Asheville Bunkham air program seeks EMC certification as it moves under county control after Hurricane Helen

Ashley Featherstone, director of the Asheville Bunkham Air Quality Agency, told the Air Quality Committee that her agency will seek certification from the Environmental Management Commission (EMC) in July after reorganizing the local program under Bunkham County.

The request follows a string of operational pressures driven by Hurricane Helen and flat federal grant funding, Featherstone said. She told commissioners the program has lost about 40% of its staff in recent years and that federal grants and other revenues have not kept pace with costs. "Our EPA grants for 20 plus years now have not increased," Featherstone said, and that fiscal reality is a main driver of the planned reform.

The reform would convert the program from an independent board structure to a county division within Bunkham County's Permits and Inspections Department while preserving a separate cost center and program accounting. Under the proposal the county commission would approve the program budget and any rule changes; the current air-quality board would become advisory and continue to hear appeals and advise on technical matters, Featherstone said. "We would still have separate accounting structures. I would still be the air director and our staff day-to-day things would not change," she said.

Featherstone described program operations and post-storm recovery work during her presentation. The local network includes a regulatory PM2.5 monitor, an ozone site, an air toxics site and a second ozone site currently under construction, plus a non-regulatory network of low-cost sensors and emergency BAMs loaned by EPA and the state. The non-regulatory sensors are being used to track PM2.5 from debris burning and wildfire smoke; Featherstone said the program hopes to purchase sensors after the loan period ends so that the network remains in place.

The agency also permits local air-curtain incinerators (ACIs) to manage storm debris. Featherstone said the office has permitted four ACIs since Helen and that operators must meet visible-emission standards and perform EPA Method 9 opacity testing; the agency encourages operator training to ensure compliance. She emphasized ACIs emit less PM2.5 than open burning, which has been a recurring public complaint in the wake of the storm.

On permitting, Featherstone reported the program oversees eight Title V facilities, 10 synthetic minor facilities and about 50 small sources, and conducts roughly 151 stage-one vapor recovery inspections at gasoline stations. The local program also holds delegated authority for asbestos (NESHAP) permitting tied to demolition work.

Division of Air Quality Director Mike Abberinskus told the committee that local programs operate in step with the division and that DAQ staff review local rules for compatibility as part of EMC certification. He described a statutory checklist (citing state statutes governing the EMC and local program certification) that staff will use to evaluate the reorganized Asheville Bunkham program when it appears on the EMC July agenda.

Featherstone said a key near-term milestone is Bunkham County's budget decision (scheduled for June 2), which would enable the transition. If DAQ and the EMC approve certification in July, the final step would be the Bunkham County Board of Commissioners adopting the existing local air quality code by reference.

The committee heard the presentation and asked clarifying questions about funding, regional coordination and monitoring; no formal committee action was taken at this meeting. The agency will return to the EMC in July with the certification request and the DAQ-provided checklist to document compliance with statutory certification criteria.