Bayport and the Attainment State Implementation Plan July 20, 1999

The following is a short summary of NOx issues associated with the Bayport project and the submission of a State Implementation Plan (SIP) for ozone attainment in the Houston region.

According to computer models, our region must reduce nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions by as much as 85 percent to come into compliance with the national ozone standard by 2007. The purpose of the attainment SIP submission is to identify the controls that will be applied to the various emission sectors in order to bring the region's emissions down by the required amount.

Under the attainment SIP protocol, emissions are projected to the year 2007 and then controls are identified that bring the projected emissions down sufficiently to meet the ozone standard. According to the TNRCC, the projected 2007 emissions are as follows: industrial, 564 tons per day (TPD); on-road mobile, 267 TPD; and area/off-road mobile, 222 TPD.

At this time, the proposed attainment State Implementation Plan (SIP) for the Houston region is substantially insufficient. Industrial sources of NOx can be controlled at least to an 85 percent efficiency if not a 92 percent efficiency. Given that point source emissions are projected to be 564 tons per day in 2007, a 90 percent reduction would leave approximately 56.4 tons per day from industry. That leaves the on-road and the off-road mobile source sectors to be addressed.

At the current time, there is no plan to address off-road mobile sources. The computer modeling completed to date identifies a 50 percent reduction. However, there is no plan to attain this reduction. Therefore, it is inappropriate to take any credit in this category, leaving the initial estimate of 222 tons per day intact.

The third category is on-road mobile sources. According to documentation from the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (TNRCC), there is an emissions budget of 80 tons per day that has been proposed for the on-road mobile source category. At this time, the manner by which that tons-per-day number will be met is not clear. However, this amount has been identified for preliminary usage for purposes of transportation conformity under the attainment SIP. Included in its adoption is the reality that certain road projects will not be approved if that budget is exceeded. If all road projects currently planned are constructed, the likelihood exists that this budget will be exceeded. However, for purposes of this discussion, the assumption is made that the 80 tons per day limit is a reasonable budget for the on-road transportation sector. Additionally, the further assumption will be made that transportation conformity will eliminate unbuilt road projects whose construction will cause the on-road mobile source attainment NOx budget to be exceeded.

Therefore, the summary of emissions from the proposed attainment SIP is 56 tons per day from industry, 80 tons per day from on-road mobile sources and 222 tons per day from off-road mobile sources. These categories add up to a total of 358 tons per day of remaining NOx emissions under the most optimistic assumptions regarding on-road mobile source and industrial controls.

According to the computer modeling completed to date, our region needs to reduce total NOx emissions to approximately 230 tons per day. As demonstrated above, the current planning leaves our non-attainment region short on NOx reductions by 128 tons per day. On its face, our currently proposed attainment SIP does not reach the necessary level of NOx reductions to demonstrate attainment with the federal health standard for ozone.

The point of this discussion is to highlight the importance of the NOx emissions related to Bayport. Reliable estimates indicate that from 5 to 10 tons per day of NOx emissions will be generated within the Bayport facility. These emissions would be classified as off-road mobile source emissions and are not included in any off-road emission estimates or projections completed to date. Additionally, the 7,000 or more trucks per day in and out of the Bayport container facility and associated new transportation construction projects are not included in the on-road mobile source projections. Bayport's NOx emissions are in addition to those emissions that have been calculated to date, add to both the off-road and on-road mobile sectors and take us further away from attainment of the ozone standard.

If Bayport is to be constructed and its NOx emissions are to be allowed into the region, regional NOx emissions will be worsened in two categories. However, based on the foregoing discussion, the conclusion is warranted that there is no room, from an air quality standpoint, for Bayport's emissions in our region.

If our local politicians insist that Bayport should be constructed, then the question becomes -- "What source of emissions are you willing to give up in order to construct Bayport?" Are you willing to sacrifice the Grand Parkway and other new road projects? Are you willing to require Metro to adopt alternative fuels buses? Are you willing to adopt a serious light rail program? Are you willing to specify that all city and county construction contracts be serviced by off-road vehicles powered by alternative fuels such as natural gas?

This question about prioritization is not specious but is instead deadly serious. In order to protect the health of ourselves, the children and the elderly of our community, we must reduce NOx pollution. Our attainment SIP plan to reduce NOx pollution is deficient on its face, yet the Port of Houston Authority is proposing in the Ned S. Holmes Bayport container terminal a new air pollution source that will worsen off-road mobile emissions. Something has to give.

For the sake of our health as well as conformance with federal law, such increases should not be allowed to occur as currently proposed and with the current deficiency in our NOx control plan. As a community, we must embrace a serious NOx control effort. As a community, we cannot ignore these conflicts and allow our long-term commitment to air quality to be compromised. The manner in which we address NOx emissions from Bayport will be indicative of our priorities and our good faith intention to meet health-related air quality requirements. As goes Bayport, so goes our region's credibility regarding our commitment to attainment of the health standard for ozone air pollution.