Stationary Source Air Pollution Research Articles

Historical red-lining is associated with fossil fuel power plant siting and present-day inequalities in air pollutant emissions

Stationary sources of air pollution are disproportionately located in communities of colour, but the causes for this disparity are unclear. Here we assess whether racialized appraisals of investment risk (‘red-lining’) undertaken by the US federal Home Owners’ Loan Corporation in the 1930s influenced the subsequent siting of fossil fuel power plants. Across 8,871 neighbourhoods in 196 US urban areas, we observed a stepwise correlation between risk grade, number of power plants and cumulative quantity of power plant emissions upwind and within 5 km. Controlling for pre-existing power plants, neighbourhoods deemed ‘hazardous’ (D grade, ‘red-lined’) had a higher likelihood of a fossil fuel power plant being sited between 1940 and 1969 (72%), 1970 and 1999 (20%) and 2000 and 2019 (31%), and higher average present-day emissions of nitrous oxides (82%), sulfur dioxide (38%) and fine particulate matter (63%) compared with ‘declining’ (C-graded) neighbourhoods. Our results suggest racism in the housing market contributed to inequalities in present-day power plant emissions burdens.

Selected issues of the Czech legal regulation of stationary sources of air pollution

The legal regulation of stationary sources of air pollution is an important part of the air protection in law. This paper is focused on selected issues of placing and operating all stationary sources in the Czech Republic, from the smaller ones (e.g. located in houses) to the larger ones. The regulation is mainly carried out by binding opinions and permits for operation and by the determination of some emission limits. Some obligations are also imposed on the operators of stationary sources and in the case of some stationary sources also compensatory measures and operating orders are required. In the text, the most important legal topics connected with stationary sources are discussed.

ОЦЕНКА УСТОЙЧИВОСТИ ФОТОСИНТЕТИЧЕСКОГО АППАРАТА ЛИПЫ МЕЛКОЛИСТНОЙ TILIA CORDATA MILL. В ГРАДИЕНТЕ ТЕХНОГЕННОГО ЗАГРЯЗНЕНИЯ Г. ВЛАДИКАВКАЗ

The study of the quantitative content of pigments in the leaves of small-leaved linden growing in linear plantings along roads was carried out on 10 sections of the transport network of the capital of the Republic of North Ossetia in Vladikavkaz. The sites are located in the industrial zone of the city, at different distances from stationary sources of air pollution. The complex impact of all sources of pollution with the level of the atmospheric pollution index (API) from 2.0 to 6.4 was assessed. The choice of research objects and sampling for analysis were carried out by the methods of E.V. Nikolaevskaya, N.P. Krasinsky, A.K. Frolova. The content of pigments (chlorophylls "a", "b"; carotenoids) in linden leaves was determined by the photometric method of V.F. Gavrilenko et al. The concentration of pigments was determined on a FEK-56 photocalorimeter. Statistical data processing was carried out using the methods of biological statistics by V.F. Lakin. The amount of green pigments in the leaves of small-leaved linden is not the same, the level of their concentration increases under conditions of the highest level of air pollution. The leading role in the work of the photosynthetic apparatus is played by chlorophyll "a", the content of which determines the overall picture of their joint content with chlorophyll "b". Changes in chlorophylls and their total amount are similar to changes in the content of carotenoids. An analysis of the obtained materials showed that in areas with a high API, the quantitative content of pigments increases, which is consistent with the results of some researchers (Tarabrin, Rachkovskaya, Kim), but not confirmed by others (Aksenova, Kazantseva, Tsandekova Neverova), which may be caused by an individual species reaction plants. The thickness of the leaf tissue decreases with increasing pollution, the ratio of columnar and spongy mesophyll shifts towards spongy, which will negatively affect the process of photosynthesis

MONITORING THE STATE OF THE AIR ENVIRONMENT IN THE LVIV REGION

The article presents the results of monitoring the state of the air environment of Lviv region in 2020. The main sources of pollution are identified and statistical data on emissions of pollutants into the atmosphere are given. The aim of the work is to analyze the state of the environment, natural resources of Lviv region, trends in their changes and environmental measures. Volumes of pollutant emissions from stationary sources of air pollution from enterprises, institutions and organizations of Lviv region were determined by conducting an inventory of stationary sources of pollutant emissions into the air, types and volumes of pollutant emissions into the atmosphere by stationary sources, equipment facilities of the region.

Multimedia Pollution Prevention of Mercury-Containing Waste and Articles: Case Study in Taiwan

In response to the Minamata Convention on Mercury, effective 16 August 2017, the Taiwan government in recent years started to implement the sustainable material management of mercury-containing waste and articles. This was completed by a cross-ministerial collaboration for preventing the adverse effects of mercury on human health and the environment, based on the multimedia approach. The legislative or regulatory frameworks on the control and prevention of mercury emissions and releases have been established in environmental distributions, including air, water, soil, waste, food, and article (or commodity). Therefore, the central authorities included the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), Council of Agriculture (COA), Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW), Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), and Ministry of Labor (MOL). Furthermore, the implementation plans covered the reduction in mercury-containing products by restricted use and bans on its use, remediation of soil and groundwater for mercury-pollution sites, control of stationary source emissions, environmental monitoring, and compulsory recovery of mercury from electronic waste such as waste lightings. A successful case study on the recovery of mercury from electronic waste using a thermal treatment, and its capture control by activated carbon, was also addressed in this work. Due to the effectiveness of source control in Taiwan, the annual reported amount of mercury emissions from the stationary air pollution sources indicated a decreasing trend from 1.989 metric tons in 2016 to 1.760 metric tons in 2019. More significantly, the ministerial collaboration in implementing the Convention in Taiwan also echoed the United Nations (UN) Agenda 2030 for sustainable development goals (SDGs).

A decade of the U.S. energy mix transitioning away from coal: historical reconstruction of the reductions in the public health burden of energy

In the last decade, the transition away from coal and to fossil gas and biomass in the U.S. has had a major influence on greenhouse gas emissions, especially from electricity generation. However, the effect of this transition on the public health burden of air pollution is not well understood. We use three reduced complexity models (RCMs) and emissions inventory data to reconstruct the changes in health impacts due to PM2.5 exposure from stationary fuel combustion sources in the U.S., from 2008 to 2017. In 2008, the health impacts of air pollution from stationary sources was largely driven by coal combustion. By 2017, the contribution of coal has dropped precipitously, and the health burden of stationary air pollution sources is shared among a mixture of source types and fuels—largely gas and biomass in buildings and industry, and the remaining coal-fired electricity generation. Nationwide, in 2017, health impacts of biomass and wood combustion are higher than combustion of coal and gas individually. Industrial boilers had the highest emissions and health impacts, followed by residential buildings, electricity, and then commercial buildings. All three RCMs indicate that biomass and wood are the leading sources of stationary source air pollution health impacts in 24 states, and that the total health impacts of gas surpass that of coal in 19 states and the District of Columbia. We develop a projection method using state-level energy consumption data for 2018 and show that these trends likely continued. The RCMs had high agreement for 2008 emissions, when sulfur dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants were the predominant air pollution source. However there was substantial disagreement between the three RCMs on the 2017 health burden, likely due to pollutants less well-characterized by the RCMs having a higher proportionate share of total impacts.

ASSESSMENT OF THE TECHNOGENIC IMPACT OF STATIONARY SOURCES OF POLLUTION ON THE CONDITION OF THE AIR POOL OF THE KYIV AGGLOMERATION

The aim of the article is to assess the impact of stationary sources of pollution of the Kyiv agglomeration on the state of its air basin. Atmospheric air pollution is known to be one of the leading elements in assessing the quality of human habitat because it has a detrimental effect on human health. The object of the study is the state of the atmospheric air of the agglomeration. The subject of the study is air pollution by stationary sources, identification of major pollutants, assessment of their man-made load on the air by emissions, by types of harmful substances, taking into account their danger by the values of maximum permissible daily concentrations and hazard class. Scientific and methodological support of monitoring tasks, comprehensive assessment of air pollution of agglomerations, both cities and their rural areas, is becoming increasingly important, especially where there are powerful stationary sources of air pollution. In the course of the research the enterprises – the main air pollutants of the agglomeration were identified, their emissions by types of harmful impurities were analyzed. The calculation of indicators of the hazard category of enterprises (HCE) on the volume of emissions, taking into account the values of the maximum allowable average daily concentrations and the hazard class of pollutants. To conduct a comprehensive assessment of man-made impact on the air, the calculation of the hazard indicator of the emission structure (HES) is proposed and their calculation is performed for certain enterprises. According to the proposed methodological approach, the values of aggregate indicators of man-caused load (MCLI) for stationary sources of pollution by numerical values of their HCE and HES are obtained. They comprehensively reflect the load on the air both due to emissions and due to the danger of harmful substances. Important measures to reduce volumes and improve the risk of emissions of harmful substances at enterprises are also indicated. Undoubtedly, promising methods are the study of air pollution in large cities and agglomerations, which are based on the use of geographic information technologies.

Assessment of urbogenic load on territory and population of regionally important Ukraine cities by emissions from stationary sources of air pollution

Assessment of urbogenic load on territory and population of regionally important Ukraine cities by emissions from stationary sources of air pollution

Fuel and energy complex and methods for assessing the harm from air pollution

A significant impact of the fuel and energy complex of Russia on the components of the environment is shown; in particular, the air pollution. The necessity of adopting the methodology for calculating the amount of harm from air pollution is substantiated. The analysis of the draft of Methodology for the Estimation of the Amount of Environmental Damage Caused by Air Pollution developed by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation is performed. The estimations of the amount of damage caused to the environment by excess emissions from stationary air pollution sources, as well as from agricultural burning and from combustion at waste disposal sites, including landfills, sites of temporary waste accumulation and unauthorized landfills. The directions of improvement have been developed both in terms of structure and content, theoretical and calculated part of the Methodology proposed by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation.

Traffic density and stationary sources of air pollution associated with wheeze, asthma, and immunoglobulin E from birth to age 5 years among New York City children

Exposures to ambient air traffic-related pollutants and their sources have been associated with respiratory and asthma morbidity in children. However, longitudinal investigation of the effects of traffic-related exposures during early childhood is limited. We examined associations of residential proximity and density of traffic and stationary sources of air pollution with wheeze, asthma, and immunoglobulin (Ig) E among New York City children between birth and age 5 years.Subjects included 593 Dominican and African American participants from the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health cohort. Prenatally, through age 5 years, residential and respiratory health data were collected every 3–6 months. At ages 2, 3, and 5 years, serum IgE was measured. Spatial data on the proximity and density of roadways and built environment were collected for a 250m buffer around subjects' homes. Associations of wheeze, asthma, total IgE, and allergen-specific IgE with prenatal, earlier childhood, and concurrent exposures to air pollution sources were analyzed using generalized estimating equations or logistic regression.In repeated measures analyses, concurrent residential density of four-way intersections was associated significantly with wheeze (odds ratio: 1.26; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.01, 1.57). Age 1 exposures also were associated with wheeze at subsequent ages. Concurrent proximity to highway was associated more strongly with total IgE (ratio of the geometric mean levels: 1.25; 95% CI: 1.09, 1.42) than were prenatal or earlier childhood exposures. Positive associations also were observed between percent commercial building area and asthma, wheeze, and IgE and between proximity to stationary sources of air pollution and asthma.Longitudinal investigation suggests that among Dominican and African American children living in Northern Manhattan and South Bronx during ages 0–5 years, residence in neighborhoods with high density of traffic and industrial facilities may contribute to chronic respiratory morbidity, and concurrent, prenatal, and earlier childhood exposures may be important. These findings may have broad implications for other urban populations that commonly have high asthma prevalence and exposure to a high density of traffic and stationary air pollution sources.

Billboards and Big Utilities: Borrowing Land-Use Concepts to Regulate "Nonconforming" Sources under the Clean Air Act

For more than thirty years, numerous coal-fired, electric utility plants have enjoyed “grandfathered” status under the Clean Air Act (CAA), leaving them virtually untouched by the dictates of increasingly stringent air pollution regulation in the United States. The Clean Air Act of 1970, which essentially codified the federal regulatory approach toward air pollution, established a two-tiered framework for the regulation of major stationary sources of air pollution. This approach mandated stricter federal pollution-control technology requirements on power plants built after the passage of new regulatory standards than those applicable to existing plants. This bifurcated approach, often called the “old-new division” in pollution-control regulation, continues to the present day, despite two subsequent rounds of amendments to the CAA in 1977 and 1990. The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1977 introduced two programs, New Source Review (NSR) and Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD), which attempted to narrow the old-new divide in control technology requirements. Any major modification of an old source would render it “good as new” for federal regulatory purposes, leading to the imposition of the same control technology requirements that new sources were obligated to follow in a given area. Despite this subsequent “narrowing,” many old sources, particularly coal-burning utility plants, predominantly located in the Midwest, continue to operate under more lenient pollution-control

An investigation into the presence and causes of environmental inequity in Denver, Colorado

This study examines decisions for the permitting of stationary sources of criteria air pollutants with respect to the distributional effects among ethnic groups and socio-economic classes. Similar to findings of past studies, a statistically significant correlation exists between minorities (particularly Hispanics and Native Americans) and the location of new stationary sources of air pollution in the Denver Metropolitan area. This correlation between minority status and pollution may be due to the fact there exists a correlation between race and socioeconomic factors such as high unemployment rates, high percentage of housing being rental units and low incomes. Therefore, a causal multiple regression model was developed to isolate these socioeconomic factors at the time of the siting decision from minority status of the population. Several of these socioeconomic factors appear to be the determining factors in the location of new stationary sources of air pollution in the Denver, Colorado Metropolitan area. We hypothesize that firms find that certain demographic factors make it less costly in time and effort to site major air pollution point sources. Policy measures based on the assumption of racial discrimination in the siting process may not be effective in reducing the inequitable distribution of pollution if other socioeconomic characteristics are stronger determinants in the location of polluting industry.

The use of compressed natural gas (CNG) in motor vehicles and its effect on employment and air quality

This study measures industrial output, employment and air pollution effects through the use of CNG in motor vehicles by utilizing the Pollution-Related Multiregional Household-Interactive Variable Input-Output (PHVIO) model. The impact analyses are conducted with three consecutive year scenarios of different level of CNG conversion of motor fleet vehicles for the target year, 1991, 1992, and 1993. The use of CNG in bus and truck vehicles of private businesses, consumers, and state and local governments produces the ‘substitution’ effect and ‘income’ effect. The use of CNG reduces the costs of transportation, and the output, employment and air pollution effects of the reduced transportation costs are referred as the substitution effect. The use of CNG increases natural gas consumption and requires CNG duel engine installation while it decrease gasoline consumption. The output, employment and air pollution effects of this final demand change are referred to the income effect. The industrial output and employment effects are measured in Oklahoma and the Rest of the U.S. Then Oklahoma State industrial and employment effects are divided into Oklahoma SMSA, Tulsa SMSA and the Rest of Oklakoma. Finally, the stationary source air pollution due to industrial effects and mobiles source air pollution due to CNG using motor vehicles are measured in Oklahoma SMSA and Tulsa SMSA.

Clearing the Air at Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Great Smoky Mountains National Park, located in the southern Appalachians on the border of Tennessee and North Carolina, was designated by Congress in 1977 as a Class I area, where resources are to be protected from damage due to air pollution. The National Park Service, Air Quality Division, collected and then used data on levels of pollutants and response of sensitive resources in the park and found that forests, soils, surface waters, and visibility in the park were experiencing adverse impacts from air pollution. We reviewed the data and process that supported this finding as well as the legal tools available to federal land managers confronted with evidence that sources of air pollution outside the boundaries of Class I areas are affecting resources. We prepared this case study to describe how the National Park Service has used scientific information in regulatory arenas to address air pollution problems at Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Based on this case we show that the requirement for Federal Land Manager review of permits for new stationary sources of air pollution is not sufficient to protect the parks from what has become a regional air quality problem.

Risks of municipal solid waste incineration: an environmental perspective.

The central focus of the debate over incineration of municipal solid waste (MSW) has shifted from its apparent management advantages to unresolved risk issues. This shift is a result of the lack of comprehensive consideration of risks associated with incineration. We discuss the need to expand incinerator risk assessment beyond the limited view of incinerators as stationary air pollution sources to encompass the following: other products of incineration, ash in particular, and pollutants other than dioxins, metals in particular; routes of exposure in addition to direct inhalation; health effects in addition to cancer; and the cumulative nature of exposure and health effects induced by many incinerator-associated pollutants. Rational MSW management planning requires that the limitations as well as advantages of incineration be recognized. Incineration is a waste-processing--not a waste disposal--technology, and its products pose substantial management and disposal problems of their own. Consideration of the nature of these products suggests that incineration is ill-suited to manage the municipal wastestream in its entirety. In particular, incineration greatly enhances the mobility and bioavailability of toxic metals present in MSW. These factors suggest that incineration must be viewed as only one component in an integrated MSW management system. The potential for source reduction, separation, and recycling to increase the safety and efficiency of incineration should be counted among their many benefits. Risk considerations dictate that alternatives to the use of toxic metals at the production stage also be examined in designing an effective, long-term MSW management strategy.

EPA's Program for Establishing Standards of Performance for New Stationary Sources of Air Pollution

The Environmental Protection Agency is responsible for establishing, reviewing, and revising standards of performance for new stationary sources of air pollution. Since this federal program was authorized in 1970, standards of performance (commonly referred to as new source performance standards or NSPS) have been developed for 34 categories of stationary sources. These regulations have focused primarily on large new sources of particulate matter, NO x , and SO2 emissions. Recently, work has begun on NSPS for a number of source categories that emit volatile organic compounds. Environmental professionals in these industries and in many regulatory agencies have little direct experience with the NSPS program and are unaware of the detailed engineering, cost, and economic information available with each proposed rulemaking. This article, therefore, reviews the purposes, procedures, and benefits of the NSPS program. A summary of the NSPS that have been promulgated through February 1983 are presented in tabular...

Transferable Discharge Permits and the Control of Stationary Source Air Pollution: Comment

The example demonstrates the difficulty of using marketable pollution rights to achieve an optimal level of pollution. When the presence of a pollutant introduces nonconvexities into the production sets of nonpollutors who are allowed to buy and sell permits, there will be no unique competitive equilibrium in the market for pollution rights. The actual equilibrium will depend upon the number of permits issued and need not represent the optimal pollution level. As Tietenberg argued in his original article (1980), transferable discharge permits can be shown to be efficient only in the sense of providing a least-cost method of maintaining a given level of pollution. 5 references, 1 figure.

Transferable Discharge Permits and the Control of Stationary Source Air Pollution: Reply

Transferable Discharge Permits and the Control of Stationary Source Air Pollution: Reply

Transferable Discharge Permits and the Control of Stationary Source Air Pollution: Reply

Transferable Discharge Permits and the Control of Stationary Source Air Pollution: Reply

Transferable Discharge Permits and the Control of Stationary Source Air Pollution: A Survey and Synthesis: Reply

Transferable Discharge Permits and the Control of Stationary Source Air Pollution: A Survey and Synthesis: Reply