The Potential Ozone Impacts of Landfills

Abstract

Landfill gas produces ozone precursors such as nitrogen oxides and formaldehyde when combusted in flares or stationary engines. Solid waste landfills are also the third largest anthropogenic source of methane in the United States. Methane is both a greenhouse gas and a tropospheric ozone precursor. Despite its low photochemical reactivity, methane may noticeably affect urban ozone if released in large quantities along with other organic compounds in landfill gas. A fine-scale 3D Eulerian chemical transport model was used to demonstrate that, under meteorological and background chemical conditions conducive to high ozone concentrations, typical emissions of ozone precursors from a single hypothetical landfill may result in persistent daytime additions to ozone of over 1 part per billion (ppb) by volume tens of kilometers downwind. Large leaks of landfill gas can enhance this ozone pollution by over a tenth of a ppb, and external sources of non-methane ozone precursors may further exacerbate this impact. In addition, landfill gas combustion may increase near-source exposure to toxic formaldehyde by well over half a ppb. In Southeast Michigan, the combined influence of several landfills upwind of key monitoring sites may contribute significantly to observed exceedances of the U.S. ozone standard.