By Richard Dyer
Twitter: @RHDyer

Revisions to surface-coating and gasoline-dispensing rules in Apache Junction are being sent to the EPA for review.

The Pinal County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously recently to approve a resolution on proposed changes pertaining to air-quality rules that limit emissions of volatile organic compounds.

Apache Junction is the only area in Pinal County in a Phoenix-metro 2008 ozone non-attainment area. An area designated attainment is meeting a standard while non-attainment means not meeting the ozone standard, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The changes are being submitted to the EPA through the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality as elements of an Arizona state implementation plan, according to county documents.

“Specifically those rules apply to... metal surface coatings --- certain paints; and gasoline-dispensing facilities, of which there are about 20 in that area. The surface-coating rule right now only applies to one company and if they make the changes that they have suggested to us they are planning, they won’t be subject to the rule either,” Mike Sundblom, director of Pinal County Air Quality Control, said to the supervisors.

“So, it’s just these improvements to gasoline dispensing and the result is you have less. When you pump gas, you can smell gasoline sometimes; when they load gasoline into the tanks, sometimes the vapors get out. These rules minimize those in order to help control ozone,” he said.

The EPA had asked the county to include language that requires gasoline dispensing be discontinued immediately when any liquid leaks, visible vapors or significant odors are observed and not be resumed until the observed issue is repaired, according to a Pinal County notice of final rulemaking.

Cutback asphalt

County officials also made some modifications to a negative declaration document, seeking to remove rules for cutback asphalt, Mr. Sundblom said.

“We have to look at this wide variety of potential sources and if we don’t have those sources or they’re too small --- they meet certain criteria --- we do what is called a negative declaration and we say we don’t have to make rules for those because they are too small or they don’t exist,” he said.

“For example, we had to go through and make a negative declaration for what’s called cutback asphalt, which public works and paving companies haven’t used for years, but we still had to say there’s that,” he said.

A cutback asphalt is an asphalt cement that has been liquefied by blending it with a petroleum solvent. The solvents are volatile organic compounds, precursors to ozone formation in the atmosphere, according to the EPA.

The City of Apache Junction and Pinal County public works departments don’t use cutback asphalt, officials said.

“Our quantities of asphalt materials used on average would take me some considerable time to quantify; however, we have not used any cutback asphalts for several years now and the asphalt treatments that may contain cutbacks we no longer have in our ‘toolbox’ inventory of choices,” Apache Junction Public Works Manager Shane Kiesow said in an email to Pinal County.

“So I think, to answer your question, I’m confident our use will be 0% use of cutbacks of the total asphalt we use in future thus probably allowing you to make the negative declaration,” he said.

Pinal County officials echoed a similar sentiment.

“We haven’t utilized cutbacks for several years. Our current asphaltic materials either utilize a chemical additive or are an emulsion to assist with breaking of the asphalt. At this time we don’t anticipate going back to cutbacks,” Pinal County Public Works Manager Joe Ortiz said in an e-mail to the county.

To determine that there are no operating facilities in the Pinal County portion of the ozone non-attainment area that fall under a category other than surface coatings and gasoline service stations, several checks were made. They included looking at a district internal database of permitted stationary sources, website searches for key words and reviewing Pinal County planning records, according to county records.

Richard Dyer
Managing Editor | East Valley
@RHDyer

rdyer@iniusa.org

Meet Richard
Richard Dyer has worked at Independent Newsmedia Inc. USA since 1987, starting his career in Apache Junction as a copy editor and being promoted over the years to work as the editor of the Mesa Independent, news services editor for the East Valley office in Apache Junction, managing editor for the East Valley office, news services editor for the East Valley office and eventually also for the newspapers at INI’s then-Chandler office, managing editor again and as a news editor covering Apache Junction/Gold Canyon and Queen Creek. He helped start the Florence Independent while the news editor covering Apache Junction and Mesa news. In January 2023, he became associate managing editor for the East Valley newspapers and in August 2023 became managing editor for the East Valley newspapers of Chandler/Tempe, Gilbert, Queen Creek, Florence, Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon, while also reporting on Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon.  

Community: Since 2009, he has worked as a volunteer to design The Blue Guitar Magazine, Blue Guitar Jr. magazine and Unstrung magazine, which are projects of The Arizona Consortium for the Arts; and since 2014, has been overseeing the art submissions. 

Education: University of Arizona with a master of arts in journalism and a bachelor of science in agricultural communication. Also continuing education at Mesa Community College in welding in a metal art sculpture class.

Random fact: Saw his first tornado on May 31, 2010, which was classified as an EF-2, as part of a stormchasing tour group.

Hobbies: He is an artist of welded-steel sculptures, selling his artwork at juried and non-juried art shows.