Contact: Julie Wagemakers
Phone: 734-665-9135
Fax: 734-665-4370
E-mail: juliew@glc.org
Mobile Source Toxic Air Emissions - http://www.glc.org/air/1996/1996.html
Air quality management efforts in the Great Lakes region have taken
a major step forward, thanks to a
decision support tool developed by the Great Lakes Commission.
Working with the air quality agencies of its
eight member states and Ontario, the Commission has developed and released
a Great Lakes Toxic Air
Emissions Inventory that tracks the release of dozens of contaminants
from point sources (such as factories
and other industrial sources); area sources (such as consumer and commercial
solvent use); and mobile
sources (such as motor vehicles).
The mobile sources feature is new to the inventory, with previous releases
including only point and area
sources. The top three total emissions (point, area and mobile) are
545 million pounds of toluene, 311 million
pounds of xylene and 144 million pounds of benzene, of which mobile
sources contribute more than 50 per
cent. The inventory, which relies on 1996 state and provincial data,
will be used to strengthen state and
provincial decisionmaking; promote consistency from one jurisdiction
to the next, establish standard data
collection procedures; and lay the foundation for a fully automated
emission estimation and inventory
system.
“The addition of mobile sources makes this inventory the most detailed
account of toxic air emissions in the
region,” explains Lloyd Eagan, director of Wisconsin's Bureau of Air
Management. “This is a terrific step
forward in obtaining a better assessment of the impact of atmospheric
sources to environmental quality.”
Funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Regional Great
Lakes Air Toxics Emissions
Inventory will be updated annually. Inventory results are available
online
(http://www.glc.org/air/1996/1996.html). or can be purchased in hard
copy from the Great Lakes
Commission for $20.00 U.S./$30.00 Canadian. Inventory software
is available for public use and
downloading at http://www.glc.org/air/air3.html.
Press advisory: For information on specific jurisdictions, contact the
appropriate Inventory Steering
Committee member
Illinois (David ‘Buzz’ Asselmeier, IL EPA, 217-524-1128, epa2110@epa.state.il.us
)
Indiana (IN DEM, 317-233-4226, jbates@dem.state.in.us)
Michigan (Gary Baker, MI DEQ, 517-373-7058, gbaker@great-lakes.net)
Minnesota (Chun Yi Wu, MN PCA, 651-282-5855, chun.yi.wu@pca.state.mn.us)
New York (Rob Sliwinski, NY DEC, 518-457-2823, rgsliwin@gw.dec.state.ny.us)
Ohio (Tom Velalis, OH EPA, 614-644-2270,tom.velalis@epa.state.oh.us)
Ontario (Peter Wong, OME - Air Resources Branch, 416-235-5818, wongpe@ene.gov.on.ca
)
Pennsylvania (Rob Altenburg, PA DEP, 717-787-4310, altenburg.robert@a1.dep.state.pa.us
)
Wisconsin (*Orlando Cabrera-Rivera, WI DNR, 608-267-2466, cabreo@mail01.dnr.state.wi.us)
*Steering Committee Chair
# # #
The Great Lakes Commission is a nonpartisan, binational compact agency
created by state and U.S. federal
law and dedicated to promoting a strong economy, healthy environment
and high quality of life for the Great
Lakes-St. Lawrence region and its residents. The Commission consists
of state legislators, agency officials and
governors’ appointees from its eight member states. Associate membership
for Ontario and Québec was
established through the signing of a “Declaration of Partnership.”
The Commission maintains a formal
Observer program involving U.S. and Canadian federal agencies, tribal
authorities, binational agencies and
other regional interests. The Commission offices are located in Ann
Arbor, Michigan.