August 16, 2006
Great Lakes Regional Toxic
Air Emissions Inventory
Steering
Committee Conference Call Minutes
Participants
Illinois: Buzz
Asselmeier
Indiana: Jon Bates
Michigan: Dennis
McGeen, Jim Lax and Allan Ostrander
Minnesota: Dan Steber
and Chun Yi Wu
New York: Carlos
Mancilla
Ohio:
Ontario: Cong Doan
Pennsylvania:
Wisconsin: Orlando Cabrera-Rivera
GLC: Jon Dettling
EPA:
Other:
Benzo(a)pyrene
report
Jon has sent a few versions of an
initial report and has highlighted some issues in need of being addressed.
One of these is woodstoves and
fireplaces. It was noted that New
York's emissions for this source category are about
10x higher than for most other states. Carlos said that he has double checked
his emission factors and he is using the ones from FIRE, .004 and .005. It was
noted that the difference might be in the activity factor. The guidance for
this source that the group put together a few years ago notes that the DOE
estimate of wood consumption for New
York is abnormally high. Carlos will investigate
this.
Orlando previously
proposed factor a factor of 0.019 for fireplaces without inserts based on a
literature reference. Orlando
will forward a newer emission factor that MARAMA is using in their recent
assessment.
Jon noted that it is difficult to
determine from some states' reporting for this source whether both woodstoves
and fireplaces are estimated. For example, Indiana
and Ohio have
reported only under a single SCC 2104008000, which is generic for both
woodstoves and fireplaces. Others, such as Wisconsin have reported under only
Woodstove SCCs. Orlando noted that although he's only used the woodstove SCCs,
his estimates are intended to include both woodstoves and fireplaces with inserts and
hasn't differentiated them because the same set of emission factors are used.
Carlos raised the issue of
emission factors for human cremation. He's been unable to find an emission
factor for this source type. It was noted that there is an emission factor in
FIRE for another cremation SCC, which is for point sources. However, this can
also be used for the area source cremation SCC. The group discussed this and
agreed that the factor was appropriate for human cremation and that the states
should apply it. Because the methodology assumes a certain amount of wood is
burned with each body, the factor may not be appropriate for animal cremation.
Chun Yi noted that 31502101 is the SCC with a cremation emission factor in FIRE
database for b(a)p.
The next largest category is
FCCUs. Jon received a copy of a letter from Buzz which described some source
testing that showed that emissions from an FCCU were much lower than previously
estimated. WebFIRE has two factors: one is controlled and one is uncontrolled.
The lower factor mentioned in the letter is similar in magnitude to the
controlled factor. States with FCCU emissions should check with their sources
to see if the controlled factor is being used and if not, whether it should be.
Chun Yi noted that the MACT standard requires an oxygenation-type of control to
be used on these sources.
Jon Bates looked into the POM
L&E document because he couldn't find the emission factor in FIRE. The
factor there may be more up to date than others. This document is from 1998.
The document is on the EPA TTN website. http://www.epa.gov/ttn/chief/le/
Another category worth examining
is open burning. There are three main categories here: household waste (yard
and municipal), prescribed burning and forest fires. Dennis asked what the
source of the activity data for Household waste burning is. Orlando's pointed out that Wisconsin's activity
data for the estimates
were obtained from their state's solid waste division. Chun Yi mentioned that
she's gotten NEI data for these source types from Anne Pope. Chun Yi believes
this is updated information for 2002, not that which is grown from
earlier years.
Allan noted that RPOdata.org has
wildfire and prescribed burning activities for many states.
Jon noted that Minnesota did not include any b(a)p for any
on-road mobile sources. Both Minnesota
as well as many other states all obtained this data through NEI. Chun Yi looked
into this issue and identified that the NEI documentation lists a factor for
"benzo(a)pyrene", but the CAS that is given to it is that for
benzo(e)pyrene. She will check with EPA to see which this should be for.
Jon noted that there were also
some issues with Non-road sources, commercial marine vessels and railroads. Tom
has corrected his non-road numbers, which were unusually high and Orlando has uploaded the
corrections. Wisconsin and New
York are missing emissions from Commercial Marine Vessels and New York is missing
emissions from Railroads.
Orlando had made a
comment that it would be beneficial to include some regulatory information in
the report, such as reporting thresholds for b(a)p. Jon had suggested the
possibility of also looking at the presence of control programs for the major
emitting categories. Chun Yi expressed some concern that this may be a lot of
work. The group generally agreed that b(a)p reporting thresholds should not be
difficult to identify and that the group can include this information at a
minimum. Jon will talk to contacts at the EPA regarding whether more detailed
information would be useful.
State updates
IL- b(a)p corrections have been uploaded
to the repository
IN -
MI - No additional updates, will
be attending Sept. meeting
MN - Still working on 2002
revisions based on NEI data. Anne Pope had MDI emissions from a trade
association. Chun Yi will be looking into this and will pass on any information
she obtains.
NY - The inventory was created in
AFS. Carlos is working on updating this with revised information for
benzo(a)pyrene. Both Carlos and Ron are approved to attend the meeting
OH -
PA -
WI - Will be looking at commercial
marine vessels and human cremation
In person meeting
Cong and Peter have arranged for
Ed Piche, the division director at MOE to come talk to the group for 30 minutes
at the start of the meeting and for an hour-long tour of the MOE facility
during the afternoon of the first day. MOE will also be providing lunch on
Wednesday.
A new agenda will be compiled and
sent out.
Proposed material
codes for PCB congeners
Chun Yi sent a set of proposed
material codes to add material codes to the RAPIDS set for PCB congeners at the
chlorination level. Orlando
has sent this information to his toxicology staff to see what their opinion is
regarding this issue. Anne Pope has said that if we add these, NEI will likely
add them to their list as well. Orlando
mentioned that the regional inventory has been criticized for its lack of PCB
emissions data and this may be a method for improving our PCB emission
estimates.
RAPIDS
Questionnaire
Jon described the general feedback
from the questionnaires and Mark's progress is assessing these. One of the
important decisions points that will need to be addressed in the near future is
a general choice of a database structure. The options appear to be either
something fairly similar to the current RAPIDS, or something based on NEI, but
with additions and modifications to accommodate the group's needs. Jon noted
that unless modifications to the current RAPIDS software are needed to compile
the 2005 inventory, it is likely that no additional programming will be done on
the powerbuilder platform, except anything that is needed to migrate that
language to the new Java platform. As some first steps, Mark envisions building
a starter database and beginning to develop some import/export tools, as well
as some data table management tools and basic emission calculation tools.
Buzz would like to see things
written down and more thoroughly discussed before decisions are made. Several
others agreed. Jon noted that design documents will need to be produced and
reviewed before programming moves forward.
Orlando noted that
their state is converting its EI system from a
Powerbuilder platform
to Dot Net.
Allan inquired whether it would be
possible to have the capability to import NEI data directly into the
repository/CAROL. The NEI RAPIDS conversion was a major pain for them last time
and wouldn't be necessary if the RAPIDS format wasn't needed to import to the
repository.