Task Force member: Bernie Buescher RECOMMENDATION TO Create and Ombudsman Regarding both the General Assembly and the Department of Local Affairs: The Task Force should recommend to the General Assembly the creation of an Ombudsman to deal with citizen concerns regarding oil and gas development. Description: The General Assembly should create a Property Rights Ombudsman to be housed in the Colorado department of Local Affairs. The Ombudsman shall:  Develop and maintain expertise and understanding regarding oil and gas and local property law  Advise real property owners who have concerns regarding oil and gas activities  Provide information to private citizens, government entities and other interested parties about oil and gas development, and land use law, and the rights of each person involved in such activity;  If requested, the Ombudsman may render an advisory opinion regarding the rights of each person. The Department of Local Affairs shall develop processes and procedures to ensure the widest possible dissemination of information regarding the rights of each person involved in or effected by oil and gas development. 55 Task Force member: Bernie Buescher Format for Task Force Recommendations RECOMMENDATION related to Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment These recommendations would require Legislative Authorization and Appropriation Proposal, and Rationale: Objective Provide enhanced state oversight to timely and effectively respond to local concerns regarding oil and gas development. These services would include increased public health information, and expanded air quality monitoring and inspections. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (the Department) has proposed to the Task Force three initiatives to meet this objective:    Health Complaint/Information Line; Mobile Air Quality Monitoring Unit; and Human Health Risk Assessment study. The Task Force should recommend implementing legislation, accompanied with a fiscal note or decision item that details the necessary appropriations to authorize all three initiatives. The proposed legislation would require the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to maintain a health complaint and information line, to respond to questions and collect data relating to local concerns regarding oil and gas development and other industrial activities. The department should also be authorized and required to maintain an ambient air quality mobile monitoring program. The program shall include at least one vehicle or other mobile unit capable of collecting site-specific, ambient air quality data. The department shall cause to be conducted an ongoing human health risk assessment to address potential health impacts associated with oil and gas development. The study may be performed by the department, contractors to the department, or a combination thereof. The study shall be completed and made available to the public no later than October 1, 2016, and annually thereafter Please note that CDPHE has already submitted a decision item to the general assembly, seeking to convert the 5 term-limited oil and gas infra-red camera employees to full time employees (as well as other oil and gas –related FTE). 56 Task Force member: Bernie Buescher Detailed Background Information Health Complaint/Information Line The Health Complaint/Information Line would provide Colorado citizens with a central point to call for obtaining information on oil and gas development, as well as to submit health concerns relating to oil and gas development and other industrial activities. While it would be housed in CDPHE, the complaint/information line could be paired with a similar existing service. For example, the Colorado Health Emergency Line for Public Information (COHELP) is a public support service sponsored by the Department and operated by the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center, a division of Denver Health. The addition of the Health Complaint line could either be stand alone, or could be paired with the COHELP line to provide citizens with a central point to log their complaints related to oil and gas development or other activities. Where appropriate, complaints would be followed up by a dedicated health professional conducting an in-depth survey of the health conditions and mapping of the location. This initiative would be comprised of funding to support the COHELP line to serve as operators forwarding the complaints on to staff members at the Department. Many times citizens are looking for information to make their own decisions about the safety of oil and gas development. The Health Complaint/information Line would be used to provide information on current oil and gas regulations, regulatory agency information and presentations, and links to public health studies. Two staff members are proposed for this initiative, with one serving as the Work Group Leader/Nursing Professional to design the workflow processes and guide the overall Health Complaint line, and the other staff member to assist with complaints and analyze the data collected. The data collected by the Health Complaint line would be used to compare the rate of occurrence in particular areas and determine if a higher level of response is warranted. The Health Complaint line would involve two Tiers of response. Tier 1 is the collection of in-depth information from the complainant by a public health professional. Tier 2 would be triggered based on the findings in Tier 1 and involve a study of the ambient air quality at a particular location. Tier 2 would could lead to mobilization of the the air monitoring unit and staff to investigate the ambient air quality and further assess the source(s) of emissions. Mobile Air Quality Monitoring Unit As noted above, the mobile air quality monitoring unit would be used based on the outcome of Tier 1 findings. The mobile unit would be dispatched to a defined location to monitor ambient air quality and help determine potential sources of the emissions. The monitoring unit would be fully equipped with a gas chromatograph for volatile organic compounds (VOCs)/hazardous air pollutants (HAPs), nitrogen oxides (NOx), hydrogen sulfide, particulates, meteorology, data logging, communications and calibration equipment. Data collected by the monitoring unit would be evaluated against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 56 Task Force member: Bernie Buescher dose-response values for the hazardous air pollutants for those pollutants expected to be associated with oil and gas development. This list of air pollutants includes both chronic (long-term) and acute (short-term) values for inhalation exposures. The combination of a health complaint line and mobile air quality monitoring unit would enable the Department to expand its response to health complaints in a meaningful way. Moreover, to further pin-point emissions of concern, the Department could use staff from the Department’s Oil and Gas Team infra-red camera inspection group. The Department has requested legislative approval to make these infra-red camera employees permanent as part of a broader request for additional staff for oil and gas permitting and compliance activities. Leaking exploration and production equipment can be a significant source of emissions, and IR cameras enable inspectors to see leaks that are otherwise invisible to the naked eye. CDPHE’s IR camera program is also an important complement to the CDPHE oil and gas regulations promulgated in 2014, which require industry to inspect oil and gas sites utilizing IR cameras or similar instruments. The Department would also use the mobile monitoring unit in other situations including emergency response, enforcement, hot-spot identification and fence line monitoring to supplement the times when the monitoring unit was not being used for complaints. While citizens calling the health complaint line may be focused on immediate health issues, there is also concern about potential long-term health impacts from oil and gas development. Accordingly, the Department plans to use EPA’s risk assessment process to estimate the probability of adverse health effects from oil and gas operations, utilizing new data being collected in Garfield County and the North Front Range. Human Health Risk Assessment A Human Health Risk Assessment is defined as “the process to estimate the nature and probability of adverse health effects in humans who may be exposed to chemicals in contaminated environmental media, now or in the future.” A human health risk assessment normally includes four steps:     Hazard identification; Dose-response assessment; Exposure assessment; and Risk characterization. The Department has experience with risk assessments and would either conduct the risk assessments or provide oversight to a contractor performing such studies. The studies would use the latest and most accurate data, including but not necessarily limited to the air quality monitoring data from emission and dispersion studies being conducted by Colorado State 56 Task Force member: Bernie Buescher University’s Department of Atmospheric Science. These emission dispersion studies are currently taking place in Garfield County and the North Front Range, and scheduled for completion in 2016. The data obtained from these emission and dispersion studies will go through quality assurance and be peer reviewed before being released. Risk assessments require a complex analysis and are used to determine the probability of adverse health effects. The Department estimates the timing for a risk assessment conducted by the agency at 9 to 12 months, and by an outside 3rd party at 6 to 9 months, not including proposal and contracting activities. Estimated Fiscal Impact The Health Complaint/Information Line at CDPHE is estimated to cost $250,000 per year. This cost includes one staff member at the Nursing Profession/Health Provider level, and one staff member at the Statistical Analyst level. If the line is implemented in conjunction with COHELP at Denver Health, that would add another $50,000 – 100,000 per year. A single Mobile Air Quality Monitoring Unit is estimated to cost $325,000 with an additional $100,000 per year for staff. Equipment needed includes   Van $110,000 o $50,000 base vehicle cost o $60,000 configuration with equipment racks, electrical, HVAC, generator and sampling ports Trailer $110,000 o 15,000 base trailer cost o $60,000 configuration with equipment racks, electrical, HVAC, generator and sampling ports o $35,000 tow vehicle Staffing for the mobile monitoring vehicle would require a Department staff member at the Physical Science Researcher/Scientist II level. The Department estimates the cost of a Human Health Risk Assessment using a third party contractor $250,000-$300,000 per risk assessment or if conducted by Department staff $150,000-$200,000 per risk assessment. The risk assessment work would involve a Professional Toxicologist using EPA’s Human Health Risk assessment process. As detailed in the CDPHE decision item, making the 5 IR camera staff permanent, coupled with other CDPHE oil and gas related requests, would cost approximately $950,000 per year. 56 Task Force member: Bernie Buescher 56