1 1 STATE OF NEW JERSEY DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 2 3 IN THE MATTER OF: : 4 PUBLIC HEARING - : 5 NEW JERSEY CLEAN AIR COUNCIL : 6 ------------------------------- 7 8 April 10, 2002 9 Department of 10 Environmental Protection 11 9:00 a.m. 12 13 14 15 B E F O R E: NEW JERSEY CLEAN AIR COUNCIL 16 17 18 19 20 21 GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 22 824 West State Street 23 Trenton, New Jersey 08618 24 (609) 989-9199 1-800-368-7652 (TOLL FREE) 25 (FAX) 609-392-7978 GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 2 1 NEW JERSEY CLEAN AIR COUNCIL MEMBERS 2 3 JOHN MAXWELL, Chairman 4 MICHAEL EGENTON 5 JOSEPH SPATOLA, Ph.D. 6 LEONARD BIELORY, M.D. 7 RICHARD AICHER 8 RAYMOND MANGANELLI, Ph.D 9 STEPHEN PAPENBERG 10 MICHAEL BERRY 11 FERDOWS ALI 12 GENE FEYL 13 IRWIN ZONIS 14 BARRY SCHLEGEL 15 CHUCK McCARTY 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 3 1 I N D E X 2 3 SPEAKERS: PAGE 4 1) Bradley Campbell - DEP 9 5 Commissioner 6 2) Dorothy Bowers (NACEPT) 27 7 3) Carlos Rodrigues - Department 50 8 of Community Affairs 9 4) Frank Sherman, (LEEDS Program) 68 10 5) William Baker - EPA 90 11 6) Councilwoman Alison Miller - 109 12 (West Windsor) 13 7) Joseph Della Fave - 125 14 (Ironbound Community) 15 8) Steve Flint- New York Department 146 16 of Environmental Conservation 17 9) Steve Bauman - Jersey Central 165 18 Power & Light 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 4 1 PUBLIC HEARING 2 SPEAKER PAGE 3 Robert Campbell, New Jersey Sierra Club 185 4 Jeff Tuttle, New Jersey Sierra Club 193 5 Travis Madsen, NJPIRG 202 6 Dr. Stephen Paul, Princeton University 215 7 Jim Curry, Environmental Educational 229 8 Fund 9 Marie Curtis, Executive Director, 236 10 N.J. Environmental Lobby 11 Jane Tousman, New Jersey Sierra Club 246 12 Alice Gitchell, Richard Stockton College 252 13 Rhesa Ramdeen, Richard Stockton College 265 14 Mike Napoli, Public Address for 271 15 Advancing Clean Air Legislation 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 5 1 CHAIRMAN MAXWELL: Good morning, 2 everybody. Welcome to the 36th public, 36th 3 annual public hearing of the Clean Air Council, 4 and what I'd like to do is I'd like to, first of 5 all, welcome everybody here. This is a good 6 turnout, we will have more coming out as the day 7 goes on. What I'd like to do is ask for the 8 Council members to introduce themselves and say a 9 little bit about who they are, and then I would 10 also like to ask Irwin Zonis and Ray Manganelli, 11 who have been on the Council before it began, the 12 pre-Council which is an advisory board to the 13 Commissioner, to give a very brief overview of 14 the history of the Clean Air Council. 15 I am John Maxwell. I am proud to 16 have been elected by my peers here on the Council 17 as the Chair. We rotate the Chair, it goes 18 around. I think many of the folks have been the 19 Chair, and when I am not working on the Clean Air 20 Council, I work with the New Jersey Petroleum 21 Council. 22 MR. EGENTON: Good morning, I am 23 Michael Egenton. I am with the New Jersey State 24 Chamber of Commerce, and I handle specifically 25 environment energy and transportation issues at GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 6 1 the State Chamber. Pleased to be here, thank 2 you. 3 MR. SPATOLA: Good morning, my name 4 is Joseph Spatola. I am the Executive Director of 5 the County Utilities Authority, and my 6 representation on the board here is as a public 7 member. 8 DR. BIELORY: I am Dr. Leonard 9 Bielory, Director of New Jersey Medical School in 10 Newark, New Jersey, director, appointed by the 11 Governor to represent the medical perspectives on 12 health/clean air. 13 MR. AICHER: My name is Richard 14 Aicher, assistant business manager with the 15 International Electrical Workers here in Trenton, 16 and I am representing New Jersey AFL-CIO and 17 Council. 18 MR. PAPENBERG: Stephen Papenberg, I 19 am the Health Officer of South Brunswick 20 Township. I am representing New Jersey Health 21 Officers Association and represent 115 health 22 departments servicing the 566 municipalities in 23 local and public health. 24 MR. BERRY: I am Michael Berry. I 25 represent the New Jersey Department of Health and GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 7 1 Senior Services, and I am a epidemiologist and 2 research scientist with the Department. 3 MR. ALI: I am sitting in for Peter 4 Anderson. I am Ferdows Ali, the water specialist 5 for the Department but since air and water are 6 intimately related, they sent me to this meeting. 7 MR. FEYL: I am Gene Feyl, 8 representative of the New Jersey State League of 9 Municipalities, Mayor of Denville Township. 10 MR. ZONIS: I am Irwin Zonis. I am 11 retired and a public member of the Clean Air 12 Council. 13 Mr. Chairman, I need to correct you 14 because the first meeting of the Clean Air 15 Council was in September of 1968, the Council of 16 course, was set up by Legislature. I think our 17 first public hearing was in the spring of 1969, I 18 can't swear to that because memory dims after 19 these years, but in 1969 was the first public 20 hearing. This is the 34th -- 21 CHAIRMAN MAXWELL: Thank you. 22 MR. ZONIS: I was a member of a 23 predecessor board which was the Air Pollution 24 Control Commission, that group was a regulatory 25 group not an advisory group and also set up by GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 8 1 the Legislature, but it was terminated by the 2 Legislature in 1966. There was a lag time of 3 about a year between the Old Air Pollution 4 Control Commission and the New Council. The 5 Council of course, is regulatory -- the Council 6 is advisory and I would like to think that in the 7 period of time since September of 1968 this 8 Council and its members have been of some help to 9 the Commissioner of the Department of 10 Environmental Protection, and we hope that that 11 aid and assistance and advice continues for many 12 more years. 13 MR. SCHLEGEL: Barry Schlegel, I 14 represent the New Jersey section of American 15 Industrial Hygiene Association, and I work for 16 the Environmental Institute in Public Education. 17 MR. McCARTY: Chuck McCarty, I 18 represent New Jersey Commerce Commission. 19 MR. MANGANELLI: Ray Manganelli, 20 Rutgers Emeritus, I represent the public and I 21 would like to add a couple words on the history. 22 Going back in 1948 when the 23 Pennsylvania situation occurred which is of great 24 interest in air pollution that could happen here 25 and then in 1954 is when the first Air Pollution GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 9 1 Control Law sponsored by, I believe Senator Jones 2 up in North Jersey went in, I think it was among 3 the first laws in the United States that was very 4 strict and that's when the Air Pollution Council 5 was formed which Irwin Zonis served. 6 Then in 1967, when Senator Quarneri 7 came up with the change in the law; however, at 8 that time, he gave the powers to the Department 9 to make the laws and make the regulations enforce 10 it which was bad government, so they brought in 11 the Clean Air Council to look and keep everything 12 honest at this point. 13 Then there was a more recent change 14 in the law but still kept the Clean Air Council. 15 Going back we were under the Department of Health 16 at the time, and when the Department of 17 Environmental Protection was formed in the early 18 '70s and we were transferred to the Department of 19 Environmental Protection and, of course, Sullivan 20 was the first commissioner, this gives you a 21 picture, we have been working rather diligently 22 all these years. 23 CHAIRMAN MAXWELL: Thank you very 24 much. It is an honor to be here with all of you, 25 and Ray and Irwin have been the rocks of GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 10 1 Gibraltar here on the Council through all the 2 years. It is my great privilege to introduce 3 Brad Campbell, the new Commissioner of the 4 Department of Environmental Protection. 5 Mr. Commissioner, welcome to our 6 public hearing, we look forward to hearing your 7 remarks. 8 COMMISSIONER CAMPBELL: Thanks very 9 much and welcome to the Council. I want to 10 thank you for your contributions to the 11 Department and also welcome you to what I hope is 12 a new and exciting chapter at Department of 13 Environmental Protection and I hope will make it 14 a new and exciting chapter in the Council's works 15 given that history and the fact that you have 16 seen many commissioners come and go, we will hope 17 to make this an exciting several years for you 18 ahead. 19 I also want to acknowledge and thank 20 Sam Wolfe, who many of you know, the new 21 Assistant Commissioner for Environmental 22 Regulation, who is already bringing extraordinary 23 energy and leadership to Department of 24 Environmental Protection. I think that while 25 there are many honors in this job and a great GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 11 1 honor in being selected by the Governor to lead 2 the Department, one of the greatest honors you 3 can have in a job like this is where you recruit 4 someone you greatly admire to come work for you, 5 and Sam is certainly one of those persons, and I 6 am grateful for his willingness to shift back to 7 public service after a brief stint in the private 8 sector. 9 It is an exciting time to be at 10 Department of Environmental Protection and an 11 exciting time to be in environmental protection 12 under a Governor who truly has a vision for the 13 environment and for our communities. First and 14 foremost, a Governor, one of whose earliest 15 priorities was for "Smart Growth" Executive Order 16 Number Four, to promote development in the areas 17 where we know it will make the job of protecting 18 clean air and clean water easier. 19 That vision and that commitment to 20 environmental protection extends not nearly to 21 Smart Growth and that initial executive order but 22 across a range of initiatives even at this early 23 point in the administration, most recently a 24 budget, a budget that not only is a contrast with 25 prior administrations confronted with budget GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 12 1 deficits in the sense that I think for the first 2 time since the creation of the commission, a 3 major budget deficit was not met by 4 disproportionate cutting funds at Department of 5 Environmental Protection, but a budget that 6 protects the Department's correspondence 7 functions and actually allows us to increase 8 enforcement by at least 5 percent in the coming 9 year also addresses the funding to the Department 10 by closing the corporate business tax loopholes 11 and addressing the inequity of a situation in 12 which, of the 50 largest employers in the state, 13 30 pay $200 in corporate business taxes, less in 14 many cases than working families below the 15 poverty line. 16 That leadership which not only 17 extends to the budget but because a portion of 18 the corporate business tax revenues are devoted 19 to the Department onto environmental protection 20 not only ensures that over the short term we are 21 meeting state's fiscal challenge but over the 22 long term, the Department and environmental 23 protection will have more stable funding. That 24 having been said, and we do face enormous 25 challenges at the Department and particularly GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 13 1 clean air challenges, we remain in a posture in 2 which most, in fact, nearly all New Jerseyan 3 breathe unhealthy air for some part of the year. 4 We are in that posture at the very moment when 5 the scientific linkages between dirty air and 6 adverse health impacts are being more and more 7 strongly demonstrated, links between asthma and 8 dirty air. Links between pulmonary and cardiac 9 ailments. These links are being documented in 10 study after study and yet at that very moment we 11 can't assure the residents of the state that they 12 will have clean, healthy air. Curiously, those 13 links are being established in terms of the links 14 between health and clean air, those links are 15 being established at the very moment that we see 16 the Federal Government abdicated from its 17 responsibility to protect clean air. Most 18 recently in President Bush's proposal to replace 19 existing clean air programs with a much weaker 20 alternative called the Clean Skies Proposal might 21 more aptly be called the Brown Skies proposal 22 particularly for New Jersey because it is the 23 effort to clean up dirty power plants upwind of 24 New Jersey, out of State of New Jersey that are 25 one of the principal causes of dirty air in the GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 14 1 state. And not only dirty air, not only health 2 problems, but also have competitive challenges 3 for the state. We recently, for example, 4 announced a settlement with PSEG concerning some 5 of their power-generating stations that promises 6 cleaner air in New Jersey, that addresses dirty 7 plants here in New Jersey and yet in a 8 deregulated market those same generating stations 9 are competing with electricity generating upwind 10 in uncontrolled sources and by virtue of trying 11 to protect air here in New Jersey, by virtue of 12 the abdication of federal responsibility, I am 13 concerned that we need to push harder on the 14 Federal Government to make sure that the New 15 Jersey companies aren't at a competitive 16 disadvantage because of that abdication. There 17 are other challenges as well. Certainly the 18 fact that vehicle miles traveled, VNT's, continue 19 to increase at a time when vehicle miles per 20 gallon is not increasing and if the efficiency of 21 newer cars is not moving in the direction that 22 we'd like in terms of protecting cleaner air, 23 that is another set of challenges. We have 24 made progress particularly in controlling some of 25 the stationary sources in the state. That GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 15 1 challenge, which again ties back to the 2 Governor's vision for Smart Growth, is a 3 significant one, I think, for the Department in 4 the years ahead. 5 We also have an administrative set 6 of challenges that are linked to the challenge of 7 clean air. As the Council will know, the 8 administration comes into office inheriting a 9 significant backlog of Title Five permits under 10 the Clean Air Program, a backlog that has direct 11 impacts on protection of public health and the 12 environment. And those challenges in some sense 13 are both administrative policy and intellectual 14 in the sense that we need to change the way we do 15 business at the Department if we are ever going 16 to address those challenges in a way that 17 strengthens protection of clean air. The 18 challenge, and some of these challenges are ones 19 that I think are really challenges for the 20 Council in terms of the advice and the assistance 21 you provide to the Department, and the new ideas 22 that you can give to us, in terms of how we 23 address those challenges. 24 Let me list a few of them. First 25 with reference to the Title Five backlog, how do GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 16 1 we address that backlog? Process permits more 2 quickly move to more general permits by rule, 3 different, more innovative regulatory approaches 4 and still very clearly demonstrate that we are 5 enhancing protection of public health and the 6 environment, that we are strengthening standards 7 and protections for our communities, how do we 8 make that transition. In air, as in other 9 areas, the universe of activities and parties 10 regulated by the Department has actually, has 11 increased significantly, nearly doubled in 12 certain programs, and yet the resources available 13 to write the permits, oversee the permits, 14 enforce the permits, those resources have been 15 declining. How do we change the way we do 16 business to both process things more quickly, 17 give businesses the answers and the certainty 18 they need but give communities the assurances 19 they need that their health is being protected, 20 and that the protection is being put in place, 21 address the risks they face from dirty air. 22 How do we approach the issues of 23 Smart Growth when it comes to our clean air 24 challenges, how do we create a regulatory 25 structure in which we are actually creating GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 17 1 regulatory incentives to go to our already 2 developed cities, to redevelop in our older 3 developed areas, to look to new development in 4 our older communities, whether they are cities or 5 older suburbs. How do we create that incentive 6 structure? I'd like New Jersey, for example, to 7 be the leader in translating land use into Clean 8 Air Act incentives. For example, translating 9 every unit of residential population to an urban 10 or older suburban area into vehicle miles 11 traveled credits. Translating grant development 12 into reductions in emissions because we know by 13 creating employment in brown field areas, by 14 restoring population to our older cities and 15 older suburbs where there is transportation 16 infrastructure exist, where there is water 17 infrastructure exist, we know we reduced VMT, we 18 know we make it much easier. But the challenge 19 of translating those again and making the way for 20 different regulatory approaches, different 21 regulatory system ones that are going to be 22 fraught with people's challenges, fraught with 23 intellectual challenges and fraught with real 24 life practical concerns, for businesses, and 25 environmental organizations, and I look forward GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 18 1 to the advice of the Council as we begin to 2 address those issues in ernest. There are a 3 range of areas like that, I think, where we are 4 going to effect significant change in the 5 Department. We can't simple go on in a pattern 6 of environmental protection that was largely 7 established, not before, but shortly after the 8 Council first met in the late '60s. Most of our 9 statutes, most of our approaches were largely 10 scripted in the initial wave of environmental 11 statutes that came along in the early '70s. How 12 do we break away from some of those models in a 13 way that enhances environmental protection while 14 at the same time addressing some of the 15 frustrations with the regulatory system. 16 I think that is the challenge before 17 us, and the challenge to which we look to the 18 Council in its role of providing advice and 19 support to our efforts to protect clean air in 20 the State of New Jersey. 21 Again, I look forward to my work 22 with the Council, I think you are as aware as I 23 am of the challenges that we face. Fortunately, 24 New Jersey historically has been a leader in 25 environmental protection, a leader in GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 19 1 environmental innovations; I think under this 2 Governor's administration we will reassert that 3 role and we will do it with the help of the 4 Council in guiding us toward the right answers 5 and answers that are fully thought out in terms 6 of the impacts to health, the impacts to our 7 towns and cities, the concern for greater 8 environmental protection. 9 Thank you. I look forward to this 10 new chapter in your history and certainly a new 11 chapter in mine. I am happy to pause and answer 12 any questions that you might have. 13 CHAIRMAN MAXWELL: Dr. Manganelli. 14 DR. MANGANELLI: We certainly 15 appreciate very much and honored by your coming 16 here and your challenges that you have thrown to 17 us will certainly be taken up and very fine 18 challenges. One of the things we had read about 19 you that you were great on enforcement and we 20 would like to hear what your plans are for 21 enforcement of our regulations or the updated 22 regulations that you are planning to have. 23 COMMISSIONER CAMPBELL: I think 24 there are a couple of components of enforcement. 25 One is we are going to be much more focused on GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 20 1 outcome based enforcement demonstrating, as is 2 usually the case, clear environmental public 3 health benefits of the enforcement and targeting 4 enforcement to where we get the greatest 5 environmental public health benefit. 6 I think while there will be an 7 increase in enforcement activity, it is going to 8 be smart enforcement and targeted to the areas 9 where we have the most significant environmental 10 challenges. Part of that will involve not just 11 an increase in resources, but a redeploying of 12 resources. We are going to be looking for 13 models that allow us to spend less time at the 14 companies and permittees who we know to be 15 compliant and good actors, less time to the kind 16 of routine inspections that are unproductive, 17 more time on the serious issues of noncompliance, 18 and the people who frankly aren't yet in the 19 permit system, who we need to begin to address if 20 we are going to take on some of our enforcement 21 challenges. 22 As part of that, I think we need to 23 look very closely at some enforcement 24 innovations. One of those is to provide greater 25 incentives in the system for third party GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 21 1 certification of compliance as a substitute for 2 enforcement. Can we, for example, deem this is 3 less done under the air and air/water permits, 4 can we deem essentially third party certification 5 if adequate safeguards are in place, can we deem 6 a reinspection then so that we can have our 7 resources of other environmental enforcement 8 problems. 9 We are looking particularly in the 10 context of some of the environmental leadership 11 programs, the gold and silver track type 12 programs, how can we take those to the next level 13 of encouraging our very best regulated parties 14 not only to establish and submit to superior 15 levels in environmental performance but allows 16 their commitments to free us up to pay attention 17 to other more pressing problems. While we 18 reallocate some additional resources to 19 enforcement, we have to really revamp the system 20 if we are going to get environmental benefits 21 commensurate with the resources we are putting 22 into the areas. That are some of the areas. 23 MR. PAPENBERG: Commissioner, I would 24 like to remind you that you do have 115 agencies 25 out at the local municipal level and county level GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 22 1 that feel free to use us. There is a County 2 Environmental Health Act Program which is being 3 utilized now, but I think that can be enhanced 4 and you can actually bring in additional 5 resources because we are there. We are at the 6 local level and it is a lot easier many times for 7 your people, Department of Environmental 8 Protection, to pick up the phone and say could 9 you take a ride out to this site and just check 10 this out for us, rather than sending somebody 11 from Trenton 40 or 50 or 60 miles away. And 12 there is usually a tremendous interest at the 13 local level in assuring that, in fact, the 14 regulations are being adhered to. 15 COMMISSIONER CAMPBELL: Actually, I 16 am very interested in improving coordination 17 between what the Department does and the CEHA 18 programs, both in terms of making sure that we 19 are using our resourceS wisely and leveraging, 20 for example, each other's resources but also to 21 ensure that we are being consistent, that we are 22 setting common priorities, that we are 23 complementing the work that is done by the CEHA 24 agencies, coming from out of state took awhile, 25 what is the CAAA of that is a very high interest, GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 23 1 I think enforcement, obviously enforcement always 2 has complaints that come about, people who feel 3 are being too hard, too easy, I think are at our 4 best in defending enforcement publicly when we 5 are consistent, when we are demonstrating 6 fairness and demonstrating real outputs in terms 7 of protecting health and environment and given 8 the significant role that the CEHA agencies play, 9 we can only do that if we enhance coordination 10 and any help that you can provide to me in making 11 that happen and setting up the mechanisms and 12 working with the Assistant Commissioner, Lisa 13 Jackson, Assistant Commissioner for Enforcement 14 who again, like Sam Wolfe, brings an incredible 15 resume to her job, has just recently won the 16 Administrator's Award for excellence as basically 17 the national leader in innovative management in 18 EPA, and I am looking forward to working with her 19 and with the CEHA agencies to have a more 20 coordinated effort . 21 MR. SPATOLA: Commissioner, brown 22 fields redevelopment and transportation issues 23 and air quality improvements always seem to be 24 intertwined and also seem to suggest some sort of 25 overlap within your departments, is that GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 24 1 something that we can be looking forward to in 2 terms of how this regionalization or 3 universalization of how you put it, Smart Growth, 4 will be attempted here are by the Department. 5 COMMISSIONER CAMPBELL: I think that 6 is one of the great advantages of Governor's 7 Smart Growth executive order, it really brings 8 all of the relevant agencies to the table and it 9 also reminds us that as a Department, that we 10 can't look at our jobs with blinders on in terms 11 of the missions of the other agencies. 12 Curiously, for some, I spent part of Monday 13 morning announcing the Griscomb bridge project 14 and I think there was a small amount of 15 speculation as to why an environmental 16 commissioner would be announcing a bridge. 17 Smart Growth means growth and we are only going 18 to have growth if we start aging some of our 19 development, where we want new growth and I think 20 that kind of inner departmental peace which 21 clearly the Governor, I am not only asking for 22 but I assure you will insist on is going to be 23 enormously important. I think it is a wonderful 24 testament to the Governor's alibilities to select 25 cabinet members, which I think he has a wonderful GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 25 1 ability to select cabinet members. 2 (At which time there was a 3 discussion held off the record.) 4 In selecting Commissioner Knox, who 5 not only has a wonderful record with the 6 transportation industry but has a long record in 7 his roles whether it is working for Governor 8 Florio or Senator Torricelli on working 9 effectively on environmental issues are, in fact, 10 he is one to joke that when we first met he was 11 trying to save the ocean and I was trying to push 12 ahead with transportation infrastructure 13 projects. 14 DR. MANGANELLI: Commissioner, the 15 phrase of environmental health public benefits is 16 an excellent phrase and this brings to mind do 17 you think the problem of indoor air problems, 18 indoor air quality where we spend over 90 percent 19 of our time in confined systems, does it belong 20 in the Department of Environmental Protection or 21 do you have any plans to do something about it? 22 COMMISSIONER CAMPBELL: I think it 23 definitely belongs in the Department of 24 Environmental Protection. I think it is an area, 25 actually an area where I have also already spoken GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 26 1 with our health commissioner, Cliff Lacey, and I 2 think it is one of the too long neglected 3 problems that we face in terms of air challenges. 4 Most people spend most of their time indoors. 5 To the extent there are issues of exposure, that 6 is an area that we must address. We are also, 7 it is also arising in other context, you know, 8 one of the most important management objectives 9 that I have at the Department is to get different 10 program elements to talk to one another, because 11 I think that's where we will make the best use of 12 our resources and the best decisions. 13 Right now, we have Super Fund cases 14 where volatile organic compounds coming from 15 groundwater are giving people in their own homes 16 unhealthy air, indoor air problems, Super Fund 17 problem, a testament to some of the complexity of 18 the challenges that we face on indoor air. 19 So I think that certainly should be 20 part of the agenda. 21 CHAIRMAN MAXWELL: Commissioner, 22 thank you, sir, for taking your time to be here. 23 I think on the part of the Council we agree with 24 your observation that the Governor has made some 25 fabulous cabinet choices and along that light GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 27 1 too, you have assembled a first rate team with 2 your assistant commissioners and the appointees 3 you have made. There are many fine folks in 4 Department of Environmental Protection that have 5 been there, and they are truly dedicated to the 6 environment and environmental protection, 7 protection of human health and you have enhanced 8 the Department by your presence and we appreciate 9 your bringing the energy, the insight and the 10 vision to New Jersey. Thank you very much. 11 COMMISSIONER CAMPBELL: Thank you. 12 CHAIRMAN MAXWELL: Next speaker is 13 Dorothy Bowers, the Chair for the National 14 Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and 15 Technology. We are delighted to have Dorothy 16 here today. She retired as the vice president of 17 environmental policy at Merck & Company. She 18 has had over 30 years of environmental management 19 in New Jersey, still very much involved in 20 environmental activities and on the board of New 21 Jersey Future which is a Smart Growth advisory 22 group. She is a member of the Environmental Law 23 Institute in Washington, which is part of the 24 leadership of the international standards 25 organizations and she's Chair of EPA's NACEPT. GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 28 1 We welcome you here today. 2 MS. BOWERS: Thank you very much 3 and thank you all for inviting me here. I would 4 like it to go on the record that I am not the 5 oldest living environmental professional in the 6 State of New Jersey, Irwin Zonis and Ray 7 Manganelli were here before me, so they get the 8 credit for being here longest. 9 I think I am going to talk today 10 about a report that was recently released by the 11 National Advisory Council for Environmental 12 Policy and Technology. NACEPT is one of the two 13 major advisory councils to the administrator, one 14 is the Science Advisory Board which is bigger 15 than what we do and the second is the Policy 16 National Advisory Council on Environmental Policy 17 and Technology, the biggest strength is their 18 position from state agencies, private groups, 19 business and industry, government agencies and 20 NGOs, and so it really brings a cross-section of 21 people together to advise the administrator and 22 brings a broad expertise that is very difficult 23 for an administrator to find anywhere else, so I 24 think NACEPT is a very powerful organization. 25 The previous administrator actually asked NACEPT GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 29 1 to do something for her and the charge was that 2 we look at how EPA might vision into the future 3 and look at how it should be changing itself so 4 that it is prepared to deal with future issues. 5 So we did that and we couldn't resist while we 6 were trying to figure out what the process would 7 be to do some looking into the future on our own, 8 and as a consequence of looking into the future, 9 we published a report that has a very long list 10 of recommendations to EPA that Administrator 11 Whitman sat down with us, spent over an hour, 12 actually going through the recommendations that 13 the Council made for EPA's future. 14 Now, that gets me to how that 15 relates to the Clean Air Council in New Jersey. 16 Joe Spatola called me a few weeks ago and asked 17 me if I would give a talk here today and gave me 18 this list of questions that I ought to address, 19 and I thought that was quite a challenge for 30 20 minutes until I actually sat down with the list 21 and started comparing it with the NACEPT report 22 and found that the issues and the answers to the 23 extent that we were able to come up with answers 24 to these questions were really very much embodied 25 in the NACEPT report. So I decided that what I GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 30 1 would do is to take the presentation that we have 2 been using for the NACEPT report and make some 3 adjustments to it, hopefully to make it go a 4 little faster. But so that I don't reach in and 5 pull out things in an unrelated fashion, I am 6 going to go through the report and I am going to 7 highlight the things where I think there is 8 specific application to the issues that have been 9 raised by the CAC in New Jersey. 10 We organized our look into the 11 future across half a dozen themes. Again, I 12 found it very interesting that many of the 13 questions that have been put forward by the Clean 14 Air Council actually touch on many of these 15 themes, and I am not going to list them because I 16 am going to go through them one at a time. The 17 first one is population and demographics. We 18 basically very quickly came to the conclusion 19 that there were really underlying driving forces 20 for all environmental issues. The first one is 21 population, the second is consumption, and the 22 third is technology, and population drives 23 environmental issues. And so while we had for 24 the EPA a fairly high level list of 25 recommendations, some of them actually do apply GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 31 1 down at the state level. First was we urged EPA 2 to raise the level of awareness about sustainable 3 development. Well, that sounds like something 4 that you do on an international, national level 5 which is actually what we were recommending, but 6 when you bring that back down to the State of New 7 Jersey, it's relevant in exactly what 8 Commissioner Campbell was talking about, getting 9 our growth to happen in the centers where we have 10 infrastructure, planning transportation to 11 support that kind of Smart Growth and population 12 and demographics is as big a driver, I think, on 13 the state level as we saw it to be on a 14 national, international level. 15 The second item we recommended EPA 16 was that they try to facilitate the export of an 17 environmentally superior technologies to 18 developing countries. I might, as I did, add in 19 green here that applies as well to the State of 20 New Jersey that Department of Environmental 21 Protection and others should be encouraging the 22 adoption of environmentally superior technologies 23 in the State of New Jersey, and applying those in 24 U.S. facilities, just as much as we should be 25 trying to export them to developing countries. GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 32 1 The second area that we focused on 2 in our report was natural resources and right out 3 of the top popped up energy which is clearly 4 right at the top of your list of issues for 5 attention, and I am only going to skim through 6 these because I am not going to have a lot of 7 time to deal with all of them. But some of them 8 I think are probably properly at the level of 9 encouragement to EPA, clearly Department of 10 Environmental Protection in New Jersey don't have 11 a lot of access to establishing green vehicle 12 labeling programs or partners with the DOE on the 13 freedom CAR, but as those things happened in 14 Washington and happened at a higher level will be 15 important for the State of New Jersey to tap into 16 those and take advantage of them. 17 Just one item that I wanted to 18 encourage to the group here is the last one which 19 is we were recommending that EPA spur investment 20 in renewables and efficiency technologies through 21 the CAA state implementation plans. Well, that 22 is something that the State of New Jersey and 23 Department of Environmental Protection has the 24 power to do on its own, and try to find ways, as 25 Commissioner Campbell suggested, try to find ways GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 33 1 to stimulate innovations. State implementation 2 plans are one avenue for doing that. Some other 3 energy concepts that I think trickle down to New 4 Jersey, the second one on this list, we were 5 strongly recommending demonstration projects for 6 methane to hydrogen conversion and using hydrogen 7 energy technologies at POTWS. One of the 8 questions in your brochures is what are some of 9 the innovative technologies being used at 10 industry and what opportunities are there in the 11 public sector. We have a lot of POTWS in the 12 State of New Jersey, they generate a lot of 13 methane. And we have some very, very active and 14 aggressive skilled universities in the State of 15 New Jersey who are quiet capable of developing 16 and working on technologies to not only 17 demonstrate methane to hydrogen, but to look at 18 technologies for sequestering carbon, and 19 basically pushing the envelope of using hydrogen 20 as a primary energy carrier. 21 So, you know, I really think there 22 are a lot of opportunities here in New Jersey for 23 not just looking at our own energy needs but 24 pushing the energy alternative energy field 25 across the nation, across the world. GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 34 1 The second area that we looked at 2 under natural resources was water. Again, I am 3 not going to go through all of these. I will 4 have at the end of the presentation some copies 5 of these overheads for at least some people and 6 maybe the folks at Department of Environmental 7 Protection can duplicate more for others. 8 I'd like to actually kind of touch 9 on the second bullet here again. The NACEPT 10 Council was very adamant that we have to stop 11 looking at water quality and water supply as if 12 they are two different issues. They are not. 13 They are two sides of the coin and they have to 14 be dealt with holistically, and I think that is 15 one of the strengths of New Jersey state plan is 16 that it does look at how we grow and how we grow 17 relative to the infrastructure, the water supply, 18 the water quality that is there. Frankly, it is 19 just a start. We need to go a lot further, but 20 I think the way New Jersey is starting to look at 21 watersheds and using the State plan to direct 22 growth, I think really does offer a lot of 23 promise. 24 We also had several recommendations 25 on biodiversity, land use and food. And I would GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 35 1 like to just touch on the third bullet and where 2 we were recommending that EPA develop a 3 comprehensive list of biodiversity indicators to 4 give us some sense of how healthy are we 5 ecologically. In the State of New Jersey, the 6 previous governor created and funded an 7 organization called the New Jersey Sustainable 8 State Institute. It is housed at NJIT and 9 Rutgers who share the management of it. They 10 have just hired an executive director, and their 11 responsibility is to continue the report that was 12 first published by New Jersey Future called 13 Living With the Future in Mind, and subsequently 14 followed up by the Department of Environmental 15 Protection with a booklet called Governing with 16 the Future in Mind. And this organization, I 17 think will be at the leadership, not just in the 18 State of New Jersey, but in the country in trying 19 to help develop indicators of not just ecological 20 health but all of the indicators of a sustainable 21 state, education, safety, anything that you can 22 think of as being representative of quality of 23 life, I think that will be looked at by the 24 Sustainable State Institute. 25 Just to throw in a little bit of a GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 36 1 plug for the Department of Environmental 2 Protection. One of the recommendations the 3 Council made was to expand domestic and 4 international efforts to identify and control 5 invasive species. Department of Environmental 6 Protection about two years ago put together a 7 Comparative Risk Task Force to try to come up 8 with a procedure to evaluate risks and draw some 9 comparison. It was very interesting that one of 10 the high level risks that that group saw in the 11 State of New Jersey was the growing problem with 12 invasive species. At one point I think we had 13 it on the list as a bigger risk to the state, the 14 state's economy and ecological health than 15 mercury in the air. I am not sure if it still 16 stayed that high but at one point in time, we 17 certainly did rank it very high. 18 Continuing with natural resources, 19 we had recommended the EPA sponsoring research on 20 the cost and benefit of higher density community 21 development, that relates back to the state plan 22 and encouraging of growing happening in centers. 23 I just, this next one just struck me 24 because I came on -- I arrived yesterday 25 afternoon from a week's trip in Holland where I GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 37 1 stood on the soil and looked up at the dike, 2 realizing that the ocean was several feet above 3 my head, and then I looked at this bullet this 4 morning and said well, if we are going to assess 5 the ecological and economic impacts of sea level 6 rise from global warming, maybe we need to worry 7 that it is at LBI; LBI is probably pretty close 8 to sea level. 9 Getting closer to the focus of your 10 meeting today, air programs, I began focus on -- 11 although let me touch on the first one since the 12 issue of indoor air was brought up, we 13 recommended to EPA that they continue with a 14 partnership that has been initiated called 15 Healthy Buildings, Healthy People. 16 The second bullet, Developing a 17 Total Human Exposure Approach to Air Emissions is 18 from multiple, diffuse sources. Similarly to 19 the issue in water, we really felt that we have 20 to stop just looking at air emissions from 21 industry, air emissions from transportation, air 22 emissions from a multitude of diverse and 23 unregulated and unmeasured and unmonitored 24 sources, and really look at what is the exposure 25 to the human element and that if we are going to GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 38 1 do that, we really need a lot of new technical 2 innovations in modeling and monitoring, as you 3 suggest in the questions in the brochure for 4 today's meeting. 5 I saw another similarity in our 6 suggestion that EPA support R&D for advanced 7 transit systems, including commercial vehicles, 8 and in fact one of the things that we talked 9 about was off-road construction vehicles and the 10 need to get those emissions managed as well as we 11 have for our highway vehicles. Support research 12 on ultraclean coal technology. I hadn't 13 highlighted that, but as I look at it now, it 14 reminds that at NJIT, Stevens, Rutgers, we have 15 very well-qualified graduate programs and 16 scientists who could be focused on technology 17 development for clean coal. 18 I was in Vancouver British Columbia 19 a few weeks ago and several of the coal companies 20 in Canada were announcing a joint venture to 21 develop clean coal technology. We really put a 22 lot of stake on development of science and 23 technology frankly so much so that one of the EPA 24 reviewers who looked at our draft document 25 suggested that we were looking at pie in the sky. GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 39 1 We thought about that and talked about that for e 2 quite a long time, and I think it is not pie in 3 the sky. There are a lot of science 4 developments, there are a lot of technological 5 developments that we are not taking advantage of 6 and can go a long way to solving problems. I am 7 not suggesting that we can solve all of our 8 problems with science and invention and 9 technology, but I think we don't really take as 10 much advantage of the opportunities as we could. 11 And again, there were a lot of 12 similarities in what we recommended to EPA such 13 as creating investment partnerships for energy 14 efficient technologies which, in our discussion 15 included environmentally friendly buildings and 16 promoting beneficial developments in 17 biotechnology and nanotechnology. 18 I will talk a couple minutes about 19 that. One of the specific questions that Joe 20 asked me to address, what is happening, what are 21 the leading edge things in industry that will 22 help reduce emissions and do those have some 23 opportunities for the public sector. Certainly 24 biotechnology and nanotechnology, I come from the 25 pharmaceutical industry, that is my background, I GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 40 1 know that when 20 years ago, 25 years ago when a 2 process came to me for manufacturing and I had to 3 evaluate the environmental impact, I was looking 4 at only a 40 or 50 step brutal force series of 5 chemical reactions to make the molecule that we 6 needed to make for the medical effect. Every 7 one of those steps had waste, byproduct, used 8 chemicals and then threw them away because you 9 really had only one way to get from all of these 10 building blocks up to the final molecule. There 11 is a new technology called nanotechnology, I 12 don't profess to be able to explain how it works, 13 I guess it is just too long since I got my 14 engineering degree, but I do know enough to know 15 that it will take away a lot of that force 16 requirement and allow molecular transformations 17 to take place with significantly more significant 18 operations. 19 If you look at the other side of 20 nanotechnology, it probably offers significant 21 opportunity to the public sector in treating 22 wastes, in being able to separate metals from 23 wastewater, for example, and as this technology 24 evolves in the industrial side, I think you will 25 see a lot of it trickle down to public sector GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 41 1 application. 2 We had a lot of discussion about 3 information management, again, it will be in the 4 overheads I want to show you; it is also in the 5 report which I urge you to take a look at on the 6 web page. Again, at the bottom here, we 7 recommended investing and incorporating 8 geospatial technologies into rule-making 9 regulatory compliance procedures. New Jersey 10 has been doing that for almost a decade now with 11 the GIS system which is effective in helping the 12 state. Remote sensing, watershed mapping, those 13 activities have been going on in New Jersey and 14 are part of the technologies that we recommended 15 to EPA. Economics in commerce, were there is 16 business there of environmental issues and we 17 felt that the way to deal with that is to look at 18 linking economics and commerce with environmental 19 protection. 20 One of the items in our brochure is 21 how could DEP help prevent 9/11 tragedies and be 22 prepared for dealing with them. That is one of 23 the recommendations that we made to EPA, we 24 didn't have any answers, we just felt that 25 September 11 was as big an environmental disaster GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 42 1 as it was a human disaster and that EPA does 2 need, the EPA needs to address the concerns, then 3 the Department of Environmental Protection does 4 as well. Cumulative risk assessments being 5 comparative onto the risk assessments being 6 worked on in New Jersey. 7 Providing international assistance 8 to prevent ecological and economic development 9 failures. I am not sure that that has any 10 direct application to New Jersey other than for 11 the export of the technology and knowledge in New 12 Jersey companies who do provide technologies to 13 developing countries. 14 Politics and social evolution. I 15 guess this is probably pretty close to home. We 16 really saw at NACEPT a shift in the balance, 17 maybe not so much the balance of power, but the 18 relationships between governments, levels of 19 government and the power, and we really felt that 20 EPA had several roles to fulfill, one to enhance 21 their own capacity to evaluate performance at the 22 state level, tribal level and the local level, as 23 well as an obligation to enhance the State 24 capacities to carry out their delegated programs. 25 And to appropriately reinstate Federal oversight GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 43 1 for distressed or failing state programs. We 2 had in the text of the document, a fair bit of 3 discussion about the evolution of power to the 4 states and to the state agencies, and while we 5 didn't come out and actually recommend it as a 6 bullet item, the suggestion was to EPA that power 7 should be delegated to the level at which it is 8 best and appropriately applied, and we suggested 9 that a lot of that could be at the state level. 10 We encouraged EPA to engage non-government 11 organizations and non-traditional stakeholders in 12 community- based approaches to environmental 13 protection. And to support U.S. participation 14 in global environmental initiatives. Support 15 ongoing U.S. participation in global 16 environmental initiatives conventions. 17 DR. MANGANELLI: In that first 18 bullet that you have there, non-traditional 19 stakeholders, a little more clarification, 20 community based approaches, this I think is very 21 important, and I would like to get a better 22 picture on what you mean by non-traditional 23 stakeholders. 24 MS. BOWERS: I think we 25 traditionally look at the people who sit in this GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 44 1 room who participate in public hearings and the 2 public regulatory process as the traditional 3 stakeholders and what we were urging was that EPA 4 would engage, would explicitly go out to engage 5 other non-governmental organizations, and maybe 6 go into the community to get stakeholders who may 7 not really have participated in the public 8 regulatory process at this kind of a level. 9 The last slide that I have is one 10 where I thought it would be worthwhile trying to 11 bring it home and talk about what it is that 12 might happen in this room or in this knowledge to 13 provide incentives that would help the kind of 14 innovations that we know we need to try to help 15 them happen. 16 I have to go back to my background 17 as an environmental manager and basically bring 18 to you a list of things that I saw as an 19 environmental manager that would have helped 20 promote innovations. The first is regulatory 21 clarity. People who have an obligation to comply 22 with rules need to be able to understands what 23 they mean. This is, frankly, I don't know if 24 Irwin and Ray would agree, but in the 40 years 25 that I have been dealing with environmental GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 45 1 regulations, they seem to get more complicated 2 and less clear as time goes on. The second is 3 that we need supportive and creative permitting 4 for innovations. And I will tell you that I 5 know of many cases where the DEP has been 6 supportive, has been creative, has helped 7 stimulate and encourage innovation in their 8 permitting programs. We need a lot more of 9 that, and we need it to be not just in Department 10 of Environmental Protection but all over the 11 country. 12 I think the last, where I have all 13 the sub-bullets is really very important. 14 Innovations has risk. Innovations, there is 15 always a potential that innovations will fail. 16 So if we are going to encourage innovations, we 17 are going to encourage innovations technologies 18 and approaches, we have to first of all, we are 19 going to need regulators with vision and 20 creativity to help us look at those 21 opportunities. We are going to need 22 administration to administration support. 23 Innovation does not happen on a four-year 24 election cycle, I am not pointing fingers to any 25 specific administration transfer. I have been GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 46 1 around for 40 years, long enough to have seen a 2 number of administrations transfer. It has been 3 a problem, and it is a disincentive to both the 4 regulator to stick his neck out and that a chance 5 on trying something new as it is to somebody who 6 needs a permit to take a chance on trying 7 something new. We need a public process for 8 evaluating that risk and deciding that the risk, 9 small or large, deciding that it is worthwhile. 10 I almost hesitate to put this down because the 11 model for evaluating public risk is Super Fund 12 which is not working very well, but we do need a 13 way to do that. 14 The last item is that we may need a 15 way to share the cost of innovations. There is 16 a cost of innovations, there is a cost of not 17 innovating. And we need to have this tied into 18 the public processes so that if we decide that we 19 will go ahead and take a chance on innovations, 20 the risk is shared. If we decide not to go 21 ahead with an innovative approach, we know that 22 costs that we are paying for that is shared. 23 And I think I probably well have 24 gone over my time limit, but there's a lot more 25 in this report, as I said, we spent well over an GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 47 1 hour with the EPA administrator going over the 2 recommendations. The report is on the EPA 3 website, that web address is not on the copy that 4 I have so if you want to copy it down, it is www 5 dot EPA dot Government slash OCEMPAGE slash 6 NACEPT dash page, dot HTM. 7 Good luck. I'd be happy to answer a 8 few essential questions, depending on how much 9 time the chairman will give me. 10 CHAIRMAN MAXWELL: I will be happy 11 to offer you as much time as you want. I want 12 to say a special thanks to you, Dorothy, for 13 preparing this and coming here before our Council 14 and also a special note to Joe Spatola for having 15 the insight to reach out to you, thank you. Any 16 questions? 17 MR. PAPENBERG: You had mentioned 18 on your presentation about assessing the total 19 risk that a resident may be exposed to. You 20 have seen the cumulative exposure reports that 21 have come out recently, haven't you? 22 MRS. BOWERS: To tell you the truth, 23 I am retired and I stopped reading all those 24 reports. Yes, I am aware -- I am aware that 25 there is an emerging technology. I am not able GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 48 1 to comment on, you know, I don't have a few a 2 view on how good or bad they are. Frankly, the 3 Council did not have experts in this area either 4 and our recommendation was not so much that we 5 hand-picked any particular model or any 6 particular approach but that it is time for us to 7 find an appropriate approach. 8 MR. PAPENBERG: I thought it would 9 be interesting to get your feedback on the 10 reports that have come out from I believe the 11 EPA, specifically as it relates to New Jersey and 12 using the data from the Right to Know reporting 13 from industries as well as the data from 14 Automobile Use and things of that nature. 15 MRS. BOWERS: There is no question 16 there is a lot of information out there, and it 17 just by and large isn't available to us in the 18 most meaningful form. 19 MR. ZONIS: Dorothy, one of the 20 things I find troubling about the subject of 21 innovations is that we continue to reinvent the 22 wheel or try to reinvent the wheel. What 23 specifically comes to mind is cleaning up the 24 emissions resulting from the generation of 25 electric energy. I know that there were GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 49 1 hundreds of million dollars starting in the late 2 '60s and '70s and early '90s, both by private 3 funds, by the utilities and by grants from the 4 Department of Energy and from EPA in developing a 5 whole series of innovative processes for 6 controlling car pollution emissions from the 7 burning of coal and so on. And here we are in 8 the new millennium and seems to me that we are 9 starting all over again. I think that perhaps 10 the results of some of these projects were not 11 entirely satisfactory from an economic standpoint 12 and when the price of oil and gas dropped, these 13 were put on the shelf. But time after time 14 there have been relatively successful projects, 15 oil Shell operation out in Denver comes to mind 16 where a beautiful, stainless steel plant was 17 built and never once operated because of the 18 price of raw materials dropped. Did NACEPT ever 19 consider some way of trying to resurrect the past 20 or try to restore valid innovative techniques 21 that have been put on the shelf to active 22 consideration. I find that an area of 23 frustration. 24 MRS. BOWERS: I think we share the 25 same frustration, although I am not quite as GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 50 1 pessimistic as you are, and I can think of 2 cobaltic tar sands are being used and the 3 technology is, I think, effective. And so, you 4 know, frankly, I think there are technologies 5 that are before their time and they get put on 6 the shelves. And we did urge EPA to look at a 7 lot of development work that it has done and it 8 has sponsored and paid for in the past to see if 9 it still, if it could be made applicable now in a 10 time that is perhaps ready for it. But I think, 11 realistically, we will continue to reinvent the 12 wheel, I am afraid that is part of technology. 13 CHAIRMAN MAXWELL: Any other 14 questions from the Council. 15 (No response.) 16 CHAIRMAN MAXWELL: Thank you very 17 much, that was enlightening, and we appreciate 18 you coming here and sharing with us and with the 19 folks in the audience here and the participants 20 here views that you have. Thank you. 21 I want to tick off a list of folks 22 that are scheduled to speak so you have a sense. 23 Next is Carlos Rodrigues. 24 Mr. Rodrigues. 25 MR. RODRIGUES: I am the Acting GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 51 1 Director of Office of State Planning/Smart Growth 2 and the Department of Community Affairs. Thank 3 you for inviting me here this morning to speak to 4 you on the theme of innovative solutions to clean 5 air. Really what I am here to do is to talk a 6 little bit about the New Jersey State Development 7 and Redevelopment Plan which is a document that 8 was in its latest version adopted by the State 9 Planning Commission in March of 2001. The State 10 Planning Commission is a board that has public 11 members and state agency representatives much 12 like this one, 17 members altogether. 13 Just sort of to give you a little 14 bit of background, New Jersey has had state 15 planning for a very long time, something that 16 most people don't realize. I think most people 17 think that state planning started here in 1995 18 with the passage of the State Planning Act and 19 the adoption in 1992 of the New Jersey State 20 Development and Redevelopment Plan but, in fact, 21 New Jersey's first State Plan was adopted in 22 1934. That's right. And we had a State Plan 23 in the '50s and another one in the '70s. And 24 many of the ideas that were contained in this 25 document from 1934 are still very, very much GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 52 1 current today, and we have sort of come full 2 term, if you will, in a number of areas. 3 But the idea, for example, that we 4 need to develop in compact forms that our land 5 development pattern is very important and that 6 the compact form needs places where people can 7 walk and bicycle and that are supportive of 8 transit is a very old idea, as you all now know, 9 because that's the way we built our communities 10 for hundreds of years. And so while we took a 11 detour and sort of forgot that basic principle of 12 developing communities, particularly in the 13 period after the Second World War, these ideas 14 were embodied in earlier planning documents that 15 we had. So the 1934 State Plan talks about air 16 quality in terms of the problems that existed at 17 the time which was mostly smoke stack pollution 18 that was focused mostly in urban areas. That 19 was the issue at the time. That is not so much 20 the issue that we have today. And the plan that 21 we adopted about a year ago talks about air 22 quality in a contemporary context, which still 23 has the pollution coming from stationary sources, 24 but also has pollution from mobile sources, 25 particularly from pollution, the State Plan's GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 53 1 focus on air resource while the State Plan does 2 have a series of policies and it has specifically 3 a set of policies on air resources that talk 4 about clean fields and clean technologies and all 5 of that, but the real promise of the State Plan 6 is not so much this sort of technological mix, 7 but it really is addressing the underlying cause 8 of the problems which are, in our opinion, the 9 pattern of development. The more dispersed we 10 develop, the more we rely on vehicles to get 11 around, the more air pollution we have from those 12 mobile sources. And so the Smart Growth approach 13 to this is dealing with the underlying problem to 14 the extent that we can. 15 Now, I think I know that both of the 16 earlier speakers talked about Smart Growth and 17 talked about the State Plan, and I am sure that 18 you are thinking that all of this was carefully 19 scripted and that we came in here with a 20 coordinated message. In fact, it wasn't. This 21 is not carefully scripted. But what you are 22 seeing is the fact that we are all sort of 23 talking about the same things is that there is 24 emerging, there seems to be emerging consensus 25 that these are very important things that we need GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 54 1 to address, and this is a consensus that is 2 coming from a broad range of perspectives and 3 backgrounds. So it is not just the planners 4 that are talking about this, but it is a whole 5 host of other people. 6 I should say that the science behind 7 this, the science behind the valuation of the 8 benefits from an air quality as well as other 9 perspectives have compact mixed use, traditional 10 type of land development versus what we might 11 call, for lack of a better word, sprawl, which is 12 a dispersed single use, low-density pattern of 13 the development. The science on that is spotty 14 and for people who like to have absolute, hard 15 science evidence in front of them before they 16 make a decision, I have to say that we are not 17 quite there yet, in those terms. But there is 18 enough anecdotal evidence and enough evidence 19 coming from empirical studies as well as modeling 20 exercises to suggest that there are, in fact, 21 significant benefits along a whole array of 22 factors to developing more compact, more 23 pedestrian and transit forms. For example, a 24 number of studies that were conducted recently by 25 the U.S. EPA, the natural resources with Defense GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 55 1 Council and others comparing similar 2 neighborhoods suggests that in traditional, 3 compact communities people are four times more 4 likely to walk for everyday trips than in sort of 5 typical suburban subdivision. That people in 6 compact communities may drive 50 to 60 percent 7 less miles and may, in fact, make up to 50 8 percent less vehicle trips. Now, all of this, 9 as you can imagine, translates significantly, 10 these differences in travel behavior will 11 translate into less greenhouse gas emissions, 12 improved air quality, et cetera. But, and here 13 is the thing with Smart Growth, it's not just 14 about air quality, it is about a whole host of 15 other issues. We are only just now beginning to 16 understand this. Getting people out of their 17 cars and on their feet is just as important, for 18 example, from a public health point of view as 19 from an air quality perspective. The M.D.s on 20 this Council will tell you better than I can that 21 we are seeing alarming rates of increase in the 22 rates of obesity nationally, and the Center for 23 Disease Control is doing the research that shows 24 a direct correlation between that and the pattern 25 of development that we live in. GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 56 1 Now, this is particularly striking 2 with regards to children and, by the way, the New 3 Jersey Department of Health released a report in 4 the fall of last year that suggests that the 5 population of New Jersey is getting fat, similar 6 type of evidence. But this is particularly 7 striking with regards to kids. 8 Let me give you an example just a 9 few sort of facts from New Jersey to bring this 10 home. We have about 1.3 million kids in our 11 public school system in New Jersey and roughly 12 half of those are bused every day to and from 13 school by a fleet of over 20,000 school buses. 14 Countless others are driven to and from school by 15 their parents, their nannies, their neighbors, 16 whomever. 17 Now, as an aside, an interesting 18 aside now, we know because the State of New 19 Jersey subsidizes this type of travel behavior to 20 the tune of about $280 million a year. And so 21 there is a very, very good accounting of every 22 child and every school district that is on a 23 school bus. 24 The kids who are not part of the bus 25 population we know nothing about. We have GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 57 1 absolutely no idea how they get to and from 2 school, whether they walk, walk by themselves, if 3 they walk with their friends, if they walk with 4 their parents, we know absolutely nothing. The 5 data collection process that we have is entirely 6 focused and centered on vehicular trips. This 7 is the same situation that we have with regards 8 to any other kinds of trips. We know an awful 9 lot about every vehicle trip that is done in New 10 Jersey, we know nothing about trips that people 11 make on foot or on bicycle. So our own data 12 collection system sort of reflects this bias and 13 makes it very difficult for us to get our arms 14 around the part of travel that is not done 15 through cars. 16 But to get back to our example with 17 public school children. The rate of busing is 18 not equal among school districts. There are 19 obviously school districts that have much higher 20 rates of kids in school buses than others. And 21 this is directly correlated, I think, to the 22 underlying land development pattern. In 23 traditional communities where there are sidewalks 24 and where there is a sufficient density of 25 development and kids live relatively close to GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 58 1 neighborhood schools, they will walk or bicycle 2 to school. And so you have less kids on buses. 3 More recent communities that are more dispersed 4 that have no sidewalks, that have no pedestrian 5 infrastructure or have spotty pedestrian 6 infrastructure, that have large streets, heavy 7 traffic that are dangerous to cross, kids will, 8 even when they live close enough to walk to 9 school, will not walk because it is not a 10 pleasant experience and parents are reluctant to 11 let them do that, it is dangerous. 12 So, the underlying sort of land 13 development pattern here has a tremendous 14 influence on the behavior, the travel behavior of 15 these kids. By the way, recent studies in 16 California are suggesting that the air quality 17 inside the school buses, because they are all 18 diesel-powered, is a problem inside the buses as 19 it is outside the buses. 20 So, the promise, if you will, or the 21 challenge of the State Plan is to make changes, 22 changes to the underlying land use pattern that 23 can give us back the types of communities where 24 people, not just school kids, everybody can walk 25 to school, to work, to shop, recreation, to civic GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 59 1 activities and to, you know, civic activities 2 like this meeting that we are at here today. 3 These types of changes are not changes that we 4 can achieve in the short term, it is not a 5 short-term vision. It took us 50 years to get 6 where we are now, it will take us a long time to 7 reverse this trend, but I think what you are 8 seeing is an emerging consensus that this is 9 something that we need to do, that we need to do 10 urgently. And in New Jersey, we are fortunate in 11 having the State Plan as a guiding framework that 12 will help us to achieve that goal. 13 Thank you. 14 CHAIRMAN MAXWELL: Questions. 15 MR. McCARTY: One of the problems 16 you will have to address with the busing issue 17 for schools is with the Department of Education, 18 the requirements that they have for school 19 construction and the amount of space that they 20 require for a new school construction to kind of 21 preclude the neighborhood schools, and I think 22 there's going to have to be some work with that 23 agency to coordinate what you are trying to do. 24 MR. RODRIGUES: Yes, you are 25 absolutely right. There needs to be better GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 60 1 understanding by all state agencies of the 2 principles of Smart Growth, and we need to have 3 those principles then incorporated in the 4 agencies' procedures, in the rules and 5 regulations and the way they spend their money. 6 We have now what we didn't have 7 before which is a Smart Growth Policy Council, I 8 think Commissioner Campbell talked about that 9 earlier. That is the appropriate venue for 10 those issues to come out to be discussed, and to 11 be resolved. You are right. 12 The National Trust for Historic 13 Preservation released a publication called Why 14 Johnny Can't Walk to School. It shows how school 15 construction throughout the country is a very 16 important factor in fueling sprawl. 17 MR. ALI: It strikes me that we have 18 been hearing these things over the last 10 years 19 or so, Smart Growth, compact growth and cleaning 20 up everything, brown fields, talking about 21 hearing from the grapevine all common knowledge 22 that they are saying that they want to develop 23 the centers and they are counted and being in 24 more development, having more difficulty, air 25 pollution or traffic jams or congestion and GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 61 1 crimes and things like that. 2 If you go around the State, you will 3 find out, you don't have to go to Newark, you can 4 go to Camden, you will find out that you don't 5 have to do that, you can go right here, what is 6 the situation of the real estate here, go to 7 Hamilton Street and find a big development going 8 on, those are landmarks. Is there any state 9 policy or plan thinking about cleaning up the 10 downtowns altogether, having a trust corporation, 11 whatever, to have an inventory of all the houses 12 boarded up and give it to people coming from -- 13 people go to Gloucester County, they do not go to 14 Camden. What is the real problem behind it. 15 The policy is good, philosophy is good but people 16 are saying it doesn't work, how can we make it 17 work? 18 MR. RODRIGUES: Well, I have a 19 slightly more optimistic perspective on things. 20 It is working in bits and pieces, not everybody 21 but if we look carefully and if we monitor 22 carefully what is happening out there, I think 23 there are reasons for optimism. It hasn't 24 reached Carroll Street yet, Camden is a 25 particular thorny issue which will require some GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 62 1 very bold incentives which we may not have yet. 2 But I think we are seeing a renewed interest on 3 the part of both the development community and on 4 the part of the private marketplace for both 5 housing and jobs in returning to places that 6 would qualify as centers under the State Plan. 7 In other words, places that are compact, that 8 are mixed use where people can walk, of any size. 9 And the State Plan is not just about 10 the '70s, it has a hierarchy of centers that goes 11 from the larger cities like Newark and New 12 Brunswick and Trenton and Camden all the way down 13 to hamlets which are very small units, but they 14 all have certain things in common. 15 But I think that if you talk to the 16 real estate community, you will see that they've 17 sort of reached these conclusions on their own, 18 based on their own analysis of what is going on 19 out there and where the marketplace is going. 20 Many of the larger developers in New Jersey are 21 very busy scouting urban sites and are very busy 22 developing expertise in urban redevelopment and 23 it is not just the Hudson waterfront that is 24 coming back big time, but there are a lot of 25 older industrial towns that are past that, you GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 63 1 know, phase where you had hundreds and hundreds 2 of acres abandoned and sort of no interest to 3 anyone, but are very actively thriving, using the 4 redevelopment statutes that we have in New 5 Jersey, very active developing plans, shopping 6 around for redevelopers and moving ahead. 7 So, I am optimistic that it is 8 happening anyway. It is not happening at the 9 rate that we'd like to see it happen, but it is 10 certainly heads and shoulders above where we were 11 five years ago, for example. And you will see if 12 you look at the building, where building permits 13 are being issued, you will see that there's, for 14 the last five years or so, there's been a shift, 15 there continues to be a shift with more and more 16 building permits occurring in urban 17 municipalities or in municipalities that have 18 these traditional characteristics as opposed to 19 just happening in towns, you know, where this 20 stuff is being built in the middle of cornfields. 21 So there are reasons. I know we 22 have all been talking about this and hearing 23 about it for a long, long time, and things didn't 24 seem to be happening, but I think they are 25 happening now. GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 64 1 MR. ALI: Do you have a crystal ball 2 in seeing in the future where there will be no 3 boarded houses n New Jersey? 4 MR. RODRIGUES: No. 5 MR. SPATOLA: Smart Growth requires 6 an integrated public transportation system in the 7 state, how do you see that being accomplished 8 here in New Jersey? 9 MR. RODRIGUES: Well, you know, New 10 Jersey is very fortunate in that it has a very 11 extensive rail network, very extensive. Some of 12 it has been abandoned. 13 MR. SPATOLA: A lot go to New York 14 or Philadelphia. 15 MR. RODRIGUES: That's true, and 16 that reflects the nature of this state which is 17 split between these two major metropolitan areas. 18 These two large poles of attraction. You are 19 right, and we can move people in and out of those 20 metropolitan areas relatively easily, although 21 those trains are very crowded these days. But 22 it is the areas that have developed in the last 23 50 years that were not very good at serving with 24 public transit. And the reason largely is that 25 the densities there do not support transit. So GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 65 1 it is a real problem. 2 Now, we also don't need to be stuck 3 on sort of the 19th Century times of transit, the 4 19th Century transit models, the spoke and hub 5 model. We have a more centralized pattern of 6 development, and we need much more flexible 7 approach to transit that demand smaller vehicles, 8 and I think that is an area that we need to 9 explore and that is an area where technology can 10 help us. New Jersey Transit is largely -- has 11 been largely focused on the rail and sort of 12 conventional bus operations. Then we have a 13 whole series of other types of transit that are 14 mostly run by TMA's which are local, you know, 15 county based organizations. I think there's 16 considerable promise for those types of more 17 flexible approaches to expand transit out into 18 areas that are already developed but don't have 19 the underlying density to support the more 20 traditional type of transit. 21 MR. EGENTON: Carlos, one 22 consideration when you are very interested in 23 your assessment of the children being bused to 24 school, I have a son and daughter and I am in 25 that dilemma. I think one of the issues you GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 66 1 need to also take a look at and address are 2 certain basic quality of life issues. I know 3 as a parent there is an issue of safety, we don't 4 live in the "Leave it to Beaver" world anymore 5 where back in the '70s when I walked to school, 6 my mother never had to fear for me on coming home 7 and making sure a predator or God knows, your 8 next-door-neighbor who you thought you trusted, 9 those are real life issues, and I bring it home 10 to you. And I talk to a lot of parents and they 11 are concerned about that. 12 And although I agree with you, and I 13 see the congestion of parents bringing their kids 14 to school vis-a-vis their cars. I am under the 15 two-mile limit close to school but obviously I 16 don't want my 7-year-old daughter walking to 17 school, out of fear there is a certain area where 18 she walks where there is no crossing guard, there 19 is no police protection. 20 So, I think times have changed too, 21 and I think until we address basic quality of 22 life security issues, you are going to have 23 situations like that. 24 MR. RODRIGUES: Yes, it is not an 25 easy thing to fix from a number of different GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 67 1 perspectives. I actually trust my neighbors, so 2 I am not expecting them to do anything weird. 3 But, yes, security is an issue, you 4 know, so in many places or in some places you do 5 have the infrastructure, the kids are close 6 enough to schools to walk, but there are safety 7 concerns that need to be addressed and those 8 can't be forgotten, they need to be looked at, 9 too. 10 I think what we need to do is get, 11 in this particular case, I don't mean to be 12 picking on schools, but I think it is a very 13 compelling sort of case study, I think what we 14 need to do is get school boards and planning 15 boards and municipal government and the 16 Department of Education focusing on the issue, 17 which they are not now. Most school boards are 18 not focusing on this issue. Planning, because 19 they think it is a planning board issue, planning 20 boards think it is a school board issue, 21 everybody thinks it is someone else's concern and 22 it's sort of lost in the shuffle. 23 I think what we need to do is get 24 people focused on the issue and then develop the 25 approaches and approaches will differ from GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 68 1 community to community, depending on the 2 situations, from neighborhood to neighborhood. 3 In some places you have parents groups that 4 organized parents groups, that walk their kids to 5 school so every day you have a different parent 6 whose job it is to take, you know, half a dozen 7 kids from that block, walk them to school, walk 8 back, and that gives them the sense of, you know, 9 comfort, the margin of comfort that they need 10 because they are there for the predators, they 11 are there for the traffic, they are there for all 12 of those things. That is one approach. And we 13 need to -- people are doing that on their own 14 because they feel that they should, we need to 15 pick up on those models, make them better known 16 and, in turn, provide incentives. 17 MR. EGENTON: I agree with you on 18 the air pollutions aspect. At our school, you 19 can see well over 100 cars sitting there idling 20 and you have to have better coordinated effort 21 and those models may be the type of models we 22 have to look at so maybe we can cut down on the 23 vehicles travelling to the schools, I agree. 24 CHAIRMAN MAXWELL: Thank you very 25 much. That is enlightening. I think we are GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 69 1 kind of seeing a theme here, something about 2 Smart Growth. 3 Next is Frank Sherman. 4 MR. SHERMAN: Good morning. My name 5 is Frank Sherman, and I work for Hillier which is 6 an architectural firm located up in Princeton, 7 New Jersey. I would like to speak towards some 8 of the issues of innovative solutions for clean 9 air. I would like to start off by first thanking 10 Dorothy Bowers for a great report, and I have 11 used the NACEPT report as a springboard for the 12 ideas that I would like to talk about today. 13 I would like to start off with a 14 quote from a NACEPT report and that is that, 15 "Poor environmental quality is already estimated 16 to be directly responsible for about 25 percent 17 of all preventable ill health in the world today, 18 with diarrhea and acute respiratory infections 19 heading the list." Clearly, the quality of our 20 environment has a direct affect on our health and 21 well-being. More than 17 million Americans 22 suffer from asthma and respiratory illnesses, and 23 4.8 million of them are children. 24 One of the arguments I would like to 25 make is that economic and environmental GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 70 1 well-being are ultimately inseparable. Even as 2 we move away from a manufacturing economy towards 3 information and service, our economic enterprises 4 are still based on making things and using 5 natural resources. Our economic strength is 6 tied to our command over and wise use of these 7 resources. When our natural resources are 8 poorly managed and wasted, we see the evidence in 9 the form of pollution and a degraded 10 environment. One of the things I would like to 11 put forth is that the future economic health of 12 the State of New Jersey is dependent in no small 13 measure upon strategies that promote a healthy 14 environment through pollution prevention, wise 15 resource use and sustainable development. Also 16 I'd like to thank the State Plan for lifting some 17 images out of their report last night. 18 Sustainable development is the use of natural 19 resources in a way that meets our needs today 20 without depleting those resources and without 21 hindering the ability of future generations to 22 meet their needs. To be able to use to meet our 23 needs today without hindering the ability of 24 future generations to meet their needs. That is 25 one of the cores of sustainable development. GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 71 1 Ultimately the goal would be in this state to be 2 able to work in grand balance now and for many 3 years to come. The not so simple challenge for 4 the State of New Jersey is to promote sustainable 5 development on a macro level, while fostering 6 regional economic development and a healthy 7 diverse economy. 8 Well, so what does this have to do 9 with clean air and buildings? Some statistics 10 here. Commercial buildings in the U.S., they 11 consume more than 36 percent of all the primary 12 energy usage, 65 percent of the total U.S. 13 electricity consumption. 30 percent of the 14 total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are created 15 by commercial buildings. We create 136 million 16 tons of construction and demolition waste. We 17 use 12 percent of all potable water in the U.S. 18 and 40 percent of the raw materials used 19 globally. This consumption of waste creates 20 waste in the form of solid waste and 21 contamination of our water and air. The concept 22 of waste to me is intriguing. We don't seem to 23 worry about waste when we have an excess of 24 resources to use. But we begin to worry about 25 waste issues when we see those resources being GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 72 1 depleted or compromised in some way. 2 Nature, on the other hand, looks at 3 waste differently. The model of nature is that 4 waste equals food. Waste produced by one 5 organism or process becomes the feedstock for 6 another organism or process. Eloquently simple. 7 The beauty of nature is the fact that it can take 8 incredibly complex diverse actions and express 9 them in simple, beautiful ways and if we, in our 10 actions, and in our technology can duplicate 11 nature, then we have gone a long way of creating 12 sustainable development in the state and in the 13 world in general. But in nature nothing is 14 wasted, and the cycle of foot to waste to food is 15 closed and infinitely works. Ultimately, as 16 architects, designers, planners,inventors and 17 manufacturers, we need to eliminate the concept 18 of waste and treat pollution is a design failure. 19 Emissions should be regarded as unsalable 20 products. If you can't sell it, you shouldn't 21 produce it and you should design it out of the 22 process. 23 Energy efficiency and conservation 24 are actually two effective ways that we can 25 reduce waste in the form of air pollution or in GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 73 1 the production of greenhouse gases. This waste 2 is produced by the design and operation of 3 buildings, by automobiles and by industrial 4 processes. Reduction in the amount of pollution 5 going into the environment from the production 6 and consumption of energy is one of the goals of 7 the NACEPT report. 8 The strategy they recommended to 9 achieve this is to: Move away from carbon based 10 energy sources toward renewable sources; to 11 reduce the amount of carbon-based fuel sources we 12 use through advances in technology and improved 13 efficiency and focus on the cleanest carbon fuel 14 sources for our current needs. 15 We have the ability to reduce the 16 demand for carbon-based energy by designing more 17 energy efficient buildings and systems, by using 18 alternative energy sources, by reducing the 19 overall amount of energy that we use on a 20 day-to-day basis and also able to design 21 buildings that use less materials and resources, 22 that re-use -- that are less -- that we can use 23 materials that are less energy intensive to 24 extract and produce, and we can use local and 25 regional materials that reduce pollution GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 74 1 generated in transportation and handling. We 2 also need to design buildings with a sensitivity 3 toward climate, site and region. Building 4 strategies that are suited to the Northeast are 5 not very often strategies for buildings that are 6 in the Southeastern United States. Very often 7 buildings do not acknowledge issues such as heat, 8 sunlight, cold, humidity, wind and orientation 9 and these ultimately are less efficient, use more 10 energy to compensate for their flaws, and 11 contribute to a more polluted and less healthful 12 environment. 13 Actually, there is another aspect to 14 air quality and the built environment and that is 15 indoor air quality. 16 To quote the EPA report "Healthy 17 Buildings, Healthy People: A Vision for the 21st 18 Century": 19 "From the perspective of human 20 health, indoor air quality may well pose the 21 greatest environmental risk." 22 It is estimated that the average 23 American spends 90 percent of their time indoors 24 with a good portion of that in a working 25 environment. Health and well-being play a large GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 75 1 role in our ability to work, learn and in our 2 overall productivity. Currently, one of the 3 most effective ways of improving air quality in 4 commercial and public buildings in this country 5 is through the use and promotion of the U.S. 6 Green Building Council's "LEED Green Building 7 Rating System," and I will tell you about that. 8 First I will tell you about Green 9 Building Council is a national nonprofit 10 organization based in Washington D.C., made up of 11 a diverse member of organizations, it is 12 consensus driven and committee based, in its 13 approach to product development and developer and 14 administrator of the LEED Green Building Rating 15 System. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy 16 and Environmental Design. It is the measurement 17 system designed to measure new and commercial 18 institutions and high-rise residential buildings 19 and based on accepted energy and environmental 20 principles and strikes a balance between known 21 effective practices and emerging concepts. 22 What I will say is that it is not 23 all about new technology, we very often forget 24 traditional wisdom, and there are simple things 25 that you can do as well as enhance strategies GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 76 1 through innovative Technology. 2 LEED is organized into five 3 environmental categories, they look at 4 sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and 5 atmosphere, materials and resources and indoor 6 environmental quality. 7 One of the things I also want to 8 stress about LEED, LEED really promotes an 9 integrated approach to design green and high 10 performance buildings. They acknowledge that no 11 issue is stand-alone, every issue has a direct 12 impact and can work synergistically with 13 solutions and other issues in designing a 14 building or effecting an environment. 15 One of the things that you were 16 seeing in terms of Smart Growth and State 17 Planning is the complexity and the interactions 18 between different needs and issues. One of the 19 beauties of a sustainable design approach is that 20 you can, in a way throughout approach, begin to 21 actually have solution multipliers where a 22 solution can lead you to be able to address 23 positively a number of different issues and be 24 able to effect positive change on a number of 25 different levels. GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 77 1 With the exception of water 2 efficiency, each of the categories up here 3 actually has a direct effect on air quality. 4 Were you to choose site a buildings, how you use 5 site strategies can affect pollution quality of 6 air. Clearly energy and atmosphere, the kind of 7 energy you use and the strategies used to design 8 the building will affect both the quality of the 9 air, the amount of energy that it takes to run 10 that building, the amount of pollution that 11 building will generate, materials and resources 12 chosen obviously will also help reduce pollution 13 through manufacture and transportation or 14 extraction and processing, but also many 15 materials in and of themselves contribute 16 directly to poor indoor air quality, health and 17 we will also look the issues such as that. 18 Improving indoor air quality through the careful 19 design and specification knowledge is achievable 20 and quiet necessary. 21 The EPA report, "Healthy Buildings, 22 Healthy People" identifies major indoor human 23 health risks that include asthma, cancer, 24 reproductive and developmental problems among 25 other health effects. These come from the GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 78 1 exposure to radon, environmental tobacco smoke, 2 carbon monoxide, lead, chemical and biological 3 contaminants, all of those can be readily found 4 in buildings. 5 Chemical pollutants includes 6 Volatile Organic Compounds, VOCs. Organic 7 compounds are chemicals that essentially contain 8 carbon. Volatile organic compounds vaporize at 9 room temperature and pressure and become 10 airborne. That is basically one of the primary 11 ways we are getting exposed. They are found in 12 many indoor sources, including many common 13 household products and building materials. 14 Chemical pollutants include chlorinated solvents, 15 formaldehyde, heavy metals, pesticides and ground 16 level ozone among others. I won't profess to be 17 a chemist but all that stuff is out there. 18 Biological contaminants are also 19 more and more of a concern, this includes molds, 20 spores, fungi and bacteria. Very often we see 21 these as the base causes of Sick Building 22 Syndrome. Reducing the risk of indoor 23 contaminant exposure is readily achievable by 24 specifying low or no VOC paint, adhesives and 25 sealants and products that do not off-gas GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 79 1 chemicals. 2 The EPA report noted, "A number of 3 studies over the past decade tracked where people 4 actually experience the largest exposures to 5 different toxic chemicals. In a great majority 6 of cases, these exposures occur inside buildings. 7 While regulations have focused on emissions into 8 the outside environment, exposures are occurring 9 primarily in indoor environments. The exposure 10 comes from off gassing from carpets and 11 furniture, sunlight falling on plastics and other 12 materials, construction products, cleaning 13 products, office machines, mildew and molds, and 14 a variety of other sources." Condensation and 15 wet humid atmospheres contribute to the growth of 16 mold and fungi, often in walls and ventilation 17 systems. Improved construction techniques, 18 better mechanical system design, increased 19 ventilation and decreased air re-circulation all 20 contribute to the reduction of airborne 21 contaminants. 22 In all of these areas, LEED requires 23 very high levels of building design and 24 performance with a focus on creating superior 25 Indoor Air Quality and overall Indoor GUY J. RENZI & ASSOCIATES 80 1 Environmental Quality. 2 LEED actually has become a national 3 benchmark standard for the evaluation of green 4 and high performance buildings throughout the 5 country. Federal, state and regional 6 governments have adopted LEED as the performance 7 standard for new construction and renovation. 8 To list just a few of the organizations that use 9 LEED as both an incentive tool and performance 10 base tool for construction, the Department of 11 Defense; Department of Interior; the 12 Environmental Protection Agency; the National 13 Park Service; the GSA; the State of Pennsylvania; 14 City of Portland; City of Austin, Texas, and 15 Arlington County, Virginia. This is a standard 16 that is being studied and embraced on many 17 governmental levels as a way, as an incentive to 18 create better buildings, higher performance 19 buildings, and as a way to create a better built 20