 So welcome. Thank you all for coming. I'm so glad to see you. My name is Luanne Burton I am on the board of the League of Women Voters, Sheboygan County, and I am the chair of the Environment Committee I'll be your host for this evening I'd like to thank Meade Public Library for being a venue for many important public events such as this Before we begin, I'd like to introduce our distinguished guests. Please stand or wave when I call your name From Senator Ron Johnson's office. We have a staffer, Camille Solberg We have candidate Kyle Welton running for State Senate in District 9 And we have candidate Rebecca Clark running in the 26th assembly district Ryan, if you don't mind while you're sneaking in Ryan Sorensen is an older person in District 8 and Sheboygan Common Council Can everybody hear me okay because I can't turn it up We're good. Okay. This event is being broadcast live on WSCS Links to the video and slides will be available at WSCSSheboygan.com and at our League of Website and Facebook page The League of Women Voters Sheboygan County formed in the spring of last year Our new 100-member League is part of a century old nonpartisan organization that is encouraged and formed in active civic participation in government since before women earned the right to vote. The League's women and men work to increase understanding of major issues and to influence public policy through advocacy League membership is open to anyone 16 and up Nationally the League has long led efforts to protect air land and water resources Accordingly it has been an active supporter of science-based environmental legislation backed by enforcement The League worked to help pass the Clean Air Act in the 1970s Protected in the 1980s and strengthen it in the 1990s. This work continues today Here in Sheboygan County. This is the Environment Committee's third free public event The first was about issues affecting the Lake Michigan watershed and the second was about climate change Other events the Sheboygan County League has sponsored include forums on fair voting maps and the Affordable Care Act voter registration events and candidate forums Tonight we're bringing you a complex topic of concern to all stakeholders in Sheboygan County and we've brought in leading experts We have a lot of ground to cover so for the Q&A following the panel the moderator will read questions From the League of Women Voters Sheboygan County and the audience have all the audience questions been turned in Have you had an opportunity? You can raise your hand if Yeah Okay, you can still do it. It's just now is the time. That's all. Yeah. Yeah, all right. Okay Oops going. No, this is right. Okay a few reminders. Please silence your cell phones And if you need to use the restroom, they are located in the vestibule And now I'd like to introduce our moderator for this evening Deb Sable Williams. She will also facilitate the Q&A Dr. Donna Kensky Dr. Donna Kensky is a data scientist at the Lake Michigan Air Directors Consortium or LADCO a non-profit funded by the US EPA and the states of Wisconsin, Minnesota Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio LADCO works with those states to develop their implementation plans with the use of special purpose monitoring studies and Statistical models to correlate air quality with meteorologic patterns and emissions Her specialized areas of expertise include advanced monitoring Technologies and observation based models for source attribution of fine particulate matter and haze She earned her MS in public health and her doctorate in environmental and occupational health Scientists sciences from the University of Illinois at Chicago where she is now an adjunct associate professor She served for five years on the EPA's clean air Science Advisory Committee and now chairs a Midwestern state data analysis work group She also reviews articles for four leading journals in her field. Please welcome. Dr. Donna Kensky Thank you so much Thank you Lou Ann and Kristen for inviting me to be here. I'm very Very happy to be here now. I just need to Okay Okay, so I'm going to give you the quick and dirty version of ozone chemistry and physics in the atmosphere and talk about a special study we did that's that included a lot of monitoring here in Sheboygan and We'll start with We'll start with Ladco My bio Gave you a little bit of a clue, but we are we are the Midwestern Mjo, which is a multi jurisdictional organization and I'm going to apologize right now for all the acronyms and abbreviations That's that's the way we speak and I will try my best to you know minimize that But we work with the six states the six Great Lakes states To help them we're a technical organization. We do we do air pollution modeling. We do statistics. We do Anything we can to help the states achieve the national ambient air quality standards for ozone 4 p.m 2.5 as well as other any other pollutants of interest so we We being Ladco, we were formed back in 1989. So we're almost 30 years old and Ozone was our reason for being back in the beginning. We sort of expanded our our purview Over over the years, but as I said air pollution science is our is our business another important function of Ladco is to bring our states to the table to talk together about their air pollution problems Back in the in the early 90s or late 80s when we were formed the states in trying to meet that the ozone standard then it was a very contentious process and states turned to lawsuits to solve their air pollution issues and that's not a That's not a very Functional way to achieve air air pollution goals when we know that the air doesn't respect state boundaries so By providing a table and a place for the states to come together to share their data to share their information to work out reasonable attainment plans together we feel like we're Justifying our existence and helping to promote clean air in a more You know for the for the region as a whole and remove some of the the bad feelings among among states Okay, so we're we're technical people we do modeling we do data analysis. Oh I was going to ask you a question before I got got to this slide Because I'm an academic and I I thought I'd make everybody really comfortable by by giving you a pop quiz And and asking you if you thought the air was getting better or getting worse And and here's our here's our last Almost two decades of ozone trends and as you can see The air is getting cleaner. We've we've made huge progress and this is a message that doesn't always get out to the to the public I think in a In an easy to understand way So what you're looking at here are each of the little boxes is Reflects all the data from multiple monitors across Across our our six state region. So this is not just Wisconsin. Although we'll see some some Wisconsin data shortly So the middle of each box that each box contains the middle 50% of the measurements and then the upper 25% and lower 25% are below our above and below and The line runs through the middle now. It's it's a little hard to see And maybe especially for you in the back. There are three red lines on that plot We've had three ozone standards in the in the last I don't know 20 years a little more than 20 years So so that top line is the 1997 air quality standard of 80 essentially 85 parts per billion the next line down is the 2008 standard, which was At at 75 parts per billion and then that that bottom red line is is at 70 parts per billion and that's the current standard from 2015 so So what I want to point out is is that maybe this does that does that work? Oh, it does great Okay, so so look at these these last this is through 2017 these last three years the vast majority of our Measurements are below the standard Compared to compared to you know the beginning of the 2000s Almost all of the data was above our current standard We had you know, we weren't We weren't exceeding the the standard back then But the the efforts to to make Oops, I didn't mean to do that. Okay. There we go Our our efforts to control these these you know these observations these high ozone concentrations have led to Most of our most of our Geographic area being in attainment and so let's take a little a little closer look at the the geography of ozone you can see some Some red and dark purple spots on this map and they're clustered around Lake Michigan That's probably not a surprise If you've thought or read about ozone Our other issues with no ozone on attainment in the in the region are in urban areas you can see st. Louis and Louisville and Cincinnati and Cleveland a little bit in Detroit But but this is this is the area we're going to talk most about tonight But by and large you do not we don't have we don't have any ozone on attainment outside of urban areas Except for the lake shore so it's we have a somewhat We have an interesting situation Which I'm going to talk a little more about So just to have a little local flavor here. These are our trends at two of those two of those Important monitors Chihuahua prairie is down in Racine or Kenosha Kenosha County, I knew I can never keep them straight. So it's right on the right on the Illinois border and Sheboygan of course here. There's a monitor at Kolar Andre State Park and both Chihuahua and Sheboygan are consistently the highest monet highest reading monitors in Wisconsin and and they are currently in non attainment They've been in non attainment for ages and ages and we can So so this this plot shows actual measurements for For the none at these these box plots represent Measurements in the in the whole non attainment area around around the lake Well, it's just the eat the western half of the lake. So the Chicago Chicago Milwaukee Sheboygan Non attainment non non attainment areas And the little the red dots and purple dot at the top of each of those boxes are the Chihuahua and Sheboygan Values these are the fourth high fourth high values for each year. That's the ozone Comparing ozone to to the non attain to the attainment ambient to air quality standard We come up with this seemingly convoluted Manipulation of the data we count the fourth high value over a year of monitoring the fourth high eight hour average We and so and then we average that value for three consecutive years and compare that value with the ambient air quality standard to determine whether Areas in or out of attainment So that that's why I'm I will talk some of these plots show design values in some show fourth high but the the important thing is the trend and And again, so so here's Chihuahua and here's Sheboygan, of course Okay, so some things we know about ozone And some things we don't We know NOx Plus VOCs plus sunlight gives us ozone So what's NOx and what's VOCs those are NOx and VOCs are products of Combustion so when you burn and when you burn any fuel with carbon in it you you get some amount of VOCs and you get You get some some NOx NOx is more of a high temperature specific. So so NOx comes out of cars any combustion engines and power plants Maybe not so much from your backyard barbecue But well, but but backyard barbecues can contribute other other pollutants. So Okay, so those are precursors. We don't nothing emits ozone. We don't worry about industry emitting ozone it's only these these two classes of compounds that React together when it's hot and when there's sunlight to form ozone Okay, but we don't know the ratio of NOx to VOCs Across our region and we really need to understand that in order to be able to make policies and Control measures that that will you know attack the right things and I should also add this is not a linear process So if you cut NOx by 50% you think well, that's going to remove 50% of the ozone and it doesn't it doesn't work that way at all It's it's completely Non-intuitive sometimes you can reduce NOx and increase ozone sometimes you increase VOCs reduce ozone It just depends much of it depends on that NOx to VOC ratio. So that's That's really key and that's a you know about big a big source of uncertainty for us We know that ozone precursors this NOx and VOC. We know that those chemicals from Illinois and Indiana and Michigan and Wisconsin Flow out over the lake we often have westerly winds that carry Those pollutants out over Lake Michigan and they cook out there they cook to you know when it's hot and sunny Just forming ozone to beat the band It's a very It's an ideal process for making ozone out over the lake but but we don't Have a good grasp on how much that ozone on on any given day How much we can attribute to Illinois or Indiana or Wisconsin Because conditions changed over time and With with meteorology. So this is a that's another uncertainty that we we need more information About we know Ozone values at our monitors all those little dots on the map We know that we know what ozone is at those little dots, but there's a lot of space between those dots And there's no dots out over the lake We we you know although we know that ozone is high because occasionally we make measurements out there We don't have any routine way to see what that ozone out over the lake is doing Before the wind changes and brings it back on shore to us Okay, and we know we have models we have fancy sophisticated atmospheric models that that Tell us about the lake breeze that there's this Typical pattern where where the pollutants get wafted out over the lake They cook on us on a on a sunny afternoon and and then the the lake breeze brings it back in on shore and and then and then we see high ozone and then you have a beautiful Mostly rural place like Sheboygan that has high ozone and is in non-attainment for Without without benefit of their own VOC is in Knox so But our models are not perfect and and we'll see we'll see a little bit about that also There it's a very it's I'm saying a lot that it's it's complicated that the models are our our best our best tool, but they Do in part to these shortcomings we we Realized that we needed better information and it had been a long time since we went out in the field and Did a field study to collect? information about about ozone that would be useful for for helping our Helping our models so so lead co along with a number of other academic partners and federal and and state partners launched a plan for a field study in 2016 and For the study to take place in 2017 so so this is just a a Couple of pictures of our of our trailers at Zion and our our aircraft a Field study is is a complicated expensive undertaking. So it was a it was Kind of a leap of faith to to get out there and get all these organizations together, but our so our our objectives were to Make measurements of ozone relevant relevant compounds. So So NOx VOC is not just all total VOCs, but individual VOCs. It's a whole class of compounds That there are hundreds of things to measure we wanted to be able to quantify this relative contribution of states and particular emission sources to To ozone production along the lake We want to Evaluate our our models. We want to look at this lake breeze Is that red card for me? Oh? Okay, I'll I'll wrap it up So So mostly we're collecting a lot of data to fix our models We had we had NASA aircraft out over Lake Michigan. We had a NOAA ship making measurements out of over the lake We had mobile monitoring vans Driving up and down the lake shore and away from the lake shore We had stationery super sites that were you know had one of one of which was here in Sheboygan at the spaceport And one was in Zion We had forecasters Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna skip over here and Just show you this is an example of some of our measurements. We were fortunate we captured Two significant ozone episodes which gave our researchers a lot of data a lot of data To play with this is just a a great image of that lake breeze Where where the westerly winds get stopped by the by the easterly winds coming over the lake and and that That's a very difficult Phenomenon to get your model to reproduce correctly We had the airplane taking measurements of NOAA X So so that it's a little fuzzy there on the on the left But but this this NASA aircraft is incredible has an incredible instrument that can scan beneath it Over over a swath of land and come up with this two-dimensional image of emissions Which really helps us narrow down Where where things are? Okay, all right, we've got a report coming out Our synthesis report will be out in a month or two We've we've we're working on the photochemistry and the modeling best practices this was this was a fantastic opportunity to To nail down answers about the lake breeze Effect on Sheboygan and to be able to quantify that ozone Contribution that everybody really wants to know so thank you for your attention Donna Weninsky is director of public policy for the American Lung Association in Wisconsin She's been with the Lung Association for 24 years and oversees all of the organization's environmental air quality programs She's been involved in efforts to strengthen federal air quality standards and to enforce the Clean Air Act a graduate of Lawrence University in Appleton Ms. Wodinski has a master's degree in mass communications from UW Milwaukee She grew up in Sheboygan where she still has friends and family and visits often Please welcome Donna Wodinski Thank you. Yes. I actually got here at about one o'clock this afternoon My sister still owns our family home over on Fifth Street across from Grant School And so I was able to kill two birds with one stone by having a couple of new light fixtures installed in the house Take a shower and then come here I will move along quickly I'm with the American Lung Association We are the oldest voluntary health agency in Wisconsin 110 plus years old We also are a science-based Organization, so I was very pleased to hear that from the League of Women Voters all of our policies are based on science peer-reviewed science and And I guess that's a good place for the end of that sentence Okay, so why do we worry about ozone ozone? It doesn't smell bad. You don't see it So what's the big deal about ozone? Well, just about everybody in this room if you thought about it Has someone in their family or neighbor a friend a co-worker who is that who faces a higher risk from ozone pollution? Children for one thing the lungs are the last The law the last organ in the body to fully develop. They don't completely develop until about early adolescence They play outside a great deal of time They run around and so they're taking in more oxygen by per volume compared to their weight and They just face higher risks as a result of their growing lungs and those conditions being outdoors Older adults also are a higher risk because the lungs naturally decline with age So those of us who are middle aged and beyond our lungs are Not quite as resilient as they were when we were in our 30s or 20s and Our immune systems start to decline a little bit. So even healthy adults can be potentially at risk Of course anybody with a chronic lung disease and or cardiovascular disease has a higher risk So if you have asthma if you have COPD if you have a family member with one of those conditions Heart disease heart risk disease all of those are impacted by the quality of air that you breathe on a daily basis People with lower income also are higher risk and that's simply because of their geography for the most part poor people Live closer to sources of pollution for example In Milwaukee where I live if you if you happen to live in one of the areas that is close to the freeway You're going to be exposed to greater air pollution than if you live out in the suburbs or or in a more northern community so People who live closer to power plants in in industrial areas all of those Sources of the NOx and the VOC's that the doctor was talking about previously the closer you live to those The greater your health risk could be a lot of people work outdoors. They're up Early they're out working on the roads. They're working on construction sites Even healthy adults who just like to go for a run They are at greater risk on high ozone days again for the same reason as kids. They're out there They're more exposed to the pollution and they are taking it taking in greater volumes of that polluted air Then those of us who work in a nice air conditioned office or are in our homes So what are the health effects? We've already talked about who the most are at risk, but the health effects are ozone can be Respiratory harm again going back to those people who have a pre-existing respiratory condition potential or potential heart disease or smoke heart disease or stroke a likely cause of premature death Damage to central nervous system increased risk of low birth weight I Think just to put it very simply what ozone is is when those ingredients as the doctor described combine and cook the way she said They form a chemical reaction and when you breathe that in it can cause your lungs to get very Inflamed and cause coughing and wheezing and I don't know how many of you were told put your sunscreen on when you're a kid Because all you need is one or two bad sunburns to increase your risk of skin cancer Well, it's the same with ozone if you can have only a very minimal amount of Bad exposure to ozone and it can change the tissue the lung tissue all the way down to the molecular level and increase your risk of Lung diseases and potentially cardiovascular disease as well So again coughing wheezing decreased lung function You might find on a high ozone day that you can't walk as quickly outside You can't get up those steps as quickly again if you're a runner an outdoor Exerciser you find yourself running out of breath gasping coughing Earlier than on a nice crisp fall or spring day Asthma attacks it could potentially lead to the onset of asthma for somebody with precondition toward asthma hospital admissions emergency admissions we have Data from some of the hospitals in Milwaukee that show on high ozone days There are greater numbers of respiratory admissions to the hospital greater numbers of respiratory Visits to the emergency department on those high ozone days And as I said also possibly new onset of asthma for some people Research also shows increased heart rate that can lead to cardiovascular disease stroke Biomarkers of inflammation. That's the inflammation that I was talking about within the lungs the inside of your lungs get Sunburned like your skin does when you're out in the out in the sunlight and systemic stress. These are all the results of exposure to ozone Mention both of these exposure can can harm elderly can harm newborns as well in a variety of functions premature cause of death But all of the progress that the previous speaker mentioned all of the cleanup that has occurred has had benefits It's had financial benefits. It's had health benefits You can see that there have been numerous and these are Wisconsin stats. No, I'm sorry. These are national stats They've avoided anywhere up to 660 premature deaths Prevented asthma attacks and school children Prevented days that kids would otherwise have not been in school Missed work days Emergency department visits cases of acute bronchitis. We can all Attribute that based on the scientific studies and the models to the progress That's already been made by the Clean Air Act and the cleanup of ozone throughout the past couple of decades And I just wanted to close with with one particular stat That kind of goes along that you can't talk about health effects without talking about health care costs because they're directly correlated estimates when in 2015 when the latest ozone standard was Put out by the EPA The EPA did a health risk and exposure assessment It used peer review modeled models and access to cost benefit analysis and came up with a savings of Just since since the beginning of the Clean Air Act That the country saw a cost a health care savings of a minimum of 2.6 billion dollars Just due to the progress that's been made in reducing ozone and that's pretty much what I am Thank you very much for your time Dane Cekolinsky Dane Cekolinsky is director of the Sheboygan County Economic Development Corporation a Non-profit private public partnership that spearheads efforts to improve the long-term prosperity of the businesses residents and communities of Sheboygan County through collaborative retention expansion and attraction of businesses and workers a Certified economic development finance professional mr. Cekolinsky earned a master of public administration degree from Northern Illinois University after receiving his bachelor's degree from UW Whitewater where he earned his way through college by serving in the US Army Reserves He served in Afghanistan and the Army Corps of Engineers where he rose to the rank of sergeant While constructing airport tarmacs warehousing facilities generator shelters and maintenance garages a native of Neosha, Wisconsin He lives in Sheboygan with his wife and children and an Australian cattle dog He enjoys fishing and camping and prefers places where there's no cell phone reception. Please welcome Please welcome Dane Cekolinsky Thank you. I'm wondering I know but I just don't want to be tied down Is that can I already hear me? Hello? I guess we'll just Hello, oh perfect Perfect. Well, thank you for that introduction and certainly thank you for your time and thank you for having me Again, my name is Dane Cekolinsky. I'm the director of the Sheboygan County Economic Development Corporation We are a nonprofit devoted to the sole purpose of trying to grow our local economy and Ultimately we do that by focusing on business services one-on-one things as such as business plans helping firms find sites workforce development and This issue of non-attainment is something we've been very keen to although I have to give a special shout out to the Sheboygan County Chamber of Commerce Jane Bril is in the audience They have done the bulk of the heavy lifting for the business community on this issue and and really this issue Boils down to it to a couple things in terms of economic development The first thing is is that we all want cleaner air. There is no doubt there the question becomes is what's fair what's reasonable and how do we make that happen and One of the things consistently cited in the DNR reports is that they feel that 87% of The air pollution or air quality that is measured at Andre Kohler is from out of state It's not from Sheboygan County. So this is what's happening and it's very very simple is that essentially the the EPA DNR have cited air quality monitors across the state roughly one in every county The one in Sheboygan County was placed at Andre Kohler for the Pacific purpose of measuring Pollution over Lake Michigan. It was not cited there to measure what is coming out of Sheboygan County And as a result of that decision is that these standards that our companies and residents are held to is Based on the standards measured at a monitor that the EPA itself Says that it does not accurately reflect what's coming out of here reflects what's happening over the lake and so what does that mean now what that boils down to is that The EPA has essentially They won't come right out and say it but they admit it they've alluded to the fact that Sheboygan County could shut down All of us can move out of our homes move to another part of the state move to another part of the country or the world We could shut down every factory. No one would ever cut it long again No would ever get a car again that interstate could never be driven again, and we would still be non-attainment There is nothing locally we can do short of federal legislation change to accurately reflect That we be held accountable to our own air pollutants that we are dumping it that we are we are contributing to locally So if the intent is to reduce emissions and if the intent is to reduce ozone over Lake Michigan and Why does it make sense to hold companies in one geographical area to a higher standard? Then the known pollutant sources further to our self It makes no sense if your goal is to reduce emissions The goal should be to reduce emissions where those emissions are happening And so that's really that they kind of the catch 22 that we find ourselves in as residents and businesses of Sheboygan County, so what does that mean? There's a couple impacts economically To individuals as well as businesses first the individuals the first thing that many of you may realize that we are the last Pretty much the last county in the state of Wisconsin that has to do vehicle emissions testing, right? So that's a cost each one of you bear. Yes, it's 15 quick minutes You jump into any quick change little oil, you know, and they and they check it and Short of your car has a major issue a sensor issue or a check engine light You're fine now The challenge with this is that even though Sheboygan County it has the lowest poverty level in the United States But of course poverty level is one measure The other one is if anyone served the Alice report but put out by the United Way Basically what that report says is they believe somewhere around 45 46% of the population is Essentially at extreme risk of living paycheck to paycheck So having a remission says if you have a check engine light I know who owns the older cars the wealthy or the not so wealthy now Who's like they have check engine light who's likely to have less time and less resources to fix their cars So in essence, it's a little bit regressive in that standpoint now if we go to this higher ozone standard But the way it's done is there's a tier system and the longer you main and not attainment the higher in that tier system You go it essentially it becomes more and more restrictive and what an area can do We are at risk of entering the next tier in the next year now if that happens now we go to reformulated gasoline essentially gasoline that burns cleaner I Would argue that's probably not the worst thing but again Shmoygan County would be the only county in the state pretty much required one of the few counties in the state pretty much Recorded to do that what that means is another 15 cents at the gas pump for every person in the area and mounts to the average gas Consumption of a fan of a vehicle is probably about a hundred dollars worth every year again to most of us a hundred extra hundred dollars a Year is a small price to pay but again remember that's regressive. It's gonna hit certain people more than others On the business side the impacts are much more significant than the individual And a couple different ways first one is is access to talent We have had stories of people looking at moving to Shmoygan County. Those of you know, no We have 3,000 open jobs. This area has done very well for itself our our medium wage Our number of workforce growth has basically outpaced Madison in the last year I mean, you're probably sitting at ground zero the fastest growing community in the state of Wisconsin right now But the problem is we still need more people to move into the area to fill our roles and those areas are becoming much more technical We have had instances of people looking to move here Checking the air quality standards as part of their due diligence finding out we're rated an F and Basically have decided not to move as a result So in terms of the quality of life factors again, why do we do economic development? It's so that we can all live a better quality of life because as long as we're making income. There's opportunity That's how we fund basically the world around us the the more significant impacts are really in money and time and Probably from a couple different standpoints. So for example We live in a highly manufacturing community We're in sit-in by some measures the fourth or third heaviest concentration of manufacturing in the nation both durable and non-durable goods Manufacturing in today's world runs on a just-in-time system Everything is made to order and things need to be done quickly If a company is quoting on significant new businesses, they're quoting with companies around the country Some have to abide by air quality standards and some don't Some in other countries don't have to Where this kicks in is what happens when a significant change in a plant needs to occur And so when a company goes and makes an order the customer will say alright in six months We want those first units delivered or in a year Now some companies if they had to abide by these standards cannot make that deadline So for example, some companies have shared with us that the time period it takes to get an air quality permit here is Roughly three months versus essentially a week or two at and if they work for basically an identical company outside And non-attainment so already when companies here are bidding on on contracts and time frames. They're already three months behind schedule Which means that puts their ability to compete for work at an extreme disadvantage The next thing is money one of the companies have been very very open about this and that's Plymouth Fulman Plymouth They estimate that they spend $300,000 a year in compliance and paperwork Just to run their operations put that in perspective of a company that's basically right across line in Fond du Lac that basically doesn't have to do any of it and Even though they're doing almost the exact same work the exact same thing one company is $300,000 in the hole in three months behind schedule every time they want to increase their customer base It's essentially what's happening The last thing is that we've also heard a situation now this might be an outlier But but still true nonetheless is that from the regulatory side The EPA went to a local company and told them they had basically a chemical-style company I won't share who they are but told them they had to reformulate the way they make their product and That would cost them another 20 30% in final costs The company took the EPA to federal court and won and the EPA was quite frankly Overstepping its bounds and trying to scare a company into doing something different That has happened where there are some tools and mechanisms that that could be Exploited again, I believe it's an outlier in this situation, but nonetheless it if you're a company facing Basically an EPA coming at you telling you to stop or change your operations and put use your price point 20% above your On top of your competition that company is not going to be along for very very long and so kind of the biggest thing is is you know, I've heard it called no growth zones and I can tell you that in our personal experience is if a company is looking at citing of a factory or facility here we're usually involved and One of the first questions if I know it's a larger site Almost one of my first questions I'll ask is doesn't matter if we are a non-attainment zone and I would say 90% of the time they say yes You guys are and they look puzzled. I say yes. We're not attainment. We're not interested then. Thank you And so I can tell you that this has had a direct impact in our ability to compete For additional companies, but I think more significantly than that our existing companies We know that companies are choosing to Locate or expand outside in our area for a partial reason of our non-attainment status Now I'm a firm believer that if there's just one major issue of a company they usually work on fixing that to okay Maybe they'll they'll continue working that was started in three or four issues workforce non-attainment Logistics supply chain suddenly a plant outside the area starts looking more and more favorable. So I Guess I think I'm being red carded out here And I just I what I just wanted to say is from an economic development perspective the the economy the beating heart of How we pay for our goods how we pay for our services how we take care how we pay for college All of it is based on how well we can compete in a global marketplace all of it and We are being punished for something that the EPA themselves have basically admitted You can't do anything about it. There's nothing we can do about it either you got to make federal legislation Or you're just gonna have to bite the bullet and deal with it And so that is it's really an issue of fairness from an economic development perspective. So thank you. Thank you Seth Hofmeister is field director with the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters a non-profit non-partisan organization Dedicated to electing conservation leaders and encouraging lawmakers to support policies that protect Wisconsin's health and natural resources as field director Mr. Hofmeister leads a team of field organizers and works with volunteers activists and partner organizations in Communities across Wisconsin to draw attention to conservation issues and hold elected officials accountable He's a graduate of UW-Stevens point where he was student body President and chair of the campus chapter of the Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group He currently resides in Green Bay. Please welcome Seth Hofmeister Thank you so much for having me here and go pointers It's really great to be here to talk about this issue You know as it was mentioned Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters works on issues like this all across the state I come from our Green Bay office, but we have offices all across Wisconsin in Madison. We have a lobbyist We have folks in Milwaukee. We have folks in Eau Claire and we're able to work on a lot of these issues that deal with clean air water pollution and Protecting our public lands So to say the least we've been busy for the last few years But this is this is one of the issues that really brought us back into dealing with air pollution and it's a pretty straightforward The bill in our eyes, so you might not even have to red card me we'll see But I guess let's establish the background here. So I agree with Dane We definitely all want clean air So the station has been a part of a regional effort to manage ozone pollution in Lake Michigan It's a very highly important site as we've heard And it's doing a really crucial crucial task of monitoring ozone pollution. So we already heard about What ozone pollution is it's going to put? Folks that have asthma emphysema chronic bronchitis at risk. So when we look at these already vulnerable people Ozone can be a major thing and this monitor was placed here not just so it could I Guess just monitor the air quality in Sheboygan, but monitor Lake Michigan So it was very strategically placed here to serve a greater purpose. So let's look at Senate bill 466 We have some senators LeMay Hugh Strobel and WAN guard that introduced it And the basic premise of this bill is to eliminate the collection of air quality data at core Andre State Park This was introduced sometime last year. So We have all those different air monitors across the state as we've seen across the region of we as we have seen And they do an important job of painting a large picture of what air pollution is all across the Midwest for folks that all breathe air But this particular monitor was showing You know, they were getting red carded a little bit, too There was some not very good data coming out of there indicating very high levels of pollution So this bill was introduced in response to that unhealthy level of air pollution So in my eyes a great conservation champion would see that and figure out how we can reduce air pollution That to me would be a great idea And you know, I see some potential candidates, you know, some elected officials representatives of elected officials I think that that would be a very reasonable thing to deal with this Unfortunately, this bill is a little bit misguided for for a few different reasons. So the intent of this bill is to not include this evidence so It's not going to deal with the actual air pollution But what it's going to do is it's gonna hide the evidence of the air pollution that we have seen is there And it's gonna artificially show compliance with the federal Clean air act standards and it's potentially gonna allow for more pollution in the area. So when we talk about pollution You know, I live in Green Bay. So I vote in Green Bay. I'm a Wisconsin resident I'm a Packer fan, but pollution air pollution water pollution doesn't know political boundaries. It doesn't know Geo, I mean, it doesn't know man-made instituted boundaries. It just is so when you have a monitor That's testing for air pollution at a given location It really is irrelevant where the pollution is coming from because the pollution at that air monitor is Indicating that there is pollution. So when we talk about the no growth and the unfair penalization It's kind of just a little bit of smoke and mirrors. Essentially, we're trying to falsify data to be in compliance with With this so that's I mean, that's incredibly problematic If the bottom line, I mean I'm not gonna have to take very much time to talk because the bottom line is if it's showing pollution People there are affected, but I think what's more problematic about this is the overreach that our state legislators that authored this are demonstrating by this Typically when we look at things like air pollution, it's decided by the DNR It's decided by the EPA and I'm not talking about the political appointees the Pruits and the Kathy steps I'm talking about the scientists that they've systematically Defunded and dismantled. So while those folks are no longer there and they don't have jobs or they're being overstretched They're also taking their purview is getting taken away Legislators are forbidding placement of these given air monitors and they're overstepping and they're politicizing Public health the legislature should not be intervening to make sure it is harder to Regulate public health the legislature should only be intervening if they're making it easier to protect people We did see a few different And but instead we're making it easier for folks to get exposed to pollution We did see a few different amendments to this this bill But the amendments don't really change the intent of it the amendments still made the bill What it is and and that is it's falsifying data to send to the EPA So we can ignore our pollution problem To kind of put things into perspective too there was another bill introduced around the same time Which is luckily irrelevant because it didn't pass but that was assembly bill 587 and Senate bill 459 again, this is introduced by Lemahue and strobel and wangard and you know friends like Adam Jarco and Andre Jacques were also Cosponsors on the assembly side But what these same group of legislators wanted to do in that same set of overreach They wanted to remove air pollution standards not required by the federal government So anything completely specific to Wisconsin that the federal government didn't regulate they wanted to Completely get rid of and completely wipe the slate clean every ten years so if we did start to rebuild some of these policies every ten years the Slate would be wiped clean again, and these laws take four to five years to implement in the first place So luckily that bill didn't pass but Senate bill 466 is still incredibly problematic for the two reasons that That I outlined and you know the bottom line doesn't matter where the pollution is coming from folks here in Sheboygan sheboygan County and all across the area are going to be exposed to ozone and While I think that we all agree we need clean air We need to do something about it falsifying the data is not the most scientific and ethical thing that we can do to prevent that So I guess that's that's pretty much the extent of my remarks here Sarah Gears is staff attorney at Midwest environmental advocates a non-profit Nonpartisan environmental law center that supports people working for healthy air land water and government She earned her bachelor degrees in conservation and environmental science in Spanish from UW Milwaukee And her law degree from the University of Wisconsin She interned with the Wisconsin Department of Justice Environmental Protection Unit and clerked for justice and Patrick Crooks on the Wisconsin Supreme Court Miss Gears enjoys backpacking climbing and kayaking She volunteers for the Dane County Humane Society. Please welcome Sarah Gears Thank you. Thank you to the League of Women Voters for inviting me to speak and thank you all for coming out to listen and learn a little bit more about Ozone pollution and what I'm going to talk a little bit about which is how the law the Clean Air Act is meant to Improve air quality and protect public health There we are So I'm going to start with an overview of some aspects of the Clean Air Act that I'll cover tonight Which we're going to delve into in a little more detail later on First the purpose of the Clean Air Act is to protect and enhance air quality so as to promote public health and welfare so that is kind of the guiding principle on which Which EPA uses when it sets the air quality standards some of which we're talking about tonight like the ozone air quality standard that due to Increased knowledge over time the EPA has lowered because even lower even those lower concentrations of ozone Can have impacts on sensitive populations like Donna was talking about The Clean Air Act is meant or protects and improves air quality in several ways So one of those ways is that the US EPA sets these air quality standards based on the amount of air contamination that is Can be in the air and still be healthy for people to breathe It also requires significant sources of air pollution to obtain air pollution permits and to limit their emissions of pollutants of concern it also requires states to monitor air pollution and Requires states and EPA to work together to designate areas as either Entainment of air standards or not an attainment and that's really what we're focused on today tonight So I talked a little bit about both the the federal EPA and the state and and both of them Serve important roles in implementing the Clean Air Act So at the federal level it's administered by the US EPA They set air quality standards and they also serve an important oversight role for states that have chosen to implement Their own permitting and air quality program like Wisconsin. So the Wisconsin DNR developed a state program to issue permits and Regulate sources of air pollution and EPA is the one that oversees that and also Decides ultimately whether or not areas of the state will be designated in attainment or non-attainment based following the state's recommendation So we've already heard a lot about how ozone is created We heard about the ozone precursors, which are nitrogen oxides and VOCs and also that it requires this process of creating Ozone requires heat and sunlight which will be relevant to some of the regulations later on which focus on reducing Emish those sources of emissions nitrogen oxides and VOCs during the summer months when we're most concerned about higher levels of ozone We also heard about the ratcheting down of the ozone air quality standard over time and the last standard in 2008 was 75 parts per billion and Recently in 2015 the health-based air standard was reduced to 20 parts per billion 70 thank you. Oh everyone's on top of that So When the EPA updated the air standard in 2015 that triggered a requirement for EPA and for states to look at Whether or not areas all around the country were in attainment with this new air standard So it was not just Wisconsin or Sheboygan that EPA was looking at to to redesignator to take take a new look at Whether or not they were in compliance with this air standard The Clean Air Act has certain time requirements within which EPA has to act The Clean Air Act Requires EPA to set or to designate an area as non-attainment if an approved air monitor registers an exceedance of an air quality standard So that that's an important thing that I want to highlight is that the Clean Air Act Requires if you have a monitor that is not meeting an air standard The EPA has to designate an area around that monitor as non-attainment And so what was in dispute between DNR and EPA was what was going to be the area around the Kohler-Andree monitor that they Were going to designate as in non-attainment and EPA has some discretion because the standard for that is the EPA is supposed to determine what area around that monitor is contributing to the exceedance of the air quality standard and we've heard a lot about the You know complications of determining where The ozone precursors are coming from over time and also that a lot of those Emissions of those precursors are coming from out of state but certainly in designating an area along the shoreline of Shabuigan as in non-attainment EPA determined that that area was also contributing to the exceedance of the air quality standard at the Kohler-Andree monitor So now we're going to delve into a little bit more detail about the ozone air quality issues in Shabuigan And then this non-attainment designation So this is a graph that was almost useless because you can't read what's going on except just generally what it is meant to show is that The the results that EPA used from air quality monitors all around the state The sort of values that Donna was talking in more detail about how the state determines what those values are But averaged over three years DNR and EPA come up with a value of what the air quality is at a certain monitor The Kohler-Andree monitor is the blue bar Kind of further along the right that is over the red line. I could just use my cursor and show you Is this bar is this bar right here and the value is 79 parts per billion that was measured at there that air quality monitor as a reminder the air standard is 70 parts per billion I'd also note that the bar immediately to the left The bar immediately to the left reads 69 parts per billion, which is just below the air quality standard and I'll touch back on that, but that's relevant because If if that other air monitor which we're going to continue to use now Even if this legislation continues in effect and we don't use the Kohler-Andree monitor That's pretty close to the air standard and by lowering the the requirements for sources of emission not only in Sheboygan, but in other parts of southeast, Wisconsin, it's You know possible even likely that that is then going to be exceeded the next time we take a new look at Whether or not Sheboygan is an attainment or not attainment So a little bit about the ozone kind of the history of the ozone air quality in Sheboygan Ozone pollution in Sheboygan in southeast, Wisconsin. It is not a new problem. We started regulating ozone and air quality back in the 1970s and Sheboygan has been in non-attainment of the ozone standard since around 1979 with a brief period of attainment during 1996 and then back in non-attainment as EPA made the standard more stringent And even though we've heard that some of the ozone pollution comes from other states The Clean Air Act only takes that into account to a certain extent. I talked a little bit about that how the core Determination that EPA makes is based on whether or not a monitor reads an exceedance of an air quality standard For the most recent designation, Wisconsin initially Requested an area with a geographic extent of about 2.9 miles from the Lakeshore. So as you can see it's a little bit difficult to see but the the current non-attainment designation is in blue along the shoreline of Sheboygan and that is the EPA designated non-attainment area, which is The boundary of which is about 2.3 miles inland from the Lakeshore On a related note as some of you may have read EPA initially proposed to designate all of Sheboygan County and most of southeast Wisconsin is non-attainment and then ultimately decided to roll That back significantly. So we've talked a great deal about this already But just a few more points about the the air quality monitors The two air quality monitors that the state and EPA use to determine the air quality in Sheboygan are the the Haven monitor Which is the green dot a little bit to the west of the non-attainment boundary line And then the Kohler-Andrea monitor, which is in red right along the Lakeshore As Seth talked about in some detail there was recent legislation that is going to eliminate the Kohler-Andrea monitor from The data gathering that DNR and EPA used to determine whether the area is in compliance with air standard the air standard That was just signed this year. So that air quality monitor is still part of the monitoring network for 2018 Based on this legislation DNR has to remove it from its air quality monitoring program the next year But and I mentioned that because there is still time for us to To make a change as a state if we decide that we that we don't want to take this step And eliminate this data set from our air quality monitoring picture So we've we've heard a little bit about this from from various folks, but I just want to highlight why non-attainment designation matters And dain talked a little bit about Some of the the concern from industry about the more stringent emission standards that large industries have to comply with And that is That is an aspect of the non designation Or the non-attainment designation Industries very large industries if they have a significant expansion or if a new industry is coming into play Then they do have to install more protective emission controls A few other Another aspect of that is controlling emissions from vehicles And also developing an implementation plan to demonstrate how the state is going to achieve compliance with the air standard in this area Very quickly if I can talk about the cross-state air pollution rule Is that okay? A minute one minute Yes, I have one more slide left okay The I wanted to mention the cross-state air pollution rule Which is a regulation that EPA recently developed to get at this issue of states contributing to other states air pollution problems Because this isn't a unique problem to shabuigan So all of the states that are in yellow are subject to this cross-state air pollution rule And basically what it says is if you're one of these yellow states And you are contributing to another state's non-attainment designation for ozone Then you have to be put on a budget of how much of these ozone precursors you can emit Particularly relevant is that An ironic impact of changing the non-attainment designation for some of southeastern wisconsin is that other Upwind states may be able to emit more ozone precursors Because their their budget might change because we're no longer designated as non-attainment um, so with that I am going to um Say thank you all for coming and listening and uh, I look forward to your questions So now Is the time for our 30 minute question and answer period And it's going to be strictly adhered to because we even got a dispensation. This is summer hours And the library is allowing us to be here. So we're going to have to be on our way at about 7 35 Wrapping things up 7 35 Okay, okay, okay So christin is bringing up the questions uh, two committee members have been sorting through the submitted questions And we will address as many as we are able before we conclude Okay All right And this is open to everyone at this point There's no one's name is on here then it'll say I think okay So if the color andry monitor is eliminated, how can we measure transport across states? So I understand the intent of the bill is to Shut down the monitor um Or maybe they intend to keep running it. I I don't know. I mean that My understanding is that the clean and maybe sarah knows this that the clean air act or at least it is epa federal epa policy That they do not allow States to shut down monitors If if they are within 80 percent of the necks that ambient air quality standard, let alone They are never no state is allowed to shut down a state that's in A monitor that's in non-attainment. So I mean yes, we have other monitors, but But you know people go to the beach, right? The the haven monitor is not on the beach. Um, it's not measuring exposures at the beach That's that's important data Okay, uh, this is directed to dain and sarah Multiple studies like the epa's peer reviewed 2011 study found that environmental costs amount to less than 1 percent of the 4.74 trillion value trillion dollar value of the manufactured goods that us companies shipped Air pollution control is responsible for less than half of this percentage Clean air attracts workers and local customers to a community and results in 13 million fewer missed days of work So why is regulation necessary to compel businesses to make these sound investments? So what you're asking is that if the cost overall Industry is less than 1 percent. What is the major concern? Correct did I paraphrase that properly now? I guess my ultimate question would be is Is i'm not familiar with the number of manufacturers and attainment versus non-attainment zones across the united states I can ask you um The way that the investment systems ultimately run Is that we are always pre-programmed to take the highest return on investment That is why products come in from china. That is why we see global competition That is why we see when europe rebuilt itself in southeastern asia rebuilt itself after world war two We saw goods and services starting to flow in from those economies because we could buy it at the shelf for a penny or two Less at that cost. That is what wal-mart built its business on Now that is essentially the ultimate reason is that to most customers the end price is what they see What they don't always see is the corporate responsibility that goes into those products and into those services If most of us knew what conditions some of our electronics were being produced in overseas We would probably stop buying them, but we don't see that And so what I would what I would say is that if we could adequately market that Environmental stewardship and with the pricing and consumers would react. I do believe that would be a very great idea But right now When a half of the u.s population basically lives paycheck to paycheck has no savings for retirement I would argue that every penny counts to the individual Now from a social standpoint And the overall costs and how do we make our environment cleaner? How do we make our air cleaner? How do we reduce the number of sick days both in the air quality as well as our national health care system? Which as all of you know, I'm pretty sure is is in very ill repute right now that That these are significant challenges and because all these costs are mounting up We're pre-wired to almost shop for the cheapest thing every time So I think it's a big deal from the individual investment decision When you take 3,000 people voting 300 million people voting with their wallets in the u.s markets alone That adds up to significant local economic impact if every person decided to stop buying a good Cheese for example, that's made in even even though. I don't think the food industry contributes a lot to vocs if everyone decided to Buy cheese not made in wisconsin To this area that represents a five billion dollar industry And thousands of local jobs that we all rely on our neighbors and so even though that the one percent is a huge impact To that one company that stopped selling the product It's everything and it's everything to the town that that happens to Sarah did you have anything you'd like to say? I'm concerning that one Okay Sorry I'm not an economist. So so my comment will be pretty brief But I think what this question gets at is the importance of quantifying the economic benefits of environmental regulations And our environmental laws in order to defend and maintain and strengthen them Uh, you know, I think the the flip side of some of dain's comments are the economic costs of misdates of work because of a child's asthma attack Um, you know lower productivity higher health care costs when you have to have emergency room Visits all of those things are lowered when you have better air quality Okay, this question is directed to donna with wininsky When epa allows levels of ozone pollution that science shows causes health effects Businesses and manufacturers save money on their operations, but who pays the cost of increased public health needs? Which of that is everyone Whether you have your own private insurance whether you have your insurance through the affordable care Practic exchange Whether you are on badger care or one of the other state sponsored programs in some capacity or another We are all paying for each other We are paying for those who are on the more publicly funded programs We are paying for those programs and those people's health care through increased tax dollars Um, even within our own private structure We are paying for them through the higher premiums through the higher out-of-pocket co-pays I mean we were just talking about escalating health care costs and it is it's a huge impact on the overall economic picture again like Like heather is it sorry sara. Sorry like i'm not an economist either but when somebody is Working a minimum wage job or a ten dollar an hour job There's a single parent and their child has an asthma attack and they don't have paid time off and they have to take that That time to go to the emergency department and they miss work. They miss pay that all has an economic impact But again just to summarize we are all paying for the cost of health care regardless of what the source is Okay, here's a question. Uh, can you rank top to bottom the largest point source of the oc immersion? In the county Oh emission i'm sorry Yes So I don't have the answer to that memorized. Uh, I can tell you that on dnr's website from their uh last year's Uh non-attainment plan for ozone They do list all of the sources of both nitrogen oxides and boc's emissions in the county and they rank them So if you want that information, it's on dnr's website in a very large pdf document Anyone anyone else? Okay, what technologies are available for us collectively to switch to in order to reduce Nox and boc's I can try to try to address that On a i'm taking that means on a personal level So to reduce knocks our vehicles are a big source of knocks the primary source of knocks now Used to be stationary sources power plants, etc. But now Mobile and off-road sources have have Due to the controls that I brought down ozone On stationary power plants, etc Now mobile sources are the biggest biggest Source of knocks so By a clean car By a low emission vehicle Drive fewer miles take public transportation That will all of those measures will reduce your footprint for both knocks and boc's With respective boc's Other sources of boc's Are surprisingly consumer Products your laundry detergent Your those, you know those heavily scented fabric softeners Your shampoos your hairsprays your deodorants Anything that smells Almost anything that smells You know sweet and fruity and flowery Is a boc Is going to be Be wafting after you have smelled its lovely fragrance. It's going to go out the window and And if you know if conditions are right it will react and form ozone or What does boc stand for? Boc stands for volatile organic compound So it's a class of chemical Compounds that have carbon oxygen and hydrogen Okay, this is a question for seth Why don't all the counties along the lakeshore have the non-attainment designation If most ozone pollution follows the shoreline and is originating via emissions from commercial shipping on the great lakes And land sources in elinoy and indiana I think that goes back to the data that we do have available. I mean the The premise of this bill was to reduce The amount of data that we have to inform the decisions about the non-attainment And you know the one that they do have is is showing very high results. So To make a more science-based and a more fair and equitable decision about where to put these non-attainment zones We should if anything be having more Air monitoring sites so we can precisely pinpoint these locations rather than by completely over simplifying things Yeah Yes, so Our our our friends fox con who are moving to the state have been getting all sorts of waivers for air quality Which i'm sure you know if we want to talk about potential sources that we'll be showing up here That might be a big one But not only has our government given fox con waivers for air, but they've given them waivers for the great lakes compact And there it can probably talk a little bit more about some of that as well Okay, this one is for dain businesses in sheboygan county have enjoyed higher profits each year since 2016 How does that fit in with the statement that companies are choosing not to locate in our county due to its f rating? Uh, i'm not sure where the data is coming from from higher profits I think that might be a gross over simplification as a matter of fact very few of our companies are publicly traded And that data simply isn't available um, so I don't know where that um Perception is I can tell you that right now every year that goes on we use lose three manufacturers from our county like clockwork We have fewer people employed today than we did in 2007 So I would not say that sheboygan's economy is a crapshoot for anyone who wants to locate here Let alone place additional burdens on them that their competitors 30 miles away don't have to deal with This is one for uh Donna wood inski, um how is sheboygan county informing residents that ozone is a health hazard? And how is sheboygan county informing residents that ozone levels are elevated? There's a variety of ways that people can monitor the air on a daily basis the dnr has a has a Uh a service where you can subscribe to emails where you can get the daily air quality Most of our weather forecasters now will include air quality information when the ozone is expected to be at levels Above the safer federal standards There's all kinds of apps that you can download onto your phone too when you can get your daily air quality based on your zip code Or your county, um, so there's a variety of sources And I think that's one of the most important points to take away from this That an informed population is probably a healthier population too So that if you do know that there is going to be An exceedance of the ozone standard in milwaukey county. For example, um, there was one called for labor day It was an orange violation, which is unhealthy for sensitive groups You can plant you can plan accordingly. Okay. That's on that particular day. I'm a runner I'm going to do my run early in the morning before the ozone levels build up or later in the evening Um, I'm going to maybe plan some indoor activities for that particular day rather than being outside as much as I might On a on a lower ozone day So it's it's all Key to being being informed is the key and I just wanted to add one brief Comment about that senate bill that that was passed that Says don't use the the color andrey air monitor anymore Whether it's included in terms of whether the the county is in attainment or not There's still people living there. There's still people who live within that 2.9 mile radius from the lake I grew up blocks walking distance from the lake and and was and was exposed to that ozone Without that monitor, we don't know and you can't make those informed decisions unless you have the information Okay, this one is for sarah Some counties in southeastern wisconsin also had their non attainment designation removed by the epa Is there a concern that additional ozone produced by fox con will impact our county designation As well as the new narrow lakeshore non attainment area And what's to stop more businesses from requesting the same designation exemptions I'll try to touch on all of those um all parts of that question. Um, so in short the the fox con facility Does emit some ozone precursors? Um, I I don't believe they're the largest source in racine county But given that not only racine, but like we saw with some of the the Averaged readings from shaboy the shaboy con county monitors a lot of air monitors in southeast wisconsin are pretty close to the new air standard and so And it's also we heard from donna sort of a complicated picture about You know What what sources of emissions can lead to higher ozone levels? So it's a big question mark in terms of the impact that fox con will have You know, I um, I I think certainly the the fox con Exemptions that we've seen from our our state government Are open the door to other companies asking for the same thing. Um, so We'll just have to wait and see and hold our elected officials accountable Okay Further changes could be coming to wisconsin air quality protections There have been requests to the trump administration for waivers regarding reformulated gasoline and to eliminate vehicle emissions testing What is the best way for wisconsin to be proactive in air quality protections in light of a new epa? Also, does anyone on the panel know why the monitor in kohler is being shut down? anyone What's that? So the first part of the question, how can we be proactive and and make sure this doesn't happen So we saw like I mentioned, uh senate bill 466 which closes down this This air monitoring site Was was passed and it was successful and we've seen attack and attack after attack on our On our regulations that protect people on our protections Um, luckily we had that other bill assembly bill 587 or 459 which would wipe clean all of the state level Air quality standards, uh, we we saw that defeated But the best thing that we can do to make sure it doesn't keep happening because it will keep happening If we don't do anything about it is to call our elected officials Is to hold them accountable is to make sure that they know you care about having science driven policy that protects our public health and if They're not going to vote to protect The folks that live here Then we have an opportunity in november to do that the same goes for the federal level We got to make sure that we're holding our elected accountable elected officials accountable At every turn every time one of these retroactive bills are introduced We need to make sure that they know that we do not support them And again, if they don't support them, then we have an opportunity in this november and then upcoming november is to replace them One additional comment One of the most egregious things that we at the long association see going on right now Is within the past couple of weeks is is the whole concept of Not considering science when making decisions by the epa basically censoring science Giving it less if any weight and that's the most ludicrous thing from a science based organization All of our policies are based on science and to say that science isn't going to count now That I it just blows my mind to to think that that would even be proposed by By this administration The long association does have a petition online I can look up what that is But that is one way you can with very very little effort make your voice known saying Don't censor science when it comes to air quality and other environmental policies and I will look that up for anyone who's interested Well, the person who wrote this question asked Does anyone know why the monitor and colar is being shut down? It was me. Yeah, I know it's you but I'm just It's on the plans for the 2019 So there's a monitor and colar on highland drive that monitors lead and it just says at the bottom shut down site But nobody's heard that I believe it's being shut down because The site has been in attainment And and so so there's no problems there And no reason to suspect that there will be problems and the lead standard I know that some sources around there Um did Take measures to clean up their their problems and and so it's no longer an issue Okay This is the last question and dain. This is this one is to you What's the average cost of regulations for shabuagan county industrial manufacturers because They're they are located in a non non attainment area. Let's say compared to fondillac county you The sources of information that I have on this is the local company implement that spends about $300,000 For their permits and for the consultants to come and do their paperwork Compared to their competitors. I probably pay in the tens of thousands a dollar range So the vast majority of the 300,000 is a delta difference The bigger thing I think is in time quite frankly is that They have to wait three months in order to get approval even to move a piece of machinery in there Not even installing new just to move it and to change the way an assembly line is configured Can run them three months in permitting processes where they're Similar company and in fondillac rosh gosh would not need to go through that And so I For the companies that I and that is one of this Yeah, I forgot what title it is There's the each company based on their emissions is put into different titles title five I believe they're one of about six firms in that title five category And so you could say that there's five other firms that would have to deal with very similar Standards the other one is is that that doesn't take into account the offsets that if need to be created So if something significant would happen, they would have to figure out a way to So the way the county itself emissions stays flat and so finding those could Again depending on what they're doing could be significant as well And so what we've seen companies doing knowing that you can operate a facility knowing that 300 000 is cream off the top Right that that's right off of profit And so if you have to pay 300 000 dollars and you're investing and you own multiple plans across the united states Which one is your next expansion going to happen on keep in mind that the vast majority of economic development growth and decline Happens incrementally. It's not a big May lining and picking up moving. Those are actually fairly rare What we see is 10 jobs here 12 jobs there a new assembly line there a new assembly line here Where is the investment happening? It's happening in one to five million dollar increments It's not happening one plant at a time And so I think the vast majority of the impacts is stuff that we'll never see Um outright, you know Very much in the um out in the open I know we were in conversations of one firm on whether or not they expand their plant here in sheboy can county Or they expand their plant in upstate new york Well, the area they're in in upstate new york is in attainment And that was one of the things that they brought up to us It wasn't the only factor in their decision, but rest assured. I do believe that firm is expanding their New york plant right now and not expanding their sheboy can county plant in part because of of non attainment. So I don't know if that answered the Question but it can be but I believe for all title five companies. It's in the hundreds of thousands dollar range Okay, how about we give a hand to our fine panel here? So I'm going to do the wrap up. It'll just take five minutes So I we have some tips and information to share before we leave First know your air quality Donna mentioned a few of these already But you can download one of these apps air now weather bug or air visual. There are probably others You can sign up to receive air quality forecasts via email or cell phone at enviro flash And you can compare air quality of us cities and see local air quality trends at the epa's air compare A couple actions to take Please make sure you sign the sign-in sheet So you can get on the environment committee's email list so we can keep you informed and better yet, please come join our league Stay engaged with your representatives and remember to be an air quality voter A couple of upcoming events the next league of women voters Sheboygan county meeting will be here in the loft on tuesday july 17th at 6 p.m Details are on our website And a couple of us in the sheboygan county league are also involved in the league of women voters lake michigan region league Which works on lake michigan watershed conservation? And they are sponsoring a public event on june 27th in chicago called the fraying of the environmental safety net With keynote speaker howard learner president and executive director of the environmental law and policy center And those handouts are in the back on the table We also have um some other handouts One i want to call attention to is our list of resources for this event our committee did a lot of homework To educate ourselves about this topic and we wanted to share that with you Um, also we have our league membership application and some of our panelists may have broad handouts that are also back there So tonight's event continues the discussion on this important issue Please raise your hand if you feel like you learned something from being here Excellent we did our job Thank you all for coming and thank you for your continued engagement Please remember to turn in your survey and pencils as you exit or you can just leave them on the chair If you're in a hurry, please just answer the question about how you heard about the event so we can mark it effectively and um And a little announcement the committee is going to head over to paradigm after this And we'll be available if you want to learn more about the league or you want to continue this discussion we'd love to chat with you And um, please be mindful that we need to be out of the building by 755, but we have a few minutes to chat So thank you very much