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From YouTube: Buncombe News Update - Ozone Kickoff 2014
Description
The Land of Sky Regional Council hosted the 2014 Ozone Season Kickoff Event and Press Conference on March 27, 2014. The event was sponsored by the Regional Clean Air Campaign, NC Division of Air Quality, WNC Regional Air Quality Agency and Land of Sky Clean Vehicles Coalition. Speakers include Sheila Holman, NC Division of Air Quality Director; Ashley Featherstone with WNC Regional Air Quality; Jason Walls, District Manager with Duke Engery and Bill Eaker, Clean Vehicles Coalition Coordinator. For the daily Ozone Forecast, visit ncair.org.
A
A
B
Is
a
pollutant,
that's
formed
in
the
atmosphere
when
nitrogen
oxides
react
with
volatile
organic
compounds
and
the
presence
of
heat
and
sunlight,
and
that's
really
why
it's
a
summertime
pollutant,
because
the
heat
of
the
summer
really
drives
that
chemical
reaction.
So
here
in
the
southeast,
we
really
focus
on
NOx
emissions
as
far
as
how
to
control
our
ozone
levels,
because
there's
a
lot
of
naturally
occurring
VOCs
that
are
emitted
from
trees
here
in
the
mountains
and
there's
nothing.
We
can
do
about
that.
B
C
2002,
the
actual
plant
is
managed
to
decrease
its
sulfur
dioxide
emissions
by
ninety
six
percent
and
it's
not
in
its
nitrogen
oxide
emissions
by
eighty-five
percent,
also
because
of
the
generation,
diversity
and
efficiency
and
demand
for
electricity.
The
Asheville
plant
has
seen
a
decrease
in
carbon
dioxide
emissions
of
approximately
forty
nine
percent
during
that
same
period
of
time.
Additionally,
the
company
had
a
goal
to
reduce
its
its
fleet
fuel
consumption
by
thirty
five
percent
by
2012,
and
we
achieved
a
forty-one
percent
reduction
and
fuel
consumption
in
our
fleet.
C
During
that
time,
Duke
Energy
is
generating
electricity
more
cleanly
and
delivering
it
to
customers
more
reliably
and
efficiently
than
ever
before,
and
our
rates
are
below
the
national
average.
Over
the
last
decade,
the
company
has
invested
more
than
300
million
dollars
in
environmental
upgrades
here
at
the
Asheville
plant,
and
it
was
the
first
in
North
Carolina
to
have
advanced.
I
love
this
flue
gas
desulfurization
aka
scrubber,
as
outlined
by
the
north
carolina
clean
smokestacks,
clean.
A
A
This
is
the
predict
projected
emissions
of
nitrogen
oxides
from
all
of
the
coal-fired
plants
in
North
Carolina
for
2014,
so
we
have
gone
from
two
hundred
and
forty
five
thousand
tons
of
NOx
nitrogen
oxides
down
to
twenty
8832
in
2014
and
taking
a
lot
of
nitrogen
oxide
emissions
out
of
the
air
means
improvements
in
Arizona
same
force,
our
sulfur
dioxide
story.
Again
back
in
1998,
the
combined
companies
were
emitting
about
four
hundred
eighty
nine
thousand
tons
of
sulfur
dioxide.
Each
year
there
were
two
caps
admission
caps,
one
for
2009
14
2013
established
in
the
legislation.
A
The
good
news
story
is
that
by
2010,
actually,
the
companies
were
already
below
the
2013
cap
for
sulfur
dioxide
and
their
projection
is
to
be
well
below
that
cap
in
2014
and
as
we
reduce
sulfur
dioxide,
we
reduce
fine
particles
and
we
also
eliminate
a
lot
of
the
regional
haze.
That's
of
concern,
especially
for
our
class
one
areas
in
the
state,
such
as
the
Great
Smoky,
Mountains,
National
Park.
A
This
slide
kind
of
shows
our
trend
of
ozone
every
time,
and
this
is
statewide
and
we're
going
to
go
all
the
way
back
to
nineteen
ninety-seven
about
the
time.
Bill
and
I
started
working
on
outreach
issues,
and
these
are
four
different
standards.
Every
time
we've
had
our
oldest
standard
is
the
one
our
standard.
A
Activities
like
clean
smokestacks
act
activities
like
cleaner
engine
and
fuel
standards
set
by
the
Environmental,
Protection
Agency's
or
agency
activities
like
our
vehicle
inspection
and
maintenance
program,
or
our
open
burning
programs
that
are
run
by
the
state
and
our
local
air
programs
and
as
well
as
those
local
community
initiatives,
whether
it's
improving
the
fleet's
and
getting
lower
emitting
vehicles
into
the
fleet
or
educating
the
public
so
that
they
make
different
choices
and
emit
less
as
they
go
about
their
daily
activities.
All
of
that
has
contributed
over
time.
A
I
want
to
focus
a
little
bit
of
on
2013,
because
well
I'd
like
to
claim
that
all
of
that
came
from
all
of
those
emission
reductions.
I
think
we
need
to
be
aware
that
the
weather
also
plays
a
fairly
significant
role
in
ozone
formation.
So
the
next
slide
we'll
talk
about
the
summer
of
2013
and
it
was
wetter
than
normal
and
cooler
than
normal,
and
if
we
have
wet
cool
weather,
that
means
we
just
have
fewer
ozone
days.
A
What
I
will
say,
though,
is
that
the
emissions
do
matter
and
obviously
the
the
lower
emissions
helped
us
to
be
able
to
say
that
2013
was
the
best
ozone
season
on
record.
2013
was
actually
the
third
wettest
summer
across
June,
July
and
August,
which
is
the
key
part
of
our
ozone
season
in
the
last
119.
A
We,
so
obviously
we
don't
get
that
wet
a
summer
coming
alone
all
the
time.
The
other
thing
to
mention
is
that,
in
terms
of
temperature,
it
2013
ranked
is
the
39th
coolest
June
through
August
timeframe
in
the
last
119
years.
So
if
we
get
back
to
more
typical
at
a
more
typical
summer
this
year
in
2014,
we
will
likely
see
the
number
of
exceedances
go
up.
A
But
again,
every
time
we've
seen
that
that
nice
downward
trend
due
to
the
emission
reductions,
many
of
our
industrial
sources,
all
of
our
coal-fired
power
plants,
obviously
have
put
on
state-of-the-art
controls.
The
question
becomes:
where
do
we
go
for
additional
reductions
of
nitrogen
oxides
and
I?
Think
that's
where
I
want
to
underscore
the
continued
importance
of
the
voluntary
programs,
the
the
outreach
programs
that
our
partners,
like
the
clean
air
campaign,
have
been
working
on
for
years.
That's
going
to
be
I
think
the
key
to
our
success.
Is
we
get
forward
alanda.
D
Sky
Regional
Council
started
getting
involved
in
air
quality
issues
in
the
mid
90s
when
we
heard
that
there
were
issues,
and
so
we
responded
to
the
need
for
a
public
education
program
so
weekly.
It
created
the
clean
air
campaign
in
1998,
and
we
partner
with
the
local
and
state
and
federal
air
quality
agencies
and
other
groups
to
basically
get
out
a
simple
message
to
the
public
on
what
they
can
do
about
air
quality
and
that's
basically
to
conserve
energy
at
home
school
work.
D
You
know
in
your
vehicle
just
be
more
energy
efficient
and
that
will
reduce
the
emissions
from
our
power
plants
from
our
industries
and
from
our
vehicles.
In
addition,
in
2004
we
started
an
effort
to
get
our
region
designated
by
the
department
of
energy
as
a
Clean
Cities
coalition.
We
achieved
that
in
2012,
so
the
land
of
sky,
clean
vehicles
coalition
was
designated
so
work
with
the
Department
of
Energy
and
lots
of
other
partners
to
promote
the
use
of
alternative
fuels
like
biodiesel
and
propane
natural
gas,
electric
cars,
hybrids,
etc.
D
A
Of
our
main
components
of
our
outreach
program
is
to
focus
on
educating
children,
and
so
one
of
our
most
recent
initiatives
is
to
develop
a
program
called
it's
our
air,
it's
targeted
for
high
school
level,
children
and
to
provide
tools
to
the
teachers
that
they
can
use
to
educate
the
kids
about
air
quality
pollution.
What
are
the
causes?
How
do
we
solve
their
quality
problems
in
North
Carolina
and
those
modules
are
going
to
be
available
in
June
and
they're,
going
to
be
available
on
a
website
free
to
download
here.
B
In
Western
North
Carolina,
our
problems
are
pretty
much
the
same
throughout
as
throughout
the
southeast
ozone
and
fine
particles
or
the
main
pollutants
that
we
are
concerned.
With.
With
regards
to
ozone,
as
Sheila
said,
we
made
me
look
at
Knox
reductions
for
ozone
reductions
and
when
I
first
started
working
here
years
ago,
I
think
it
was
safe
to
say
that
roughly
half
the
NOx
emissions
in
the
county
work
from
cars
and
trucks
and
close
to
half
were
from
our
local
power
plant.
Now
with
a
local
power
plant,
installing
controls
it's
well
over.
B
Seventy
percent
I
believe
from
cars
and
trucks.
So
as
the
power
plants
continue
to
put
on
more
and
more
controls,
we
are
seeing
the
cars
and
trucks
as
being
our
greatest
source
of
pollution,
but
there's
good
news
on
that
front,
with
new
emission
standards
that
have
gone
into
effect
and
are
coming
into
effect
that
are
even
more
stringent.
So
we
are
seeing
a
lot
of
improvement
and
the
fun
particles
also
are
linked
to
combustion
and
other
pollutants,
and
those
do
greatly
impact
our
regional
haze
issues.
B
They
obscure
our
mountain
views
in
the
summertime
and
so
and
we're
very
focused
on
these
as
well.
So
here's
our
data,
it
looks
very
similar
to
the
statewide
data
that
you've
seen
already
we've
seen
a
lot
of
improvements.
This
was
the
older
standard
of
84
parts
per
billion,
and
this
is
our
current
standard
of
75.
So
you
can
see
we
were
up
over
the
standard
and
close
to
being
designated
non-attainment
that
we
were
not
designated
non-attainment
because
of
the
years
that
were
used
here.
B
We've
continued
to
be
entertainment,
but,
as
she'll
pointed
out
with
the
EPA
updating
the
standards,
we're
not
quite
sure
where
we
will
be
with
that
same
thing
for
the
fun
particle
data,
you
can
see
great
reductions
in
those
levels.
Just
like
you
saw
statewide.
I
think
it
was
2007
was
our
first
year
here,
where
progress
energy
had
the
controls
on
their
plant
that
reduced
the
so2
emissions
by
roughly
ninety
percent
or
greater,
and
around
that
same
time
we
were
getting
cleaner.
Gasoline,
cleaner
diesel
fuel.
B
There
were
new
emissions
standards,
federal
federally
required
going
into
place,
and
this
is
just
our
air
quality
index
data.
It's
a
little
bit
confusing.
Sometimes
we
get
questions.
There's
the
air
quality
index
forecast
that
comes
out
for
the
following
day
and
then
there's
what
we
actually
see
it
our
monitors.
So
this
is
our
actual
monitored
data,
so
you
can
see
for
the
for
the
years
here.
B
The
majority
of
our
days
are
in
the
good
category.
We
have
moderate
days
as
far
as
unhealthy
for
sensitive
groups.
We
have
you
know
two
days
in
2012
no
days
last
year.
So
again
the
main
message
is
most
of
the
time.
Our
air
quality
is
good,
but
we
do
have
some
moderate
days
and
some
days
that
are
unhealthy
for
sensitive
groups,
and
you
might
remember
a
lot
of
times.
We
get
questions.
People
will
say
well
gee.
B
D
D
Instead
of
going
out,
you
can
carpool,
you
could
work
at
home.
You
can
personally
take
action
to
reduce
emissions
on
that
next
day.
If
it
looks
like
it
might
be
a
day
that
that
could
be
bad
due
to
all
the
work.
That's
been
done
at
the
local
state
and
federal
government
levels
and
by
the
private
sector,
including
our
utilities,
to
reduce
emissions
that
we
are
seeing
significant
improvement
in
air
quality.
Over
the
last
couple
of
years,
the
trend
has
been
lower:
lower
pollution
levels
of
various
types
of
pollution.