Invitation to join clear air coalition falls on deaf ears because city leaders want to destroy air quality here

I had a fascinating conversation last night in the City Hall lobby with Fred Blood, air quality specialist for the Capital Area Council of Governments (CAPCOG). Moments before our conversation, Flood had told the Kyle City Council that the 10-county area served by CAPCOG had barely escaped being labeled by the EPA a non-attainment area. According to Flood, the EPA tightened the National Ambient Air Quality Standards from 75 parts per billion (ppb) to 70 ppb. Kyle came in at 68 ppb., which Flood said, was "the good news."

"The bad news is that this is based on a three-year average and if it wasn’t for a cool, wet summer we had in 2014 we would be in non-attainment," Flood told the council. "As a matter of fact, one of the monitors we’re running actually shows us to be in non-attainment. This means we’re very close to the edge, we’re going to need to do everything we can to stay below that average."

Flood said a non-attainment designation would cost the area $1 billion a year "as an economic drain." He told the council a group of cities within CAPCOG — in fact, all home-rule cities, except three, within the 10 counties — have formed a Clean Air Coalition to develop strategies to reduce ozone pollution. Kyle is the largest of the three cities (the others are Manor and Lago Vista) that are not members of the coalition and Flood, as he did on a previous visit to the Council, asked city leaders to become part of the group.

That’s the reason I had the conversation with him just outside the council chambers. I asked him if he had received any feedback from Kyle officials as to why they were hesitant about joining the Clean Air Coalition. He told me he had not. I then asked him if he had heard about plans to build a Godzilla truck stop in Kyle at I-35 and Yarrington, a project Flood acknowledged would catapult Kyle and the rest of Hays County into non-attainment status and effectively put the brakes on just about all business growth in the area. He said he had not heard about it, but plans such as those would be a reason for Kyle’s reluctance to join the Clean Air Coalition. It would be viewed as hypocritical, he told me, for the city to pay lip service to protecting air quality when they were determined to destroy it.

But he went on to say that because the area is on the non-attainment borderline, "the feds would probably step in and forbid the construction of a project such as this." He also told me San Antonio is facing the very real possibility of being declared not in attainment and because of the cement operations here the EPA may declare Kyle a contributor to San Antonio’s air problems and declare Kyle as non-attainment along with the Alamo City. If that happened, he told me, it would automatically prohibit the construction of anything resembling a major truck stop in this area because idling diesel engines are perhaps the largest producers of ozone.

In addition to ignoring Flood’s pleas to join CAPCOG’s Clean Air Coalition, the council last night:

• Heard about a charity pancake breakfast scheduled for Saturday (I will write more about this later).
• Appointed three persons — Andrea Cunningham, Elizabeth Guidry and Margaret A. Somma — to fill vacancies on the Ethics Commission.
• Unanimously, followed the Planning & Zoning Commission’s recommendations on three zoning issues, including rezoning 16.24 acres on I-35 that doesn’t even have wastewater service and won’t have it for another two years, from Agriculture to Retail Services.
• Completely disregarded its own Comprehensive Plan by deciding it wanted to stick a couple of warehouses on property that’s otherwise going to be used for residences near the corner of Lehman and Ranch Road 150.
• Tentatively awarded a franchise to Buda Taxi Service to "provide transportation services" in Kyle. Final approval will depend on additions to the franchise agreement suggested by Council Member Daphne Tenorio designed to provide protections for patrons using the taxi service. She said all the protections she is asking for are included in franchise agreements negotiated by the city of San Marcos.
• Adopted the Economic Development Strategic Plan recently completed by The Natelson Dale Group, a plan, if precedent is any indication, the city will also completely ignore.
• Was told a joint meeting with the Charter Review Commission concerning its recommendations will take place immediately after the council’s regularly scheduled session Wednesday, Nov. 4 (a session moved back a day because that Tuesday is election day).
• Decided freedom of choice is no longer a viable option for some Kyle residents by planning to strip transportation options from many of them. (I will also write more about this later.)
• Received an update on the status of the road bond projects. (Again, expect to read the details of that report on this journal sometime today or tomorrow.)