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EVALUATION OF THE WALKTHROUGH SURVEY METHOD FOR DETECTION OF VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUND LEAKS
Citation:
Weber, R. AND K. Mims. EVALUATION OF THE WALKTHROUGH SURVEY METHOD FOR DETECTION OF VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUND LEAKS. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/2-81/073 (NTIS PB81199382), 1981.
Description:
During 1978 and 1979, the Emission Standards and Engineering Division of EPA's Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards conducted a fugitive volatile organic compound (VOC) emission sampling program in organic chemical manufacturing plants and petroleum refineries. As a part of their sampling program, several 'walkthrough surveys,' also called 'unit area surveys,' were conducted. The assistance of EPA's Industrial Environmental Research Laboratory, Cincinnati was requested in the analysis of the walkthrough survey data. Fourteen walkthrough surveys were analyzed, from four plants. The analysis reported here focuses on the variability and reproducibility of the survey method. One indicator of variability which was studied was the coefficient of variation (CV). The CV's ranged from 55% to 408%, for each pair of walkthrough surveys. Further, the linear correlation coefficients for each set of surveys ranged from 0.046 to 0.98. No attempt was made to evaluate the sources of the variability.