|
|
|
|
Navigation
|
Submitted by: Jeff Gursh September 5, 2007 SB 1552 Sponsored by Senator Allen SB 1552 deals with State Air Quality and PM 10 dust issues. The non - attainment areas of Maricopa County, parts of the Tucson area and part of Pinal Co. failed the particulate matter standards set up by the Feds. The bill is designed to determine who would be assigned responsibility for dust production in the management areas. In the overall issue of "dust production" in Arizona certain "groups" in the areas that do not meet the Arizona particulate dust standards are somehat arbitrarily assigned a percentage of responsibility (measured in "tons of particulate matter") for total dust production. So, someone in the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) decided that OHV use was a major contributor to the dust issue in the non-attainment areas and that we would have to make some effort to help with reaching an attainment status or compliance. Our efforts at reducing dust production might well include "hardening of the staging areas" and then showing that this reduces dust production by three tons. These three tons would be used as part of OHV's contribution to the reduction of dust to bring us closer to compliance with the ADEQ standards. OHV groups were not originally considered a stakeholder (and were not invited to the round table work group) but were going to be a "person of interest". This would set new regulations designed to get a dust reduction contribution from the OHV group. Though this does not cost you or me directly in dollars, it does affect your ability to go and ride an OHV in the non-attainment areas. Our cost(OHV)in the long term will be that we must be a part of the legislative process in an ongoing basis and other costs such as paying for the lobbyist and attorney fees and especially our volunteer time to attend all the meetings and legislative sessions including work done in the actual dust reduction efforts, whatever they may be. Our law firm, Jennings and Strouss, were already at the table with SB 1552, so after a quick meeting with our Lobbyist, we were added to the stakeholders group. As part of our OHV representation, APIA (OHV dealers assoc.) also came to the table to represent OHV business concerns. A quick side note here is in order, ALL the other stakeholders in the meeting that were going to be affected by new, stricter regulations to help control dust are BIG BUSINESS. Construction companies, Mining Assoc., Landscapers union and Assoc., with the exception of air quality personnel representing the various counties involved……all of these are money making businesses……….and here we are as a recreation group along with the general public lumped in with Big Business. In our first meeting our Lobbyist set the tone for the remaining sessions and showed all that we were serious about helping with air quality as much as anyone at the table. Some of the early proposals were closing all land in the non-attainment area to all OHV use…………ALL. Another proposal was closing lands down to OHV during the high pollutions seasons. And then there was another: closing all ASLD lands to OHV use permanently. All these proposals were designed to reduce dust contributions from OHV by the percentage we were assigned. So, what did we accomplish? Being at the table allowed us to argue our points and show how this would affect the OHV community. The compromise we offered was to allow OHV use in all the LEGAL managed OHV areas such as BLM, ASLD and Forest Service lands and offered NO OHV use on high pollution advisory days. As for the issues the Builders representatives had about OHV use on construction sites causing dust and getting the builders fined, we showed that this was not an OHV problem ….it was a law enforcement / trespass issue that was already addressed in the statute. Adding more rules in the bill to govern OHV use in this case was not needed (the construction industry wanted a ban on all OHV in non-attainment areas). In the end, the Bill passed and we were one of the few who had all our amendments accepted into the bill. I think we did very well, our amendments worked, we still have access to current OHV recreation sites and we contributed our part to the issues addressed in the Bill. BUT…..We would not have even been at the table had we not had Jennings and Strouss as our legal representatives and Nick Simonetta as our lobbyist this year. County PM 10 rule 210, 310 County rule 210 and 310 /310.01 are the regulations the county uses to enforce dust control measures. 310.01 is specifically for OHV regulations and is one of the regulations we are trying to help write so that it is enforceable and has funding to actually make some significant reductions in dust. We brought this issue up at the SB 1552 hearings ……in short we are still working on this and finally have the Land agencies meeting with the County officals on how to work these rules into managing dust and OHV use along with all uses on the trails. We are working on exempting events from the max number of vehicles per day limits on trails, hardening / dust control on access roads to staging areas like at the BLM Boulders staging area near Lake Pleasant Az. This area is where for years Arizona Trail Riders have held a National AMA Enduro. We are also just trying to get them(ADEQ) to understand how OHV use the trails. We are making good progress and the County promised Senator Allen (SB 1552) that the County would keep to the spirit of the agreements and that efforts put forth by diverse work groups on SB 1552 would not be ignored. ( SB 1552 was passed last session and address's PM 10 dust issues and State wide PM10 dust issues) More to come. |
