Tom,
Thanks for
sharing this update and for the presentation on the Area Source Estimator tool
at last week’s meeting. I updated the ZIP file at the URL in my email
below so that it has the newest file. It looked like the tool will be useful to
many people. Here are a few thoughts and follow-up items:
- The tools seems like it may have some very useful
applications for doing emissions inventories at the regional level. We
were hoping at the recent meeting to have a discussion about how to break
up the Area Source workload for 2005, but didn’t get to that agenda
item. One of the options to consider is to compile data at the regional
level, rather than state-by-state, at least for some source categories
where there is reasonable agreement on methodologies and emission factors.
This tool could be useful in doing that. If each state can provide their
activity data, the estimations can be run all at once. We can talk about this
more on the next conference call. This “regional approach” may
be a way for you to deal with the sectors that have been problematic for
you. If someone else has an efficient way of estimating these, we can use
another system for those sectors.
- One issue with the tool will be maintaining the reference
data. One advantage of the RAPIDS project has always been the ability to
share reference data (e.g., new emission factors) among the states as new
information is found. While the regional project will very likely continue
to maintain tables of emission factors, etc., you may want to consider
ways to ensure the latest data is available in this system by somehow synchronizing
it with the regional database so that it stays up to date without having
to do too much manual entry.
- You raised the issue of how the tool compares to RAPIDS. It
is likely to be at least a year and possibly more before a new RAPIDS
application is available that has anything similar to the estimation
functionality of this tool. I imagine the estimation and reference table
management tools between the two will be similar and we may want to
incorporate some aspects of this tool into the new RAPIDS design, such as
the ability to estimate and store data for multiple years. The major
differences will be that RAPIDS should be capable of dealing robustly with
point and mobile data as well and has better capabilities for serving as a
data repository (for example, the 2GB limit in Access may become a problem
with the current tool with datasets the size of our current regional
inventories).
- Do you currently have a timeline for when the remaining
components of the tool would be completed? Please continue to keep the
group up to date on this.
Regards, Jon
______________________
Jon Dettling
Great Lakes Commission
734-971-9135
dettling@glc.org
From: Tom
Velalis [mailto:tom.velalis@epa.state.oh.us]
Sent: Monday, October 02, 2006
1:17 PM
To: dettling@glc.org
Cc: Buzz Asselmeier; Michael Noon;
Mark Young; ostranda@state.mi.us; Wu, Chun Yi; Grant D - DNR Hetherington
Subject: Area Source Emission
Calculator- Prototype Update
A newer version
is posted on the ftp site. There are three functions missing
from the application:
"Duplicate" function
is not functioning as it should be
"Point
Source Correction" function is not yet created in the menu.
"Reports" is
still at works. (thinking of typical ad-hoc queries)
So, far, we were
able to enter the activity, EFs, controls data for all area source categories
except for
Pesticides, industrial cleaning, landfills and fuel marketing.
The goal is to import the information and
use the
calculator to calculate emissions. For those last four difficult
categories, we will be looking
for an
intelligent solution.
There were some
discussion in last week's meeting in comparing the tool to RAPIDs.
When the tool becomes
fully functional,
it will be nice to compare the two and define the pros and cons of each
application. We are committed
to using it
unless the new RAPIDS can become a complete substitute to our State
application.
Jon, feel free to
exchange any ideas with us.
Tom.
>>> "Jon Dettling" <dettling@glc.org> 9/26/2006 6:29
PM >>>
Allan,
It is working for me. I'm using Access 2003. From the limited amount I've
looked at it, it looks really great.
______________________
Jon Dettling
Great Lakes Commission
734-971-9135
dettling@glc.org
-----Original Message-----
From: Allan Ostrander [mailto:ostranda@michigan.gov]
Sent: Tuesday, September 26, 2006 11:27 AM
To: Jon Dettling
Subject: RE: Emissions Inventory Meeting - Sept. 27-28
Jon,
FYI I've been conversing with Tom about the area source application. I
downloaded it from the ftp site yesterday but could not get it to run.
It kicks the application into the VBA debugger. At first Tom thought it
was because it was develped in Access 2006 and I was running Access 2002
SP3 but now it looks like the application needs to be compiled. It is
looking for a reference file and not finding it. I've called Tom and
left a voice mail to discuss this with him.
Allan G. Ostrander
Environmental Quality Specialist
Michigan Department of Environmental Quality
Air Quality Division
Ph. 517-335-2717
ostranda@michigan.gov
>>> "Jon Dettling" <dettling@glc.org> 09/26/06 10:35
AM >>>
FYI,
In case anyone was having difficulty with the FTP site, I've zipped
the
files Tom posted and placed then for download here also:
www.glc.org/air/OH_AreaCalculator.zip
Jon
______________________
Jon Dettling
Great Lakes Commission
734-971-9135
dettling@glc.org
-----Original Message-----
From: Jon Dettling [mailto:dettling@glc.org]
Sent: Monday, September 25, 2006 2:10 PM
To: 'Yam, Kevin (ENE)'; 'Roger Gauthier'; 'Pete Giencke'; 'Mark
Young';
'Cong Doan'; 'Wong, Peter (ENE)';
'Orlando.Cabrera-Rivera@dnr.state.wi.us';
'Wu, Chun Yi'; 'Steber, Daniel'; 'Tom Velalis'; 'Buzz Asselmeier';
'BATES,
JON'; 'Dennis McGeen'; 'Allan Ostrander'; 'James Lax'; 'Hulsberg,
John';
'Gee, Karen'; 'Carlos Mancilla'; Ron Stannard
(rwstanna@gw.dec.state.ny.us);
'King.Suzanne@epamail.epa.gov'
Subject: Emissions Inventory Meeting - Sept. 27-28
Emissions Inventory Steering Committee,
Several items in preparation for this week's emissions inventory
meeting:
The meeting agenda is attached.
For those calling in, the number is:
Dial-in Number: (866)355-2663
Passcode: 5777#
In case of difficulty in joining the conference call, please call Peter
Wong
at his cell phone: (416)518-7190.
An updated version of the b(a)p report is attached. The sections
discussing
updates for each state are not entirely up to date and some attention
to
this section from each team member would be appreciated.
There were some recent proposals for additions to the material codes
table
in RAPIDS. These are summarized in one of the attachments. We will
discuss
and finalize this on Wednesday.
This past Friday, Mark Young sent a notice that he had posted some
design
documents on the discussion forum site. The link is below. We'll
discuss
those at the meeting.
http://glin.net/forum/view.php?site=glad&bn=glad_rapids&key=1158928526
Tom Velalis has been working with an intern at OEPA to develop a new
area
source emission estimator. A message from Tom is below. We can talk
about
this application, and perhaps do a demo, during the area source
estimation
discussion on Thursday.
Finally, for anyone who will be arriving Tuesday and who is interested
in
getting dinner, we can meet as a group at 7pm in the lobby of the
Quality
Hotel, where it appears that the majority of people are staying. The
hotel
is at 2180 Islington Ave,
Toronto, ON.
Kevin Yam has identified a
number of
excellent restaurant choices, including Italian, French and Seafood.
Please
respond letting me know if you plan to make it, so that we know to look
for
you and can make sure we have adequate transportation.
My mobile phone number is 734-474-1115 if you need to get in touch with
me.
The location of the Ministry of Environment building relative to the
hotels
is shown in the attached directions. It appears to be a reasonable
walking
distance, although Cong has also offered to pick people up at the
Quality
Hotel if anyone is interested. His number is in the attachment in the
directions. The Ministry will be providing some light breakfast
options
(e.g., muffins, etc.) on Wednesday morning.
Regards, Jon
______________________
Jon Dettling
Great Lakes Commission
734-971-9135
dettling@glc.org
________________________________________
From: Tom Velalis [mailto:tom.velalis@epa.state.oh.us]
Sent: Monday, September 25, 2006 11:26 AM
To: Jon Dettling
Subject: Ohio's
Area Source Calculator
Since what's out there is not sufficient to do an Area Source
Inventory, I
have been working with an Intern to construct our own State
application.
The application is called "Area Source Calculator" and it is being
designed
in Access. The idea of a State calculator was originally invented by
Buzz
Asselmeier after seeing a calculator created by Pechan and Associates.
The application is at ftp://great-lakes.net/oh/AreaCalculator/
The application menu has the following options:
View - simply view the information (SCC, Activity, pollutants, EFs,
Control
Efficiency, Emissions)
Edit - edit the information on the screen or clone past year
inventories
Import - import data from excel spreadsheets
Calculate- Calculate emissions based on imported or edited data
QA/QC- This part of the menu checks for duplicate entries
Export-Generates two output formats:NIF Text Files and RAPIDS files
We also plan to add one more item on the menu called "Point Source
Correction".
The intern will stay with me until June of 2007 and he will help me
put
together the 2005 are source inventory and troubleshoot the
application.
There are still many issues with the application but we are making a
steady
progress.
I have been trying to stimulate other State's interest in improving it
and
some are interested. Let me know if you care to follow the developments
of
this effort.
Tom V.
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