Atmospheric releases from fossil fuel power plants in the United States

This paper contains detailed data on atmospheric emissions from power plants with a capacity of more than 25 MW electric in the United States. The data are gathered from utility files as presented to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Pollutants covered are CO, NO_x, SO_x3, particulates, and total hydrocarbons. The data indicate that in 1977 about 420×10⁹ kg coal, 84×10⁶ m³ oil, and 65×10⁶ m³ of natural gas were used to generate electricity. Pollutants generated were 2×10⁹kg particulates, 17×10⁹ kg SO₂, 6×10⁹ kg NO_x, 78×10⁶ kg hydrocarbons and 0.3×10⁶ kg of CO.     

Airborne reduced nitrogen: ammonia emissions from agriculture and other sources

Ammonia is a basic gas and one of the most abundant nitrogen-containing compounds in the atmosphere. When emitted, ammonia reacts with oxides of nitrogen and sulfur to form particles, typically in the fine particle size range. Roughly half of the PM(2.5) mass in eastern United States is ammonium sulfate, according to the US EPA. Results from recent studies of PM(2.5) show that these fine particles are typically deposited deep in the lungs and may lead to increased morbidity and/or mortality. Also, these particles are in the size range that will degrade visibility. Ammonia emission inventories are usually constructed by multiplying an activity level by an experimentally determined emission factor for each source category. Typical sources of ammonia include livestock, fertilizer, soils, forest fires and slash burning, industry, vehicles, the oceans, humans, pets, wild animals, and waste disposal and recycling activities. Livestock is the largest source category in the United States, with waste from livestock responsible for about 3x10(9) kg of ammonia in 1995. Volatilization of ammonia from livestock waste is dependent on many parameters, and thus emission factors are difficult to predict. Despite a seasonal variation in these values, the emission factors for general livestock categories are usually annually averaged in current inventories. Activity levels for livestock are from the USDA Census of Agriculture, which does not give information about animal raising practices such as housing types and grazing times, waste handling systems, and approximate animal slurry spreading times or methods. Ammonia emissions in the United States in 1995 from sources other than livestock are much lower; for example, annual emissions are roughly 8x10(8) kg from fertilizer, 7x10(7) kg from industry, 5x10(7) kg from vehicles and 1x10(8) kg from humans. There is considerable uncertainty in the emissions from soil and vegetation, although this category may also be significant. Recommendations for future directions in ammonia research include designing experiments to improve emission factors and their resolution in all significant source categories, developing mass balance models, and refining of the livestock activity level data by eliciting judgment from experts in this field.     

Ozone control strategies in the United States

Conventional control strategies for volatile organic compounds (VOCs), a precursor to ozone, are identified. The control measures have been adopted by states in their efforts to attain the national ambient air quality standard for ozone by statutorily mandated deadlines. An inventory of viable control approaches for VOCs is presented, rather than a discussion of the approaches' comparative merits or of available alternatives. Focus is placed upon the technologies and control measures that U.S. EPA has identified as “reasonably available”, considering such criteria as effectiveness, costs, and associated energy and environmental impacts. These regulatory approaches include such strategies as vapor control in gasoline marketing, low solvent technologies and/or add-on control equipment for surface coating operations, and vehicle inspection and maintenance programs. By adopting these and additional control measures, as required, most states are projecting attainment of the ozone standard by 1987.     

Sustainable engineering education in the United States

Sustainable engineering is a conceptual and practical challenge to all engineering disciplines. Although the profession has experience with environmental dimensions of engineering activities that in some cases are quite deep, extending the existing body of practice to sustainable engineering by including social and cultural domains is a significant and non-trivial challenge. Nonetheless, progress is being made, as a recent study undertaken by the Center for Sustainable Engineering in the United States demonstrates.

Characteristics of the PAH emissions from the incineration of livestock wastes with/without APCD

This study was conducted on two batch-type livestock waste incinerators, including the one with an air-pollution control device (APCD)-one wet scrubber (WSB) and the other without APCD for the disposal of livestock wastes. The concentration and composition of 21 individual polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the stack flue gas (gas and particle phases), bottom ash, and effluent of WSB were determined. Stack flue gas samples were collected by a PAH stack-sampling system. Twenty-one individual PAHs were analyzed by a gas chromatography/mass spectrometer (GC/MS). Due to the low combustion temperature, a remarkable and significant increase in the total-PAH concentration of emission from the stack with APCD was observed when compared with the case without APCD. Measured total-PAH emission factors were 285 and 2.86 mg/kg waste for the incineration with and without APCD, respectively, while BaP (the most carcinogenic PAH) emission factors were 0.79 and 0.12 mg/kg waste for the incineration with and without APCD. The total-PAH output/input mass ratios averaged 0.011 and 0.004 with and without APCD, respectively. The result reveals that the PAH content in the auxiliary fuel during the incinerating process could affect the emission of PAH.     

A survey of environmental radioactivity measurements in the United States

A survey of selected radiochemical laboratories in the United States was conducted to estimate the relative numbers and types of analyses performed nationwide for the measurement of environmental radio-activity and to identify the regulatory requirements which affect the selection of analytical procedures and media. Information was sought from each laboratory regarding its parent facility, whether the laboratory performs its own analyses or contracts them out, and the technical and regulatory requirements for which the laboratory performed analyses.Analyses of water, air-particulate, and soil and sediment samples contribute the greatest workload. Many fewer vegetation, milk, diet, gas, or bioassay samples are processed. The most common measurements, especially for water, are for gross-α and gross-β activity. More than 50 different specific-radionuclide analyses are being performed with varying degree of regularity by the 161 laboratories surveyed. γ-spectrometry is the most frequently used method for specific-radionuclide analyses; the use of Ge (Li) detectors for γ-spectrometric measurements now exceeds that of NaI (Tl) detectors. Other radionuclides for which specific analyses are frequently performed by a large percentage (25–75%) of the laboratories include ⁹⁰Sr, ¹³¹I, ²²⁶Ra, ^238,239Pu, ^234,235,238U, and tritium in water (HTO).     

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers in domestic indoor dust from Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom and United States

Because of the similarities in European and North American dietary exposure, it has been suggested that the order of magnitude higher body burdens in North Americans may be due to international variations in exposure via ingestion of indoor dust. Furthermore, ingestion of indoor dust has been suggested as a possible source of PBDEs in the blood serum of New Zealanders. Hence, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) were measured in domestic indoor dust from: Amarillo/Austin, Texas, US; Birmingham, UK; Toronto, Canada; and Wellington, New Zealand. Concentrations of BDE 209 in two UK samples were - at 520,000 and 100,000 ng g(-1) - the highest ever recorded in a domestic (or office) indoor dust sample. Median concentrations in ng g(-1) were: in Canada 620 and 560 for Sigmatri-hexa-BDEs and BDE 209 respectively; in New Zealand 96, BDE 209 not determined; in the UK 59 and 2,800; and in the US 1600 and 1300. With respect to BDE 209, concentrations were in the order: UK approximately US>Canada. For Sigmatri-hexa-BDEs, the order of concentrations was US approximately Canada>New Zealand approximately UK. Combined with principal component analysis of congener patterns, this suggests that, while North American dusts are contaminated by both Deca- and Penta-BDE commercial formulations, UK dusts are contaminated predominantly by Deca-BDE. The Octa-BDE formulation appears of minimal importance in accordance with available market demand figures. Despite the commercial formulations of PBDEs never having been manufactured in, nor imported into New Zealand, their presence in dusts from that country suggests international trade in PBDE-containing goods is an important pathway effecting their global distribution.     

解悟美国气象经济的发展轨迹和经验

美国政府在引导和规范国内气象经济发展的过程中,始终关注并有效抑制国有气象部门的垄断企图,及时果断地采取措施消除不利于气象事业顺应社会经济和技术发展要求的陈规陋习,适时坚定地扶持充满创造活力的民间资本的竞争努力.可以说,没有这种理智而清醒的管理理念,没有这种不昧于时的前赡眼光和超脱手法,没有这种不拘于内的国际视野和全球战略,是断难有其今天的作为的.我国气象经济的起步较美日等发达国家要晚近40年,更因发展思路不明至今已远远落后于诸多国家.如今面对国内社会经济发展对气象信息日益广泛而精细化的迫切需求,面对全球"气候政治"氛围愈益浓烈的全新形势.特别是"WTO'冲击渡带来的沉重的竞争压力,中国气象经济市场势必将在格局和规则方面进行重大调整.我国在推进气象服务市场化进程中亟需借鉴"美国经验",以确保我国气象事业的健康、协调、可持续发展.     

Dynamic Discourse Coalitions on hydro-fracking in Europe and the United States

ABSTRACT

Hydraulic fracturing for shale gas is a controversial issue in most countries. In these controversies, actors use discursive boundary work to convince various audiences of their position. Discursive boundary work is a communicative strategy that involves the framing of facts in contrast to other kinds of arguments. In this article we develop the Dynamic Discourse Coalition (DDC) approach to study how discourse coalitions deploy discursive boundary work to confirm, integrate, polarize or disintegrate their own and opposing discourse coalitions. The DDC approach enables a deeper understanding of the dynamics of controversies about hydraulic fracturing and similar contested technologies by illuminating the influence of communicative processes on policy formation. Based on an analysis of policy documents, academic reports, newspapers, interviews and websites we compare the dynamics of contesting discourse coalitions in the Netherlands and New York. This analysis explains why policy formed in different ways in the cases, despite the apparent similarity of the discourse coalitions that emerged in the respective controversies.     

Land changes and their driving forces in the Southeastern United States

The ecoregions of the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain, Southeastern Plains, Piedmont, and Blue Ridge provide a continuum of land cover from the Atlantic Ocean to the highest mountains in the East. From 1973 to 2000, each ecoregion had a unique mosaic of land covers and land cover changes. The forests of the Blue Ridge Mountains provided amenity lands. The Piedmont forested area declined, while the developed area increased. The Southeastern Plains became a commercial forest region, and most agricultural lands that changed became forested. Forests in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain declined, and development related to recreation and retirement increased. The most important drivers of land conversion were associated with commercial forestry, competition between forest and agriculture, and economic and population growth. These and other drivers were modified by each ecoregion’s unique suitability and land use legacies with the result that the same drivers often produced different land changes in different ecoregions.     

Conceptual Framework of Tourism Carrying Capacity for a Tourism City： Experiences from National Parks in the United States

There is no universally-accepted definition of tourism carrying capacity(TCC).Numerical TCC focuses on use level and is considered as"a magic number"of the saturation point for tourism.There are several reasons why numerical tourism capacity is inadequate.Alternatively,tourism capacity can be defined in terms of limits of acceptable change,which shifts the focus from"how much use is too much"to"how much change is acceptable".This article proposes an improved conceptual framework for evaluating carrying capacity for the tourism city based on approaches used in US national parks,which consider the impact of human use on a city's economic,environmental/resource,and socio-cultural conditions.Based on the basic data of indicator values and relevant standards,the framework monitors the current indicators and predicts future indicator values; it can also be used to assess and predict TCC.     

Development and use of water quality criteria and standards in the United States

Water quality criteria, as a means of distinguishing "good" water from "bad" water, have been employed for over 150 years. During the 1940s and 1950s, the formulation of water quality criteria and their role in water quality management were hotly debated in the United States as each state formulated its own approach to water pollution control. In 1965, when the federal government assumed control of water quality management in the US, a single, national approach to the formulation and use of criteria had to be selected and implemented nationwide. The purpose of this paper is to briefly review the history of criteria as a basis for water quality management in the US; note the different water quality management philosophies used by states prior to 1965; and summarize the relationship of criteria to monitoring over the past 30 years. Standards, as legal instruments, are developed for a specific water body by designating a use of the water (society value) and the criteria necessary to protect the use (a scientific finding). Standard violation, as a concept, tends to remain as a single-sample exercise (i.e., the sample measurement is either above or below the standard). Increasingly, however, there is a demand to classify large bodies of water (e.g., lake, river segment, or aquifer), over a set time period, such as a day, year, or decade, as either in compliance or in violation of water quality standards. No peer-reviewed, standardized method for computing standard "violations" has been widely accepted for this purpose. The paper ends with a call to develop such methods, if water quality managers must produce standard violation information (infer sample results) over time and space. Electronic Publication     

An estimate of regional and global O3 damage from precursor NOx and VOC emissions

The results of the ozone models of EMEP and Harwell are combined with the C-R (concentration- response) functions and economic valuation recommended by the ExternE Project of the European Commission. The paper is exploratory, to assemble the available information, establish likely priority impact categories, and make recommendations for future research. Impacts on health and agriculture are evaluated. Based on the EMEP results, aggregate regional (Europe-wide) estimates of ozone damage, allocated per ton of precursor emission, are derived. Calculations on the global scale, using results from the Harwell Global Ozone Model (and the same valuation per nL/L O₃) indicate that damages outside Europe are likely to also be significant although somewhat smaller. For the EMEP Model, the numbers per ton of precursor emission are approximately the same for NO_x and for VOC. For NO_x, a value around $1875 (uncertainty range 375 to 10 000) per Mg _{NO2 equi} was found; for VOC, approximately $1100 per Mg_VOC was found. There is much uncertainty, especially in the C-R functions, and current assessments of ozone damages are, at best, order of magnitude estimates. Even though the overlap between local, regional, and global models is not clear, the results suggest that ozone damage is dominated by regional impacts.     

Predicting CO2 and SO2 emissions in the Baltic States through reorganization of energy infrastructure

The paper deals with predicting carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide emissions generated by power production sector in the Baltic States in period up to year 2020. The economies of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are rapidly growing therefore forecast of emissions related with this occurrence becomes very important. The Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (INPP), one of the largest in the world, is situated in the region. Two power production scenarios are modelled to investigate changes in power sector's emissions expected as the consequences of the coming closure of Ignalina NPP. Power market was assumed to be common for all three Baltic countries and was modelled by applying the Balmorel model. The planned closure of Ignalina NPP will bring restructuring of Lithuania power production sector and will change also power transmission between countries. Predictive identified the potential of investments for new modern power generation technologies. At the same time, modelling results show in both scenarios that CO(2) and SO(2) emissions from power production in the Baltic region will increase. The increment of emissions is discussed in the context of meeting requirements of UNFCCC Kyoto protocol and EC Directives. Despite of CO(2) emissions increase the Kyoto protocol's requirements may be expected. At the same time, SO(2) formation in Lithuania power sector may exceed the limits of the EU Council Directive 2001/80/EB therefore the additional measures to control SO(2) emissions have to be investigated.     

Health risk assessment of emissions of dioxins and furans from a municipal waste incinerator: comparison with other emission sources

The aim of this study was to calculate the incremental lifetime-risk to dioxins and furans (PCDD/Fs) for the population living in the surroundings of a municipal solid waste incinerator (MSWI), as well as to establish the potential reduction on human health risks as a consequence of the adaptation to the EU legislation on pollutant emissions from the MSWI stack. Analytical and modelled results were obtained. PCDD/F concentrations in environmental media were determined by means of a simple-compartment-multimedia model (air-soil-vegetation model). Predicted and measured PCDD/F concentrations in soils and vegetation were compared, and the effects of MSWI emissions in the environmental media were determined. Human health risks due to PCDD/F emissions from the MSWI were also estimated based on I-TEQ measured and modelled in various environmental media. Cancer risks due to PCDD/F emissions of the plant were 1.07E-07 and 3.08E-09, before and after installation of the clean air system, respectively. On the other hand, cancer risks due to other PCDD/F emission sources in the area were 5.54E-06 and 1.86E-06. Total PCDD/F cancer risks (including those from diet) for the population living in the vicinity of the MSWI were 1.3E-04 and 4.25E-05, respectively (67.6% of reduction). Hazard ratio for total PCDD/F exposure (including diet) decreased during the last 5 years from 1.16 to 0.38. The above data show that other emission sources of PCDD/Fs also have a notable environmental impact on the area under direct influence of the MSWI.     

The role of ad hoc networks in supporting climate change adaptation: a case study from the Southeastern United States

To examine the factors that support adaptation within a regional and sectoral context, this article explores five climate-sensitive sectors in North and South Carolina (Forestry, Government Administration, Tourism, Water Management, and Wildlife Management) and the role of partnerships, collaborations, and networks in facilitating climate adaptation and related activities. Drawing from 117 online questionnaires and interviews with sector leaders across the Carolinas, the article highlights several key functions of networks in regard to supporting adaptation—intra-sector information sharing; monitoring, data collection, and research; and education and outreach. Furthermore, the analysis examines how climate networks in the region have facilitated the development of bonding, bridging, and linking social capital while also noting factors that have constrained the growth and success of both intra- and cross-sector collaboration. Although no formal, or discrete, state or regional cross-sector climate change network exists in the Carolinas, climate adaptations and capacity-building efforts have been supported by ad hoc and decentralized networks, emerging collegial partnerships within and across sectors, and collaborative efforts to pool expertise and resources. The role of different forms of social capital within these networks is discussed in the context of a contentious political environment where support for activities designed to address climate change is limited. These findings enhance our understanding of the social factors and relational processes that shape and influence capacity to adapt to climate change.