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EMISSIONS PROFILE CHARACTERIZATION OF LAKE MICHIGAN POLLUTANT SOURCES - PART III
Impact/Purpose:
GENERIC RARE OBJECTIVE: The Regional Applied Research Effort (RARE) provides the Regions with a mechanism to address near term research needs through an ORD Laboratory/Center. Any applied research project that a Region identifies and that an ORD laboratory has the expertise to carry out will be considered if the three following conditions are met: 1) projects must be funded through an ORD Laboratory or Center, 2) the project must fall within the defined mission of the selected ORD Laboratory/Center, and 3) proposals must be research-oriented.
Description:
The southern Lake Michigan aea continues to experience poor air quality despite the implementation of many measures to control particulate matter, ozone and toxic pollutants. Fortunately, the ambient atmosphere holds clues to these sources and their contributions to urban pollution. By combining routinely collected monitoring data with data on the pattern of chemical species emitted by various pollution sources, modelers can extract information about the contributions of those sources to ambient air. This project contemplates the collection of comprehensive emission profiles for important air pollution sources in the Lake Michigan region. These profiles will characterize emissions of fine particles and volatile organic compounds. Such profiles are required for source apportionment calculations (e.g., those using a chemical mass balance method) whose goal is to estimate the quantitative contributions of likely sources of ambient air concentrations. The resulting information serves as the basis for formulating emission control strategies that have the greatest potential to reduce ambient concentration levels below EPA specified national standards. Sources proposed for characterization include vehicles, diesel trucks and buses, gasoline storage and transport facilities, industrial coating facilities, refineries, and steel plants. The project will involve both field (source sampling) and laboratory (sample analysis) work. The work will be carried out under three ORD contracts and cooperative agreement vehicles, involving both the NERL and NRMRL laboratories. Under this aspect ofthe project, an individual experienced in GC-FID/MS analysis will perform hydrocarbon concentration measurements on canister-collected VOC samples resulting from the source sampling field activities, and supply the results to EPA.