|
By: Robert Janis
OHVers Learn to Live
With Arizona Dust Rule -- A Case Study
The idea of limiting dust in the air in a
community that is surrounded by desert seems
like a practical impossibility. But Maricopa
County, which includes the large metropolis of
Phoenix in Arizona, had to come up with a way to
comply with Federal Environmental Protection
Agency rules. The concerns of off-highway
vehicle riders were piqued when it appeared that
state and local authorities might try to use the
dust rule to close trails and ban OHV use.
So, OHVers and other groups and individuals
who have a vested interest in using the trails,
worked together to influence the drafting of an
air-quality compliance plan that was passed by
the Arizona legislature.
History
According to Nick Simonetta, lobbyist for the
Arizona Off-Highway Vehicle Coalition and member
of the law firm Jennings, Strouss and Salmon in
Phoenix, Arizona, the Environmental Protection
Agency ruled that an area largely made up of
Maricopa County was in non-attainment (or out of
compliance) with air- quality requirements under
Federal law. The county, the cities within the
county, and the state had to come up with a law
that assured that the area was in compliance as
far as mostly dust particles were concerned.
Groups, businesses, and other entities that were
considered to be causes of dust would be
impacted by such a law because they could be
fined. Moreover, the OHV community was drawn
into the mess because the recreation of OHV
riding on trails was considered to be a
contributor to the dust problem. State and local
authorities were threatening to ban OHV use in
the non-attainment area.
“If the State of Arizona didn’t take steps
demanded by the EPA, it could lose federal
highway funds,” said Simonetta. “County
agencies, local agencies, state agencies, and
the legislature had to deal with the issue. But
where OHV was concerned, and its relationship to
the overall problem, we needed to work to ensure
that a bulldozer wasn’t employed with respect to
our ant hill.”
Drafting a Bill
This was the situation when the State
Legislature opened its 2007 session, continued
Simonetta. It was about this time that Simonetta
became associated with the Arizona Off-Highway
Vehicle Coalition. He was asked to press for
issues favorable to OHVers concerning the
air-quality law as well as an OHV funding and
management law. The OHV law story was discussed
in a previous article.
“Collectively, Arizona had to come up with a
plan to reduce particulants in the air by 5
percent,” continued Simonetta. “That is not an
easy task considering that Maricopa County was
in a desert where dust is common. At various
times of the year you have different wind
currents and different air flows over the
mountains from California, and then it shifts
around out of the East, out of the Gulf, and
from across the Rockies. Arizona is in a wind
funnel that creates different problems, and in
different parts of the year, dust particles are
trapped within the mountains that surround
Phoenix. Moreover, Phoenix is a city with a
growing population and a lot of industries that
cause dust. They include mining, all forms of
construction, agriculture, and more. In
addition, there are recreational endeavors that
are considered to be causing dust and that
includes off-highway vehicle riding as well as
other pursuits that are motorized and
non-motorized on the area’s trail systems.”
State Senator Carolyn Allen (R-Scottsdale)
saw the clear need to unite these groups and
have them work with the state in coming up with
a solution. “Senator Allen really led on this
issue, cobbling together all the industries and
people who would be the subject of some pain as
a result of the plan,” Simonetta said. In other
words, all of these groups knew that there was
going to be pain to them as a result of any type
of plan so they had to come together with the
senator to try to minimize their own pain, while
coming up with contributions to a plan that
would satisfy regulators.
In addition to the fact that the law would be
used to attack the dust problem through the
reduction plan, there would also be monitors
around the non-compliant region that would sense
and measure in real time the particulant problem
and this would also be used to assure that the
area became compliant.
So, as the legislature
was working on the problem, the county was
involved with their own plan. “A county air
quality process was underway through a group
called the Maricopa Association of Governments
(MAG), which brought all the governments of
Maricopa County together,” explained Simonetta.
“It was their job to make recommendations to the
State Legislature as well as to the other local
governments. One of the recommendations they
were considering was an all-out ban of OHV
riding in the non-attainment area. MAG had to
vote on this issue for it to become a formal
recommendation.”
Public meetings in which this issue was
debated were held, and Simonetta, Gursh, and the
different groups that had a vested interest got
involved in those meetings. “We made our own
pitch to MAG which said, ‘Look, we are a very
small part of your dust problem, and the
evidence is that the High Pollution Advisory
Days (HAD), which marked when the particulants
in the air exceeded EPA rules, occurred on week
days. OHV recreational riding takes place
largely on the weekend. If OHV riding was a
major contributor to the dust problem, then the
HAD would occur, at least sometimes, during the
weekend, but it doesn’t.’
“We also argued that since the OHV
contribution to the dust problem was low,
recreational OHV riding had a major influence to
the state’s economy,” continued Simonetta. “We
told them that there had to be some kind of
perspective here.”
MAG accepted the arguments and ultimately
came up with a suggestion to ban OHV use only on
high pollution volume days. “We were comfortable
with that,” said Simonetta. “We realized that we
had to give them something to show that we
recognized that OHV had some fair portion of
responsibility to be a part of contributing to
their plan.”
Then the coalition turned its attention to
the Legislature. “There were 40 different groups
represented, including a lot of the regulated
industries like agriculture, mining, all forms
of construction, energy companies, refineries,
oil companies, in short, all industries that in
some measure create dust. We also reminded
people that OHV riding was not an industry but
rather a recreation. The industry of OHV
manufacturing and sales was not a direct
contributor to dust. Still, dealers who sell
OHVs were involved, too, and were very helpful.”
Page 1
2
|
