We present both views here and offer “further reading” from Barnett. His treatise is much too long to display on the page. Kempf won a coin toss and goes first.
–EDITOR

By TIM KEMPF
In order to assess the air quality in the Treasure Valley one may rely on either of two methods-1) review the historical Air Quality Index (AQI) data that is available on the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality website, or 2) use the “If it quacks like a duck …” approach.

The first approach is very convincing as a simple plot of the data using the graph wizard with Microsoft Excel will show that the number of poor air quality days and the amount of pollution in our air is high and has increased over the past decade. It is also common knowledge for residents of the valley, and you will learn this very quickly after having recently moved to the area, that we experience strong temperature inversions which trap the air and allow for high levels of pollution to build.

Should you choose to use this first approach, I would caution you to consider that the distribution of the data is subject to the number of monitoring sites, the location of those sites and how Air Quality Index Alert Days are organized into categories. A true measure of the quantity of all pollutants in any location and at any time would surely reveal that our condition is even worse than often reported.

Now considering the second and more accurate approach, simply step outside, open your eyes and breathe. I do this everyday and when the air quality is particularly bad, as it has been for much of this spring and summer, I experience a visceral reaction that takes me back to my childhood days. I was born in the Conemaugh Valley of Greater Johnstown, Pennsylvania (coal country) and grew up in Pittsburgh, our country’s second most polluted city after Los Angeles. The haze that hangs over our valley, the bitter, metallic taste of the air and the headaches all remind me of home.

For those of you who still don’t believe and need more data I think a third approach might do the trick-a simple analysis of the relative change in the number of doctor’s office visits for individuals that have asthma or heart disease.

Oh, and one more thing, there are three primary reasons for all this pollution and they may be expressed in an old real estate mantra-cars, cars and cars.

EMISSIONS TAX SCAM

By MICHAEL BARNETT

Those writers calling for vehicle emissions testing outside Ada County are sadly misinformed victims of the air quality propaganda machine. If they look at the actual data - AQI indices, median, 95th percentile, etc. - they would find that, despite our growth, annual numbers have stayed within a fairly constant range since 2000, with 2003 being the highest - but still within NAAQS requirements.

Data also shows that motor vehicles are not the primary source of our problem pollutants. Per the latest, although somewhat dated, EPA emissions inventory numbers for our area, highway vehicles account for less than 1 percent of PM-2.5 and just under 25 percent of ozone precursor emissions.

Instead of whining about why nobody else has to test their cars, Ada County residents should instead be asking why they continue to pay what amounts to an emissions tax. Answer? It pours bucks into the treasury, and you’re easy pickings because you don’t have lawyers or lobbyists.

Emissions testing here, now, is akin to an ISP trooper showing up at your door and issuing you a speeding ticket because they think you might exceed the speed limit at some undetermined time in the future. Do you want government like that? I don’t.

By Michael Barnett

I’ve been reading through the articles and comments in the Boise Guardian, and am disappointed to see that the air quality propaganda machine is as successful as it seems to be. I see lots comments about “worse than LA”, “been going downhill since I’ve been here”, “Yellow and Orange Alerts”, “Lose federal dollars”, “economic doom”, “federal takeover”, etc. Please take a few moments and read “the other side”.

Treasure Valley air is in compliance with all National Ambient Air Quality Standards. That statement is not open for interpretation, regardless of what you think or what you hear. It is a fact of the law, whether you think the air is good or bad, or if you couldn’t care less. Might that change in the future? Sure, in fact it probably will, but more than likely it will change because EPA keeps tightening the standards and not because our air is actually getting worse. Also, you must remember that the law does not define “clean” air, it only defines a “dirty” air threshold and what happens when that is crossed, and we are not there – yet.

DEQ’s “Alerts” are a speculative forecast system and do not reflect the actual, calculated Air Quality Index for a particular day. They’re guessing. Sure, they’re equipped to do that, and that’s their job, but it’s still a guess. It’s not at all unusual for the documented AQI for a particular day to be as many as 50 points below what DEQ predicted it would be – but they almost never miss on the low side. Hmmm… DEQ’s Chicken Little air quality Alert system seldom, if ever, matches what the EPA reports real-time on their Region 10 website. In a recent Idaho Statesman interview, the Director of DEQ stated that we’ve had fifty-some “bad” air days already in 2007. There is no such thing as “bad” as an air quality classification, and she was clearly presenting “moderate” days in the worst possible way in order to sway public opinion. To me, that represents irresponsible leadership – and an agenda. So, the next question becomes “why would they make it sound worse than it is?”

It’s simple, really. They want your money, and they need to justify their programs. After all, if you’re a regulatory agency and nobody is violating your regulations, who needs you?

Some history is in order. In the 1970’s the air in Ada County was deemed non-compliant with the Clean Air Act because of high levels of PM-10 (particulate matter 10 microns or less in diameter). The primary cause of the PM-10 was woodstove smoke, and the vehicles of the day contributed their share. Programs, including vehicle emissions testing, were implemented to clean up the air. That was accomplished, thanks mostly to major technological improvements in wood stoves and a local reduction in their use as a primary heating source. Between 1991 and 1999 there was not one single day of air quality regulation Exceedance in Ada County. DEQ finally got off the dime and asked the EPA to reclassify northern Ada County. Why they waited so long to do that is open to speculation. I think it’s because the emissions testing program was, and continues to be, a major cash cow for everybody involved. Unfortunately, at the same time DEQ filed for reclassification, EPA was in the process of implementing some new Particulates standards, and the trucking lobby was challenging them. The truckers initially prevailed in having the new, tougher standards struck down. EPA eventually prevailed at the U.S. Supreme Court level, but by then it was too late for Ada County. To make a long story short, a group calling itself Idaho Clean Air Force, which, interestingly enough, included just-unseated ACHD Commissioner Gary Richardson, sued the EPA to keep them from reclassifying Ada County’s air as Attainment. It’s significant here to understand that the lawsuit did not question the actual air quality in Ada County, but was instead based on the administrative procedures EPA used during the reclassification process. Ada County’s air was actually well within either the old or the new standards. Why would ICAF seek to block what most people would have thought was a good thing? My first conclusion is that environmental groups want absolutely no public acknowledgement that things can actually get better, because that threatens their entire agenda and hampers membership recruitment and fund raising. Second, and what I think was the major cause, was that the “Leaders” of the Treasure Valley had just recently decided that ways needed to be developed to increase local fee revenues in order to address future transportation issues in the Valley. I can’t argue with that concept, because we could certainly use some efficient mass transit here. But I strongly object to the underhanded way things subsequently developed.

The Flying Y project was in progress, and a lot of people thought that the lawsuit might hinder that, so COMPASS, our Metropolitan Planning Organization required by federal law, stepped in to broker a settlement to the lawsuit. In short order, a compromise – if you can call it that – was reached and the action never went to trial on its merits. The compromise included acquiescence to leave northern Ada County’s air quality rating in a Maintenance mode, and, as part of that, to continue the vehicle emissions testing requirement. Another element that was tossed in was that COMPASS promised to do everything they could to implement vehicle emissions testing throughout their jurisdiction, which includes Canyon County. So, that’s where that whole thing started. It seems very contradictory to me that less than ten years ago our local “officials” caved in and let happen exactly what they are now supposedly attempting to prevent – a negative air quality classification. Except now they can smell all that fee revenue.

Oh, and by the way, the taxpayers picked up a several-hundred-thousand dollar tab for the ICAF lawyers.

Canyon County residents successfully fought against the implementation of vehicle emissions testing in our jurisdiction. The numbers did not then, and do not now, justify the cost to residents of that kind of program given the virtually non-existent air quality improvement it yields. When I inquired about pass/fail rates, revenue and disbursement, etc., with the Ada County Air Quality people, I got the song-and-dance runaround and never did get out of them everything I requested.

Having failed to fool the local rubes on vehicle emissions testing, COMPASS and DEQ enlisted Senator David Langhorst, D-Boise, to escalate the air quality issue to the state level. Thus was born the Treasure Valley Air Quality Council, which made its recommendations to the Legislature during the 2007 session. If you traced the Council’s proceedings, you would find that they dismissed vehicle emissions testing early in their deliberations as a non-effective strategy, but when they got right down to the end and presented recommendations, guess what? They included a call for a Valley-wide vehicle emissions testing program. Hmmm… imagine that. The Legislature did not act on the Council’s recommendations during the 2007 session, but I’m certain that with all the effort behind it, we’ll hear about it again in 2008.

So, that’s basically where we are today. It seems nearly everyone in the Valley is convinced we’re about to die, our economy is about to collapse, and, depending on which argument you hear, the feds are about to either disown or assimilate us because our air is hopelessly polluted. None of that is true. Here are some things I’ve learned:

Despite our growth, our air quality is actually holding pretty steady, with pollutants down since 2002. I’m not making that up. If you go to the EPA archives of actual Primary Pollutant concentrations reported by DEQ and graph out the various benchmark values for our problem pollutants for the past six or seven years, the graphs are not trending upward, and 2002 was the worst year. Last year is not yet fully reported, and for 2007 you have to use the EPA Region 10 site archives instead of the general EPA site, but the data is there if you choose to mine it. Also, as recently as two weeks ago the EPA updated their national report on air quality status, and no Idaho counties were listed as problem areas. As I said before, what will probably get us eventually are the tougher standards – which I am not arguing against. In fact, I think that’s how it should work. Clean air is a desirable commodity; my point is that our air complies with every definition extant in the law that says we do not need remedial regulations, yet somebody local wants to impose punitive sanctions on us. You are being systematically convinced our air is foul in order to facilitate new regulations – and the fee revenue they will generate.

PM-2.5 and ozone are the pollutants of current local concern. I know the pros at DEQ would argue with me on this, but I maintain that automobiles are not a significant source of PM-2.5 and the EPA emissions inventories agree with me. The PM-2.5 problem is more of a Canyon County problem – most recent local PM-2.5 Exceedances happen here — and like it or not, jobs or not, wink-nod-look-the-other-way, the sugar factory is the main culprit. Ozone is so weather and temperature dependent that it’s hard to get a handle on. All of the control strategies are based on the concept that reducing precursors reduces ozone formation – which assumes that ozone levels stop rising because all precursors are used up. No science I have seen yet confirms that or can predict a direct correlation, i.e. reducing precursors by 20% does not reliably reduce ground level ozone by a like amount. An indicator of how elusive ozone remediation is going to be is that concentrations in remote areas of some National Parks are sometimes higher than in downtown Los Angeles.

If vehicle emissions testing is implemented Valley-wide DEQ can generate theoretical Emissions Budget Reductions, and then trade those on-paper emissions reductions for new commercial/industrial emissions permits. Because those reductions are speculative calculations only, and new permits result in very real emissions, we could actually end up with higher pollutant concentrations. Five years ago, when Idaho Power was looking to build a power plant in Middleton, the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry issued a memorandum in support of the project, and in that memo they stated “there is no air quality problem in the Treasure Valley”, and they were right. It seems that if pollutants come from your exhaust pipe, it’s a bad thing, but if they come from economic growth, they’re okay.

Despite what you hear, highway vehicles are not the big demons of all this. Again, what you hear from the locals doesn’t match the data published by the EPA. For example, all you hear during an inversion is not to drive your cars. Per the EPA, highway vehicles account for less than 1% of PM-2.5 particles in our local air. Highway vehicles also account for less than half of ozone precursor emissions in the latest local inventory. Overall fleet emissions have been drastically reduced in the past 10-15 years, thanks to the demise of carbureted engines and the advent of onboard diagnostic computers, and they continue to decline as engine technology improves. Many of you in Ada County know that the emissions testing tech seldom, if ever, actually tests your exhaust. If your car’s diagnostic computer is hooked up and running, you’re good to go – oh, and we take cash, checks, and credit cards. Highway vehicles, or should I say their owners, are easy targets in all this because we don’t have lawyers and lobbyists.

“We”, whoever “we” is, do not lose federal highway dollars should the Treasure Valley fall to Non-attainment status. Federal Highway Trust Fund dollars are allocated to each state according to a statutory formula and the EPA has no say in how many dollars Idaho gets. A board at ITD then decides how those dollars are spent on highway projects across the State. The process is very competitive, highly political, and can be usurped by the Legislature. Once a project gets high enough up the list and there is money available, the project goes forward. Local project funding generally comes from property tax revenue or bonding. Population growth in the Treasure Valley has actually contributed to us getting more money, in part because we now fall into a different funding classification than we used to. In all of my searching, I could find only one instance during the entire life of environmental regulatory review in the U.S. where the EPA stopped a roadway construction project on air quality grounds. It just doesn’t happen. It’s simply another hoop to jump through to justify regulations and bureaucracy, and another scare tactic that the pro-regulation crowd can try on us.

Air quality Non-attainment does not presage economic gloom and doom. In fact, according to recent data, 13 of 25, and 3 of the top 5, fastest growing Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area economies in the United States are air quality Non-attainment areas. If you were totally dependent on majority-rules statistics, these numbers would seem to mean that dirty air is good for your economy – but sometimes statistics don’t tell the whole story. In this case I think it demonstrates that there is no verifiable cause/effect relationship between air quality and economic health. I will admit that I have not done long term trend research on those lists to see who stays on and who falls off, which might be a better indicator, but I did check several years running and saw little significant change. It’s more like shuffling a deck of cards – the same cards are there, the order changes. Besides, I daresay Micron just cut more jobs in two weeks than our air quality will impact over the next decade.

If we become air quality Non-attainment, what will the EPA do to us? Pretty simple, actually. They don’t really do anything. They drop the hot potato into DEQ’s lap with a mandate to come up with an acceptable plan to remediate the air quality. That remediation plan will include sanctions – like emissions testing your car, vapor recovery systems at gas stations, enforcing open burning regulations, controlling sprawl… Hey, wait a minute! Does that sound familiar? It should. They’re the same actions recommended by the Treasure Valley Air Quality Council, no doubt at the behest of DEQ. The Federal Government always plays well as the Bogeyman, especially here in Idaho. I would also argue that if the Feds were to require us to enact more stringent measures to achieve some improvement, why would we be trying to get away with doing less? Should not the goal be to achieve air quality improvement instead of trying to skirt around it?

There is already case law precedent that says air quality (except in California, where their Air Quality Management Board predates the original federal Clean Air Act) is a federally controlled and governed initiative. Everywhere in the United States a local or state jurisdiction has attempted to implement their own air quality plans and standards different from those codified in federal regulations, those plans and standards have been thrown out. If any jurisdiction attempts to impose sanctions or standards selectively on Treasure Valley residents without us first being in violation of the applicable federal regulations, I have little doubt that the issue will end up in a federal court and the taxpayers can once again pick up the tab.

Could our air be cleaner? Maybe, but not with 600,000 people already in a Valley that is rapidly developing using a blueprint that is a demonstrable failure everywhere it’s been used since WWII. But that blueprint makes all the movers and shakers rich, and isn’t that, after all, the real goal? Never let common sense stand in the way of somebody making a buck.

Okay, so that’s air quality from “the other side”. I’m certainly not coming out in favor of “dirty” air. I, too, can see the brown stuff we have now that we didn’t have ten years ago, and I do think we could do better – but we don’t need more regulations and cost to do it. What we need is a little backbone in hearing rooms, council chambers, and a certain domed building downtown. I’ve been following this saga from the beginning, and perhaps my biggest disappointment is that there appear to be no limits to the misinformation that the people who work for us will shovel onto us in order to get what they want.

Don’t blame Californians or other newcomers for what ails the Treasure Valley. Put the blame where it belongs – squarely on the shoulders of all the self-serving little people who think they’re up to big jobs.

We don’t know exactly what Team Dave wants–control of ACHD or responsibility to fix roads. Legislators ignored a proposed bill to give control of the district to city officials. It sounded like Bieter wants his own street department and Mayor Nancy Merrill of Eagle is exploring ways to allow her town to “opt out” of the district.

Bieter said when people want potholes fixed they automatically call City Hall. He said mayors traditionally win or loose on the issue of roads and cities should take care of their own roads.

This from a guy who trumpets REGIONAL PLANNING, REGIONAL AIRPORT, REGIONAL MASS TRANSIT, and caters to Chamber of Commerce valley wide ideas. Yet he tells the public he wants to eliminate a countywide highway department. Four cities– Boise, Meridian, Star, Eagle, and Garden City– all share common borders, but have different budgets and elected officials who don’t always share the same vision.

Bieter made his anti ACHD statement following the announcement of an ACHD sponsored survey of citizen views on the future of the county wide road department.

His declaration is either the dumbest thing we have ever heard or simply uttered without thought. Here is why:

–Boise, Kuna, Eagle, Star, Meridian, Garden City, and Ada County would EACH have to purchase massive amounts of equipment, hire planners, engineers, maintenance workers, and drivers. That’s six highway departments instead of one.

–He said enough surveys, time for action. However, Bieter is conducting a city survey of citizens to be used for future budgeting.

–How could we ever vote on killing ACHD without knowing how much it will cost Boise–and the other four cities–to start their own street departments? We would all have to fund a county highway department as well.

–The county, just like in pre ACHD days, would be loathe to repair a road within the “impact area” of any of the five cities. Why build a new bridge or widen a road just to have it annexed away? Cities in turn have no obligation or authority to build roads outside their limits…there is no tax base outside the city to pay the bills.

–Would the Boise snow plows clear Curtis Road only to the Bench at Garden City and then clear again on the north side of the River?

–Would Garden City pay half the cost of the Boise River bridges which are used mostly by Boise residents on both sides of Garden City?

–Citizens would be faced with obstacles like a five lane Ustick Road in Meridian getting squeezed to a country lane in Boise.

–For a city official, let alone the mayor of the largest town in the county, to advocate eliminating another duly constituted and elected government entity is ludicrous, not just short sighted.

–Imagine the laughs if ACHD called for Boise to be disbanded and returned to control of the Ada Commishes.

–ACHD has five commishes, but thanks to the lobbying effort of former Boise officials, we can vote only for the one in our district. The commish districts are cut like a pie into Boise because they attempted to diversify geographically when the law was changed from 3 county wide reps to 5 who each represent only 20% of the voters(a single district).

The GUARDIAN honestly doesn’t want to rag on Team Dave all the time. But now you can see why we do. Look for some of Team Dave’s assistant coaches to work on a spin after reading this.

At issue is the widening of Ustick Road from three lanes to five. ACHD says it is necessary due to traffic volumes and general growth of subdivisions in West Boise and Meridian. Residents and city say it is not needed and they want it to remain a “country lane.”

A local land use attorney agrees that highways districts have sole authority over roads in their jurisdiction. Boise cites their “comprehensive plan” as authority to keep the road small, but all legal authority seems to say the plan is just that–a guide which has no real authority.

An ACHD spokesman called the city a bully and city councilors were just as critical, but more cryptic toward the ACHD.

Wouldn’t you know it, an SUV driver who can’t read took up the space. Interesting to see if the SUV folks take up the spot on Wednesday at 1 p.m. when Team Dave has scheduled the media event. Hillary H (HH) and friends used the GUARDIAN as a catalyst to get the attention of City Hall when they wanted to test drive parking spots for two wheelers.

A letter and some phone calls from GUARDIAN readers and a favorable response from the City Councilors and Team Dave got the job done. We will be on hand Wednesday for the media event and of course will offer testimonials about the power of bloggers!

Wednesday July 5 Team Dave and the Councilors have scheduled a photo op to unveil new signs and FREE parking for scooters and motorcycles downtown.

In a letter to Mayor Dave Bieter and the Council, Hillary pointed out the waste of parking space and a silly policy that mandated only once scooter could park in a space which would easily hold 4 or more.

The GUARDIAN gave it coverage and readers chimed in on the blog with stories of biking and scootering to save gas. Team Dave got phone calls and now a “pilot program” is being tested until Labor Day.

Bieter and Council Prez Maryanne Jordan told Hillary, “City staff has researched the idea and presented its findings to us, and we have decided to proceed with your recommendation on a pilot basis.”

Boise Parking Services Division is currently marking and installing signage for free time-zone parking for two-wheel motor vehicles in selected downtown Boise areas. The test period is expected to conclude on or around Aug. 31, 2006. City staff will seek your input, evaluate the pilot project, and make recommendations to the City of Boise’s Growth Management Policy Team.

Show time is 1 p.m. Wednesday July 5 outside 509 Main St. Reporters will certainly be looking for sound bites from any of you scooter/cyclers.

Bad news for motorists at Eagle and Fairview–traffic is up 10% in the past three years.

Ada County Highway District has released its tally of worst intersections in the county and Eagle-Fairview heads the list at 6,320 cars per hour during peak times. Glenwood and Chinden came in with a close second at 5,850 hourly vehicles at peak.

The mainstreamer media wonks will undoubtedly do live shots standing in the street at rush hour. We’ll just give you the long version from ACHD engineer Terry Little. We love to bash ACHD and Little for their creative paint striping, but in their defense they have to respond to actions of the county and city governments who encourage growth and approve developments so eagerly.

Here is Little’s report:

Similar counts were taken in 1993, 1996, 1999, and 2002. As expected, counts have continued to climb at most intersections. The overall increase in traffic volumes of the top 12 intersections was a moderate 2.5% from 2002 to 2005. This doesn’t reflect a flattening of traffic growth so much as it indicates that intersections are reaching their capacity. Unless further intersection improvements are done, the peak hour traffic volume will not increase significantly at intersections that are at capacity. The peak traffic time will continue to lengthen and drivers will experience more delay or shift to other streets to avoid the congestion.

Fairview & Cole is the “poster child” of intersections that are not improved while area growth continues. It was the busiest intersection in the 1980s but has not been widened in 20 years and runs at capacity during the peak hour. In 1993, it was ranked #8 with 4,240 vehicles per hour (VPH). By 1996, it had increased to 4,550 VPH after some median island and signal timing improvements. The traffic count done last year, nine years later, was identical (4,550 VPH) and the intersection has slipped to #22 on the list of busiest intersections. Major right-of-way costs and impacts caused ACHD to defer a project that was planned for that intersection for the late ‘90s. However, recent redevelopment at the corner may allow the project to get back on track.

Only one intersection exceeded 5,000 VPH in 1993 - Franklin/Milwaukee with 5,300 VPH. During that year, two other intersections exceeded 4,500 VPH: Broadway/Myrtle and Broadway/Beacon with 4,709 and 4,750 VPH, respectively. Currently eight intersections exceed the volume of the top intersection in 1993; 16 intersections exceed the second and third ranked intersections from 1993; and current volumes at 23 intersections exceed the volume at the fourth-ranked intersection in 1993.

Traffic has spread widely and intersections have come and gone from the list due to growth and major roadway projects. The 1993 counts came after the Connector was completed, but the Curtis Road Extension, the West Park Center Bridge construction and the widening of Eagle Road have contributed to the shift in traffic over the last dozen years.

The pattern of traffic growth is following development west and south based on the location and the amount of growth being experienced at those intersections on the list. Some of the decline in the counts at the Downtown Boise intersections can be explained by the BODO construction which took place during all of 2005 and is now wrapping up. But even taking this into account, traffic growth is clearly moving away from the city center.

The westbound freeway off ramp at Meridian Road is the western most intersection ever to make the list. That ramp serves as a major access to the cities of both Meridian and Kuna.

Franklin/Milwaukee was #1 in 1993, 1996 and 1999 but dropped to #4 in 2002. It moved up to #3 in 2005.

Changes related to the location of large employers or commercial opportunities may cause shifts that increase traffic for some intersections and decrease it for others. In some cases local street connections may allow neighborhood traffic to avoid a major intersection. Since the 2002 count, a “short cut” street (Saxton) was built in the northwest quadrant of the State/Glenwood/Gary intersection. Saxton takes about 100 cars per hour out of the intersection, which corresponds closely to the drop of 70 cars per hour between the last two counts.

Eagle Road stands out with 4 intersections in the busiest 15 while Chinden Boulevard had 3 intersections in that group.

Eagle & Fairview had the greatest growth in the last 3 years as well as obtaining the #1 rank. Based on the developable land in that general area there is no reason to believe it will lose its ranking in the near future.

The ranking measures the number of vehicles through the intersection during the peak hour and is not necessarily related to the delay experienced by motorists. Some intersections may be more congested because of fewer lanes, more turning movements or other factors relating to congestion.

Complete ACHD tally at: ACHD survey results.