NEW CASTLE – The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control will showcase exhibits highlighting air quality monitoring and home energy savings at the 15^th annual New Castle Avenue Health Hook-Up Community Day on Tuesday, June 27 from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Bowlerama and Canaan Baptist Church parking lots located at 3031 New Castle Avenue in New Castle. The festival is sponsored by Each One Teach One, the nonprofit organization working on creative solutions for healthier living.

DNREC’s Division of Air Quality will feature information on its Moveable Monitoring Platform, a van equipped with instruments to measure air quality. Scientists will explain the air monitoring study currently underway in the Eden Park and Hamilton Park communities. Using the air quality data collected there, DNREC will work with industry and community leaders to find opportunities to improve local air quality.

DNREC’s Division of Energy and Climate will have an educational display on home energy savings and weather-proofing your home. Staff will provide information about the Weatherization Assistance Program, a free program for income-eligible households where certified contractors make home improvements that result in healthier, more comfortable, and more energy efficient homes.

At the festival, DNREC is partnering with the Delaware Division of Public Health (DPH), the Wilmington Area Planning Council (WILMAPCO) and the Air Quality Partnership of Delaware (AQP). DPH will provide information on the Delaware Healthy Homes program and explain the harmful health effects of air pollution. WILMAPCO will present information on the recently released Route 9 Corridor Master Plan that includes recommendations for environmental protection and improving community health and livability in the area. The AQP will present information on local air quality and the simple actions people can take to make our air cleaner.

The festival aims to promote healthy lifestyles and increase awareness of the many resources and services available for preventing, detecting and treating HIV/AIDS, heart disease, diabetes, and alcohol and substance abuse addiction . The event will feature information tables, personal health screenings, local entertainment, educational games, free food, giveaways  and a free drawing to win a  gift card.

For information on air quality monitoring, visit DNREC’s website at http://www.dnrec.delaware.gov/Air/Pages/Air-Quality-Monitoring-Homepage.aspx or contact Renae Held, environmental scientist with DNREC’s Division of Air Quality, at 302-739-9402 or Renae.Held@delaware.gov.

For information on DNREC’s Weatherization Assistance Program, visit de.gov/wap. Additional questions can be directed to Cheryl Gmuer at the Division of Energy & Climate by phone at 302-735-3480, or by email at Cheryl.Gumer@delaware.gov.

For more information on the Health Hook-up Community Festival organized by Each One Teach One, visit their website http://each1teach1de.org/ or contact Alyson Lang, executive director, at 302-345-8744 or LangNY88@cs.com.

Media Contact:  Melanie Rapp, DNREC Public Affairs, 302-739-9902

DOVER – Students from around the state will meet Thursday, April 27 at the University of Delaware’s Webb Farm in Newark to compete in the 22nd annual Delaware Envirothon – sponsored by the Delaware Association of Conservation Districts (DACD). This year, 120 students representing nine high schools and one 4-H Club will compete for more than $5,000 in college scholarships and cash awards.

“We are excited to host the event since the farm is a perfect complement for the 2017 special environmental topic, Agricultural Soil and Water Conservation Stewardship,” said Webb Farm Manager Larry Armstrong.

The Envirothon is a team-based outdoor academic competition which challenges high school students’ knowledge and practical application of aquatic ecology, forestry, soils/land use, wildlife, air quality, special environmental topics and public speaking. The teams come from the following high schools: A.I. DuPont High School, Archmere Academy, Delaware Military Academy, Charter School of Wilmington, Middletown High School, MOT Charter School, Peach Blossom 4-H Club, Polytech High School, Smyrna High School and Sussex Tech High School. During the school year, DACD held Saturday workshops to provide in-depth training.

Sponsored by the Delaware Association of Conservation Districts (DACD), the Envirothon offers students monetary awards for higher education and commendable effort. Twenty-three teams, consisting of five students each, will compete for one of the top four spots, which offer students more than $3,000 in college scholarships and special team awards combined. In addition, cash awards totaling approximately $2,200 are given to the top seven teams.

The goal of the Delaware Envirothon is to prepare students to be future leaders in environmentally-related careers, and provide knowledge about our environment. The competition provides experience in real world situations, which fosters sound decision making, problem solving and critical thinking skills. Teams will be tested at outdoor eco-stations located throughout designated areas of the event site.

The DACD is a voluntary, non-profit association that coordinates conservation efforts statewide to focus on natural resource issues identified by Delaware’s three local districts. For more information on the Delaware Envirothon and the North American Envirothon, please contact state Envirothon chair Rick Mickowski at 302-832-3100 ext. 8979 or 302-602-2664, or visit www.delawareenvirothon.org.

Media contact: Joanna Wilson, DNREC Public Affairs, 302-739-9902

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Public meeting on environmental mitigation plan set for Thursday, March 23 in Dover

DOVER – DNREC has learned from federal officials that Delaware can anticipate approximately $9 million from an Environmental Mitigation Trust established through partial settlement of lawsuits against the automakers Volkswagen and Audi for installing emissions “defeat devices” on vehicles in violation of the federal Clean Air Act. The Division of Air Quality will hold a public meeting Thursday, March 23, at 6 p.m. at the State Street Commons Building, 100 W. Water Street, Dover, DE 19904, on Delaware’s proposed environmental mitigation plan from the settlement.

The meeting is intended to gather public comment and solicit stakeholder input for implementing the mitigation plan in Delaware, in order to determine how the funds may be used by the state to improve air quality.

After public comments are incorporated, the final environmental plan will be established and air quality improvement projects will be requested under the Request for Proposal (RFP) process. The proposed Volkswagen environmental mitigation plan is available on the DNREC website at: http://www.dnrec.delaware.gov/air/Pages/VWMitigationPlan.aspx

Media contact: Michael Globetti, DNREC Public Affairs, 302-739-9902

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Aimed at thwarting impacts of pollution from upwind states carrying into Delaware

DOVER – Delaware is taking action again to reduce detrimental impacts of poor air quality coming into the state from upwind sources, with DNREC seeking to have the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency find that the Homer City, Pa. Generating Station is emitting these air pollutants in violation of the federal Clean Air Act (CAA).

As with CAA 126(b) petitions filed last summer by DNREC against the Brunner Island power plant in York County, Pa., and the Harrison Power Station near Hayward, W. Va., the Department argues that Delaware’s air quality is often adversely affected by unhealthy ozone created from pollutants emitted in upwind states. DNREC contends that air pollution generated within these upwind states carries into and pollutes Delaware’s air, causing asthma, respiratory disease, and other public health problems for Delawareans, and also causes the state’s non-compliance with federal air quality standards – and will continue to cause these problems so long as sources such as the power plants petitioned against by DNREC continue emitting pollutants, particularly nitrogen oxide (NOx), without consistent use of modern anti-pollution controls.

In its petitions, DNREC has noted that more than 94 percent of the ozone levels in Delaware are created by the transport of air pollutants from upwind states – a stark contrast to what occurs within the state’s borders, where DNREC has worked with power producers and manufacturers and the public to sharply reduce Delaware’s own emissions.

“Yet again we are petitioning the EPA to act on the fact that our ability to achieve and maintain health-based air quality standards is severely impacted by sources outside of the state of Delaware,” DNREC Secretary David Small said. “Our position has been corroborated by EPA’s own modeling technology: That Pennsylvania and West Virginia and other states’ emissions significantly impact Delaware. We are petitioning EPA to reduce that impact and the associated health threats impacting Delawareans through harmful ozone that comes from outside our borders.”

As in the aftermath of each CAA 126(b) petition filed by DNREC, Sec. Small said that Delaware continues to assess the impact of other generating stations and power plants in the upwind states. The petition points out that the facilities cited for upwind air pollution manage to skirt EPA jurisdiction because some of the states do not have regulatory requirements for the power plants’ installing highly-effective NOx emissions controls, while still other upwind states do not require the facilities to consistently operate existing NOx controls at high levels of efficiency, and in this case states allow power plants to demonstrate compliance with regulatory requirements using long-term averaging of emissions that do not address the impact of transported pollution on the short term (8-hour) ozone standard.

Section 126(b) of the Clean Air Act requires that within 60 days after the EPA’s receipt of any petition (and after a public hearing), the EPA administrator will make such a finding as requested, requiring the Homer City Generating Station to limit short term NOx emissions to levels that are protective of the 8-hour ozone NAAQS in downwind areas such as Delaware, or will deny the petition.

Vol. 46, No. 397

Media contact: Michael Globetti, DNREC Public Affairs, 302-739-9902

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DAQ encourages Delaware public to continue to opt-in and complete survey so it can better gauge customer service

DOVER – DNREC’s Division of Air Quality aims to get better mileage out of its customer satisfaction program in the future and used the Delaware State Fair as the vehicle this year not only to tout the program but to tout alternative means of transportation as its State Fair theme, with a drawing that awarded a new bicycle to Samantha Hudran of Harrington for completing DAQ’s online customer satisfaction survey after visiting the fair.

Ms. Hudran recent had her name drawn by DAQ Director Ali Mirzakhalili from a pool of other customer satisfaction surveys completed by State Fair visitors. In line with this year’s DAQ fair theme of promoting cleaner transportation alternatives, the division also encouraged survey participation by offering the bicycle as the drawing prize. DAQ recently began working to expand and improve its customer satisfaction program, Director Mirzakhalili said, and is now gauging the current level of customer satisfaction as an initial step forward.

He learned recently that Ms. Hudran, winner of the 10-speed bike, is a very knowledgeable DAQ customer, regularly reading DAQ’s air quality reports and “well aware of the continuous improvements in Delaware’s air quality” championed by DNREC and the Division of Air Quality. She and her family came to the DAQ’s Dover office at State Street Commons Aug. 19 to collect her prize.

The Division of Air Quality thanks Ms. Hudran and everyone who participated in the online customer satisfaction survey, especially those who took time to complete it, since their information provided valuable feedback for the division as it strives to achieve its highest customer satisfaction rating. DAQ still wants to hear from customers so please visit DNREC’s website at dnrec.delaware.gov/Air/Pages/DAQ-Customer-Satisfaction to opt-in and receive the survey and provide feedback.

Vol. 46, No. 311