ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS OTAG recommends ozone controls tailored to pollution transport
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fter two years of scientific inquiry and heated debate, the Ozone Transport Assessment Group (OTAG) on June 17 confirmed the suspicions of states experiencing acute ozone problems: Some of their air pollution is indeed coming from somewhere else. OTAG's findings will help determine how EPA sets nitrogen oxide (NOJ emissions limits for states in the eastern half of the United States in an upcoming rulemaking. These limits are designed to bring all states into compliance with the new ozone standard by 2007. In its June 19 recommendations to EPA, OTAG found that midwestern states are contributing to the smog problems of surrounding states, especially around the Great Lakes and along the eastern seaboard. In its final report, the group of 37 states recommended that energy utilities, which the group concluded are key contributors to this problem, should reduce their ozone-causing NO emissions by up to 85%. Marketbased emission trading systems, such, cis the one used in EPA's acid rain program can make these reductions affordable OTAG said. Richard Wilson, EPA's deputy assistant administrator for air and radiation, said the agency will use OTAG's recommendations as a reference point when it does its own technical analysis to set NOx emission limits for each state. Because the OTAG recommendations were based on the past ozone standard, EPA will have to factor in the new standard, finalized on July 19, to hit the Clean Air Act's 2007 target. OTAG used sophisticated meteorological and ozone data modeling and animation to help solve the puzzle of air pollution transport across state lines, which has
proven to be a hot political issue as 54 eastern urban areas struggle to comply with current ozone mandates (ES&T, March h197, 126A). High-stack utility boilers and manufacturing facilities in the Midwest, particularly in the Ohio Valley, contribute to the pollution in many of these urban areas in the North, South, and East, OTAG said. "In the Midwest, you have stagnation—slow, meandering winds," said Washington University researcher Bret Schichtel, who worked on animated modeling programs that helped OTAG members understand pollution transport. "When the wind blew in your direction from this area, you tended to have high ozone levels." Schichtel said that although the models could not quantify the ozone contribution made by midwestern states to surrounding regions, they could provide estimates. "But there can be a large uncertainty with those estimates," he said.
This uncertainty will likely play a role in EPA's rulemaking to limit NO,,, emissions, which the agency will propose in September. OTAG recommended that states be allowed to challenge those limits with further computer modeling. States will conduct their own ozone and air current modeling and comment on the EPA-set limits, which the agency will finalize in September 1998. Mike Koerber, technical director for the Lake Michigan Air Directors Consortium, said emissions trading is a key OTAG recommendation because states will need to keep down the costs of pollution control. "Emission trading has been shown in the past, with the acid rain program, to be an effective way to meet environmental goals while controlling costs," he said. Emission trading, which allows utilities to purchase pollution "credits" from other facilities that have reduced emissions below set limits has successfully reduced sulfur dioxide emissions in the acid rain program OTAG offered two possible trading methods, including a NOx market system with emissions "caps" as Dart of a common, interstate
Winds and Ozone on High-Ozone Days OTAG analysis of high-ozone days (1991-95) indicated that ozone transport was more rapid (long wind arrows) in the North and East United States than in the Midwest and South. (Ozone levels shown in ppb.)
Source: OTAG Air Quality Analysis Workgroup
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emissions market, or a system without such caps. Under a capped system, power utilities are assigned a specific limit on NOx emissions from a specific amount of NO^ emissions allowed in the state. In a no-cap system, the utilities would base their trading on an average emission limit rather than a spe-
cific numerical limit. The report recommends that a joint state/EPA workgroup be formed to evaluate design features for a market trading system. To control mobile source emissions, OTAG recommended the mandatory sale of cleaner burning reformulated gasoline in all
OTAG states and supported a national program to sell low-emission vehicles. The group also proposed that by 1999, EPA evaluate emission benefits and other effects of octane adjustments on current technology diesel engines and develop emission standards. —VINCENT LECLAIR
"Accelerated" Department of Energy cleanup plan draws criticism The Department of Energy plans to further tighten its belt and demand greater productivity to accelerate cleanup of the nation's former nuclear weapons complex, according to a DOE draft report released for public comment on June 12. The discussion draft is the first public airing of DOE's national "2006 Plan," formerly known as the "Ten-Year Plan." In June 1996, faced with shrinking budgets and an outcry over total cleanup costs estimated at more man $200 billion, DOE's Office of Environmental Management (EM) directed site managers to establish plans to clean up and close their sites by 2006, if possible {ES&T, March h197, 134A). The discussion draft is based on these site reports and presents EM's preferred cleanup strategy. Comments on the discussion document will be used to produce a revised plan due later mis The discussion draft evaluates cleanup goals based on stable EM funding of at least $5.5 billion a year. Along with a projected cumulative 12% improvement in productivity by 2006, EM estimates that it can complete cleanup at most of its sites. But even with this accelerated effort, almost 50% of the work at sites, including Hanford, Wash.; Savannah River, Ga.; Oak Ridge, Term.; and the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, would still remain after 2006. Performance improvements, according to the draft, can be achieved by integrating work across sites, improving competitive contracting methods, and deploying innovative technology. But a coalition of nuclear waste watchdog groups is calling the EM strategy "a sham that won't work." "EM can't deliver these cleanups because their proposals are based on false assumptions," said Military Production
Network (MPN) spokesperson Bob Schaeffer. According to MPN, the plan is based on unjustified optimism about the savings generated by competitive contracting methods and the acceptance of
DOE "can't deliver these cleanups because their proposals are based on false assumptions." —Bob Schaeffer, Military Production Network environmental standards that are weaker than those required by current agreements. Although EM has become more efficient in the past few years, a recent appraisal suggests that further improvements are
possible. In 1996, a DOE-commissioned independent analysis concluded that the EM waste management program was 35-40% less efficient than such programs in the private sector and mat the environmental restoration program was 25% less efficient than comparable private-sector programs. According to DOE sources, EM is pushing hard to accelerate cleanups. "The main impact [of the 2006 Plan] appears to be the scaling back of a lot of work because of funding and time constraints," said a veteran DOE manager involved in EM projects. "At the bigger sites, capping and land-use restrictions are taking the place of soil excavations. There is a lot of pressure to meet these targets. People are being told to do it in this time frame or else they'll find another way to do it " REBECCA RENNER
TECHNOLOGY Canada "verifies" first environmental technologies Soil treatment systems, toxicity tests, and a knowledge-based computer system for remediation projects are among the first environmental technologies to win recognition in Canada's new Environmental Technology Verification (ETV) program. The nine technologies were announced at the annual meeting of the Air & Waste Management Association in Toronto on June 10. Patterned closely after California's verification program, which started in 1995 [ES&T, Feebuary 1996, 70A)) ,he program verifies manufacturers' claims, using third-party evaluators to assess performance data. The program considers products in the areas of pollution prevention, control, remediation, monitoring, conservation, software, emergency response, and waste management. Verified technologies can use the ETV logo in promotions. The nine technologies were assessed during the pilot stage of the program, which was officially launched in April. Four other products dropped out of the verification process, said Dave Renshaw, technical director of ETV Canada, Inc., a private company that operates the program under contract for Environment Canada and Industry Canada. Canada is currently working with EPA and the California EPA to develop reciprocity agreements between verification programs. For more information on the program, call (613) 247-1900, ext. 228.
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