are number 1 for disease clusters,

20 and that's asthma, cancer, from all the

21 industrial complex and diversity we've had over

22 these past several hundred years.
31

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1 So whatever you can do to strengthen

2 these regulations and statutes, please do.

3 Thank you.

4 MS. RUTKOWSKI: Thank you, Mr.

5 Donnelly.

6 I will now call on Philip Goo.

7 MR. GOO: My name is Philip Goo, and

8 I'm an attorney with Sierra Club in Washington,

9 D.C.

10 I am deeply concerned about MDE's

11 failure to attain the 1997 ozone standard in the

12 Baltimore area. As MDE readily admits, ozone

13 has a number of public health and environmental

14 impacts and can lead to both short-term and

15 long-term respiratory damage for Maryland

16 citizens, especially children and the elderly

17 and asthmatics.

18 MDE's proposed State Implementation

19 Plan was issued in June but for some reason it

20 used projected emissions for 2012 instead of

21 actual 2012 emissions. Based on these projected

22 emissions, MDE concluded that Baltimore would
32

Public Hearing

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For The Record, Inc.

1 meet the 1997 standard by June 2013.

2 However, it defies logic why MDE in

3 2013 would use projected 2012 emissions instead

4 of actual 2012 emissions. When actual 2012

5 emissions are used, EPA's air data database, a

6 public database available to everyone, shows 58

7 exceedances of the ozone standard in 2012; 74 in

8 2011; and 76 in 2010.

9 With over 200 exceedances in the past

10 three years, it is impossible to see how MDE

11 predicts that Baltimore will attain the ozone

12 standard by June.

13 MDE's conclusion is also inconsistent

14 with the May 30 statement by Tad Aburn, MDE's

15 director of Air Radiation Program.

16 Mr. Aburn concluded on May 30 or stated

17 on May 30 that the Baltimore region, which was

18 not declared as having clean data in attainting

19 the 1997 standard, will be reclassified again,

20 this time as severe.

21 I repeat: On May 30, more than two

22 weeks before MDE submitted its State
33

Public Hearing

Maryland Department of the Environment 7/19/2013

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For The Record, Inc.

1 Implementation Plan predicting that Baltimore

2 would attain the ozone standard by June, Tad

3 Aburn said that the Baltimore region, which

4 was not declared as having clean data in

5 attaining the 1997 standard, will be

6 reclassified again, this time as severe.

7 Mr. Aburn's conclusion is also

8 buttressed by MDE's own website. On May 1, MDE

9 released a summary of its 2013 clean air report,

10 in which it states that Maryland did not attain

11 the ozone standard, and specifically cites the

12 Hartford monitor in the Baltimore area as having

13 significantly higher emissions levels than any

14 other monitor in the state.

15 When 2012 actual emissions are

16 reviewed, along with MDE's repeated emissions

17 that it is not attaining the ozone standard, the

18 Baltimore area will have to be bumped up from

19 serious to severe, which will impose additional

20 limits and controls on the area.

21 One additional way which we've already

22 discussed of reducing ozone is to lower the
34

Public Hearing

Maryland Department of the Environment 7/19/2013

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For The Record, Inc.

1 emission limit for nitrogen oxide, NOx, to a

2 level that would require new control

3 technologies for Maryland power plants, which

4 comprise 40 percent of the total NOx emissions

5 for Maryland.

6 One of these technologies, Selective

7 Catalytic Reduction, abbreviated as SCR, has

8 been endorsed by both EPA and Congress as being

9 cost effective and is very successful in

10 reducing NOx emissions.

11 For example, the Morgantown power plant

12 in Newburg, Maryland, is a coal plant that has

13 SCR installed, and its NOx emission rates is six

14 to eight times lower than that of other similar

15 plants without SCR. If MDE were to require SCR

16 in the Baltimore area, this would lead to 560

17 percent reduction of the total NOx emissions

18 from the coal plants in the area.

19 In closing, thank you for providing me

20 the opportunity to comment on this issue, and I

21 look forward to working with MDE in the future

22 to help attain this standard for the health of
35

Public Hearing

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For The Record, Inc.

1 Maryland citizens and its environment.

2 Thank you.

3 MS. RUTKOWSKI: Thank you, Mr. Goo.

4 I will now call on Kristine Petty? I'm

5 sorry, I'm reading a line ahead.

6 We will now call on Tom -- Tom, I

7 cannot read your last name.

8 MR. RICHARDS: Tom Richards.

9 MR. RUTKOWSKI: Richards, thank you.

10 MR. RICHARDS: R-I-C-H-A-R-D-S. Good

11 afternoon. My name is Tom Richards. I'm a law

12 student at American University and a legal

13 intern with the Sierra Club's Environmental Law

14 Program in Washington, D.C.

15 The relevant ozone National Ambient Air

16 Quality Standards was promulgated in 1997, 16

17 years ago. 16 years later and five years after

18 the promulgation of the 2008 ozone NAAQS,

19 Baltimore and Maryland have still failed to meet

20 the national standards.

21 As it stands, the Baltimore area will

22 be reclassified as a severe nonattainment area,
36

Public Hearing

Maryland Department of the Environment 7/19/2013

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For The Record, Inc.

1 despite the claim in the SIP that attainment

2 would be obtained by the attainment date of June

3 15, 2013.

4 I am troubled by the negative

5 connotation of having the Baltimore area

6 classified as a severe nonattainment area. The

7 continued failure to meet the 1997 standards is

8 first and foremost a disservice to the people of

9 Baltimore, to their health, to their comfort and

10 to the overall dignity of this proud city.

11 Baltimore being a port city is right on

12 the water. Ozone and related particles from

13 power plants and vehicles seep into water

14 sources and disrupt traditional aquatic life.

15 Possibly because of nitrogen oxide, the

16 Chesapeake Bay, the geographic heart of the

17 region, is contaminated with excess nitrogen and

18 chemical particles which promote the growth of

19 algae that blocks the sun and prevents the Bay

20 from maintaining a healthy layer of aquatic

21 vegetation.

22 This of course leads to a decline in
37

Public Hearing

Maryland Department of the Environment 7/19/2013

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For The Record, Inc.

1 fish stocks, which means less for Maryland's

2 sportsmen and less quality fish for consumers.

3 The associated effects on tourism to the

4 Chesapeake Bay must also be considered, as

5 travelers are less inclined to holiday in this

6 historic yet polluted region.

7 There are several coal plants in the

8 greater Baltimore area, all of which contribute

9 to the ongoing ozone pollution and the

10 associated effects on the environment and

11 health.

12 The Baltimore area has around 225,000

13 asthmatics whose asthma is only made worse by

14 continued ozone pollution. The Maryland

15 SIP must strictly address emissions from coal

16 power plants, with the health and comfort of

17 Maryland and Baltimore residents being of

18 primary concern.

19 16 years is too long. We need a

20 vigilant endeavor to attainment now.

21 Thank you.

22 MS. RUTKOWSKI: Thank you, Mr.
38

Public Hearing

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1 Richards.

2 All right. I'll next call on Stephanie

3 Grebas.

4 MS. GREBAS: Yes. I'm Stephanie

5 Grebas, and that's G-R-E-B-A-S, and I'm a legal

6 intern with the Sierra Club's Environmental Law

7 Program and a student at Boston University's

8 school of law.

9 Thank you for the opportunity to

10 comment on Maryland's plan to address ozone

11 pollution in the Baltimore area. I urge the MDE

12 to adopt stringent regulations in order to

13 protect the health of Maryland citizens as well

14 as their environment. MDE's proposed SIP is not

15 adequate to avoid harm to the public, and

16 additional limits and controls are necessary.

17 Ozone has major health impacts for

18 residents, both children and adults, in the

19 Baltimore area. Exposure to ozone can lead to

20 chronic adverse effects on lung development in

21 children from 10 to 18 years old. For adults,

22 ozone aggravates lung diseases and reduces long
39

Public Hearing

Maryland Department of the Environment 7/19/2013

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For The Record, Inc.

1 function, and reduced lung function is a strong

2 risk factor for complications and death during

3 adulthood.

4 The MDE needs to meet its obligation to

5 Maryland citizens to protect the public from

6 harmful air pollution and especially the

7 citizens in Baltimore's nonattainment area who

8 suffer from rates of asthma higher than the

9 national average.

10 In addition to the important

11 implication the proposed SIP has for the people

12 of Maryland, ozone pollution has devastating

13 impacts on Maryland's environment.

14 Approximately one third of the nitrogen that

15 reaches the Chesapeake Bay comes from

16 atmospheric deposition and 60 percent of that

17 nitrogen is attributable to nitrogen oxides, an

18 ozone precursor emitted by cars and coal plants.

19 This excess nitrogen causes

20 eutrophication and depletion of the oxygen in

21 the water and adversely impacts the health,

22 reproduction and survival of aquatic life.
40

Public Hearing

Maryland Department of the Environment 7/19/2013

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For The Record, Inc.

1 Maryland's proposed SIP is not

2 sufficient to meet the needs of a public or the

3 environment. The Baltimore nonattainment area

4 still lacks 21st century pollution control

5 technology for its coal burning power plants,

6 which are a major source of nitrogen oxides.

7 For the protection of the public and

8 environment, MDE has the authority to require

9 significant and needed reductions in nitrogen

10 oxides from these coal plants.

11 Maryland's Healthy Air Act was an

12 important step in the right direction, but it

13 does not go far enough in achieving safe ozone

14 levels.

15 The SIP contains no proposals for new

16 standards or regulations to address major

17 in-state sources of ozone precursors.

18 I urge Maryland to require limits for

19 coal plants based on what is achievable with

20 Selective Catalytic Reduction technology. There

21 are mechanisms available for MDE to ensure an

22 adequate reduction in ozone pollution to protect
41

Public Hearing

Maryland Department of the Environment 7/19/2013

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For The Record, Inc.

1 the public and the environment from harmful air

2 pollution, and the MDE should required these

3 limits in the final SIP.

4 Thank you.

5 MS. RUTKOWSKI: Thank you, Ms. Grebas.

6 Now, is there anybody who would like to

7 speak that did not indicate so on the sign-in

8 sheet?

9 MS. BROWN: I believe I was skipped.

10 MR. RUTKOWSKI: Oh, I'm sorry.

11 MS. BROWN: That's okay. I would like

12 to say something. My name is Diane Brown,

13 B-R-O-W-N, and I am an intern at the Maryland

14 chapter of the Sierra Club. I'm a second year

15 college student at the University of Vermont.

16 This interests me because this impacts my daily

17 life and as well as the life of my friends and

18 family.

19 Just this week, there have been a few

20 Code Orange days including today. People in

21 sensitive groups like myself are advised to stay

22 inside, but people still need to function. I
42

Public Hearing

Maryland Department of the Environment 7/19/2013

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For The Record, Inc.

1 still need to walk my dog, walk to my car to

2 drive to my internship, and other simply daily

3 activities that require me to go outside.

4 When people who are not part of that at

5 risk group go outside, they might complain about

6 how hot it is and say that it's humid, but as an

7 asthmatic, I have a little more to think about.

8 When I go outside, even to go out to the car,

9 there is this element of fear in my mind, fear

10 that each breath is getting shorter and shorter,

11 fear that I can suddenly go into an asthma

12 attack, fear that walking too fast or being

13 outside for just a minute too long will be my

14 ticket to the hospital.

15 According to the American Lung

16 Association, I am one of the 175,015 adult

17 asthmatics here in Baltimore that fear everyday

18 during the summer months.

19 This fear and this danger are only

20 there when the air quality is so poor like it

21 has been in the summers in Maryland lately, and

22 can only remain and increase unless we regulate
43

Public Hearing

Maryland Department of the Environment 7/19/2013

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For The Record, Inc.

1 all the sources polluting ozone.

2 I'm not okay with the fact that I can't

3 be part of the summer activities that make up my

4 summer. I can't go to the pool. I can't go to

5 the park. I can't go kayaking. I can't ride my

6 bike. I can't take a trip to the Baltimore

7 harbor. It's risky for me and for the young,

8 the elderly. It's not healthy for anyone

9 really.

10 Being an asthmatic and just a breathing

11 organism, I care about the air. The MDE should

12 be doing everything in their power to reduce

13 those dangerous days of Code Oranges and worse.

14 I urge you today to not just rehash the

15 existing regulations, which is continuing to

16 fail achievable safe ozone levels. Set new

17 standards to addressed the major in-state

18 sources of ozone forming pollutants.

19 Why is it that Baltimore area coal

20 plants are still lacking state of the art

21 controls for NOx? I urge the MDE to protect the

22 health of residents of the Baltimore area by
44

Public Hearing

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For The Record, Inc.

1 imposing health protective emission limits on

2 NOx from the Baltimore area coal plants.

3 MS. RUTKOWSKI: Thank you, Ms. Brown.

4 Now, who else have I missed? Sir?

5 MR. GORDON: I came in late. I'm Shan

6 Gordon. I'm a parent in Baltimore. I came here

7 from Oregon where the skies are considerably

8 cleaner. I was noticing that we're, Hey, cool

9 number nine in the ozone in the country.

10 I'm also a photographer, so when I came

11 here, I noticed that during the summer, there's

12 this orangey fog, which is really nice for

13 portraits but not for great for breathing, and

14 there's this kind of fog that kind of envelopes

15 the city. I actually have seen some improvement

16 since Brandon Shores actually upgraded its

17 facility, so it can be done. We can make this

18 air cleaner.

19 And I'm just wondering why we're

20 allowing the other bad dinosaur plants to

21 continue. If I take my car in to get registered

22 for the state, they don't care if I've got other
45

Public Hearing

Maryland Department of the Environment 7/19/2013

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1 clean cars. If my car doesn't pass, it doesn't

2 get to drive, and we should look at what these

3 other plants are doing in this very same way.

4 They are next to people that have to breathe,

5 and they are polluting our waters. They're

6 polluting our airs, and they aren't paying me

7 for it.

8 I don't get a check, and the longer we

9 allow these dinosaurs to breathe, the longer we

10 keep the newer, better forms of energy creation,

11 the renewable, the better more efficient Brandon

12 Shores type plants from coming up. We need to

13 leave them in this state pod of history.

14 So that's all I have. Thank you.

15 MS. RUTKOWSKI: Thank you. Sir?

16 MR. WHITEHOUSE: My name is Tim

17 Whitehouse. I'm the director of the Chesapeake

18 Bay chapter of the Physicians for Social

19 Responsibility.

20 As has been noted, ozone is a serious

21 health problem in the Baltimore area. Ground

22 level ozone contributes to asthma, emphysema,
46

Public Hearing

Maryland Department of the Environment 7/19/2013

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For The Record, Inc.

1 bronchitis and other diseases. Two of my three

2 children suffer from asthma. One has very

3 serious asthma that requires frequent

4 hospitalization.

5 The Crane and Wagner coal plants are a

6 major source of the ozone forming pollutant NOx

7 in the Baltimore area and is a serious cause of

8 respiratory problems in our population.

9 It is unacceptable that the Crane and

10 Wagner plants do not have state of the art

11 pollution controls that are common in other

12 plants around the country.

13 The PSR Chesapeake Chapter calls on the

14 MDE to protect the public's health by imposing

15 strict health protective emission limits of NOx

16 from these two coal power plants. We ask MDE to

17 directly address this issue in its

18 implementation of its SIP and in the permits for

19 these two plants.

20 Thank you for accepting these comments.

21 MS. RUTKOWSKI: Thank you. Is there

22 anybody else who has anything? Sir?
47

Public Hearing

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For The Record, Inc.

1 MR. DONNELLY: Russell Donnelly, one

2 point I forgot. Up to now we've had 14

3 monitoring stations in the state, and now I

4 believe there only 12. Two were shut down, one

5 at Francis Scott -- I mean, the John F. Kennedy

6 Memorial Toll Bridge and the other on the west

7 side of town.

8 We would like to see as part of this

9 IPEs and under this new upgrade for more air

10 control and better air quality, more full screen

11 tox air monitoring stations installed.

12 Where I live in Sparrows Point, the

13 nearest one to me is 14 miles away more or less,

14 and that's at Dorsey Avenue in Essex. That

15 monitors a seven mile radius region. That's the

16 only one we have down at that end.

17 So I think -- and formally we had

18 Bethlehem Steel or the steel mills and factories

19 in operation, there was nothing within seven

20 miles when we had it at Memorial Tunnel, away

21 from the source.

22 Now it's like 14 miles away from all
48

Public Hearing

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1 the indigenous operable sources in our area, and

2 plus not all of the monitors do full screening.

3 They only do for the six basic emissions -- I

4 mean, air quality standards.

5 So we need to see the more stringent

6 better quality test monitors expand our knowns,

7 if you will, in the regions, all around the

8 state, put it on the to do list.

9 I know it's expensive, and right now

10 with budget it's a little hard to come by, but

11 we think -- we know we have a full service air

12 monitoring mobile lab that's in mothballs and

13 has been since 1995, so we need something more

14 out there on the ground and in the area doing

15 the more stringent monitoring to get a better

16 picture on these air studies. It would help out

17 all the way around. Thank you.

18 MS. RUTKOWSKI: Thank you, Mr.

19 Donnelly.

20 MR. GARONZIK: My name is Joe

21 Garonzik, G-A-R-O-N-Z-I-K, and just a private

22 citizen. In listening to the testimony today, I
49

Public Hearing

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For The Record, Inc.

1 would just punctuate two points that have been

2 made.

3 One is that it would be my hope that

4 the Maryland Department of the Environment would

5 take a very hard look at the real costs of air

6 pollution in arriving at the best possible

7 solution they could come up with because clearly

8 health costs are a huge factor in all this, and

9 they have to be injected into any study of the

10 costs say to a company to improve its emission

11 practices.

12 The second thing is I was reminded of a

13 comment of Winston Churchill that he made about

14 Americans, which was essentially that Americans

15 always make the right decision, but they have to

16 try every conceivable other decision before they

17 can get to the right one, and it does seem

18 pretty clear to me that half measures won't work

19 anymore, and it's time to make the right

20 decision.

21 MS. RUTKOWSKI: Thank you.

22 MR. YODER: Can I get another bite at
50

Public Hearing

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1 the apple?

2 MS. RUTKOWSKI: I believe so.

3 MR. YODER: Again my name is Chris

4 Yoder. I'm chair of the Greater Baltimore Group

5 of the Sierra Club.

6 In my earlier statement I made passing

7 reference to the source of ozone pollution, and

8 that's motor vehicles, and I would like to

9 expand on that. Motor vehicle pollution of

10 course comes out of the tailpipe, and tailpipe

11 emissions are regulated, but there's another

12 variable, and that's vehicle miles traveled, VMT

13 for short.

14 And decisions that are made in our

15 transportation infrastructure have a huge amount

16 of inertia when a decision to build a road, add

17 another lane to a freeway is made. That

18 decision is literally set in concrete and

19 asphalt and will probably last centuries.

20 And in order to address pollution, MDE

21 is going to have to weigh in on those

22 transportation decisions, originating in local
51

Public Hearing

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1 jurisdictions. If it's federally funded, it

2 will originate -- the process will start with

3 the elected executives in the city and counties

4 in the Baltimore area, go through the BRTB,

5 which is the Baltimore Regional Transportation

6 Board, then to the state.

7 And MDE, if it's going to be effective

8 in ensuring that we have clean air to breathe,

9 is going to have to formulate regulations that

10 compel proponents of transportation decisions

11 that do not reduce VMT to incorporate the cost

12 of that air pollution.

13 MDE is going to have to be a vicious

14 pit bull in the internal decisions that are made

15 in Annapolis when the Department of

16 Transportation is approving transportation

17 funding, which projects get built, which do not.

18 MDE is going to have to be a vicious

19 pit bull advocating for projects that reduce

20 VMT, things like the Baltimore Red Line, and

21 other jurisdictions similar forms of

22 transportation because if we continue to
52

Public Hearing

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1 increase the number of miles we drive, it

2 doesn't matter how many miles per gallon we get,

3 how many -- how efficient or effective our

4 tailpipe emission controls are. If we continue

5 to increase the number of miles driven by our

6 population as a whole, vehicle based pollution

7 will continue to increase, and it will offset

8 what other steps you're taking.

9 So MDE regs are going to have to ensure

10 that decisions that do not reduce vehicle miles

11 traveled have a very high hurdle to pass.

12 Thank you.

13 MR. GOO: Can I make one other point

14 responding to your point?

15 MS. RUTKOWSKI: Mr. Goo, please

16 identify yourself again.

17 MR. GOO: Philip Goo, Sierra Club. To

18 your part about monitoring, the Clean Air Act

19 actually requires for serious nonattainment

20 areas to show what's called enhanced monitoring,

21 which means both quantitatively in terms of the

22 number of monitors, and qualitatively in terms
53

Public Hearing

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For The Record, Inc.

1 of the data that's received by those monitors,

2 and MDE's current proposed SIP contains no

3 proposed monitoring as it stands.

4 And EPA I assume will find that the

5 proposed SIP is incomplete due to the fact that

6 those provisions were not included in the

7 proposed SIP.

8 So I urge MDE to revise its SIP to

9 include those provisions, and we've made similar

10 comments in our written comments.

11 MS. RUTKOWSKI: Thank you, Mr. Goo.

12 I think we've heard from everyone who

13 had something to say. I know there are a few of

14 you who did not get a chance to sign in, so I

15 would ask you, please, before you leave the room

16 to sign in on this blue folder here.

17 And we'll get back to the formal part

18 here. Let the record reflect that a statement

19 has been taken from all who wished to make one.

20 This will conclude the public hearing.

21 Let the record reflect that this is now

22 2:58 o'clock, and this hearing on the State
54

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1 Implementation Plan stands closed at the end of

2 these proceedings, on July 19, 2013.

3 Also at five p.m. today, the official

4 comment period for the document of record will

5 completely close.

6 Thank you.

7 (Whereupon, at 2:58 p.m. the public

8 hearing was concluded.)

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22
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Public Hearing

Maryland Department of the Environment 7/19/2013

(301) 870-8025 - www.ftrinc.net - (800) 921-5555

For The Record, Inc.

1 CERTIFICATE OF REPORTER

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4 I, Debra L. Maheux, do hereby certify

5 that the foregoing proceedings were recorded by

6 me via stenotype and reduced to typewriting

7 under my supervision; that I am neither counsel

8 for, related to, nor employed by any of the

9 parties to the action in which these proceedings

10 were transcribed; and further, that I am not a

11 relative or employee of any attorney or counsel

12 employed by the parties hereto, nor financially

13 or otherwise interested in the outcome of the

14 action.

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20 _______________________________________

21 DEBRA L. MAHEUX

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