Field Validation of Sound Mitigation Models and Air Pollutant Emission Testing in Support of Missile Motor Disposal Activities

Abstract

The U.S. Department of Defense approved activities conducted at the Utah Test and Training Range (UTTR) include both operational readiness test firing of intercontinental ballistic missile motors as well as the destruction of obsolete or otherwise unusable intercontinental ballistic missile motors through open burn/open detonation (OB/ OD). Within the Utah Division of Air Quality, these activities have been identified as having the potential to generate unacceptable noise levels, as well as significant amounts of hazardous air pollutants. Hill Air Force Base, UT, has completed a series of field tests at the UTTR in which sound-monitoring surveillance of OB/OD activities was conducted to validate the Sound Intensity Prediction System (SIPS) model. Using results generated by the SIPS model to support the decision to detonate, the UTTR successfully disposed of missile motors having an aggregate net explosive weight (NEW) of 56,500 lbs without generating adverse noise levels within populated areas. These results suggest that, under appropriate conditions, missile motors of even larger NEW may be detonated without exceeding regulatory noise limits. In conjunction with collecting noise monitoring data, air quality data was collected to support the development of air emission factors for both static missile motor firings and OB/OD activities. Through the installation of 15 ground-based air samplers, the generation of combustion fixed gases, hazardous air pollutants, and chlorides were monitored during the 56,500-lb NEW detonation event. Comparison of field measurements to predictions generated from the U.S. Navy’s energetic combustion pollutant formation model, POLU4WN, indicated that, as the detonation fireball expanded from ground zero, organic compounds as well as carbon monoxide continued to oxidize as the hot gases reacted with ambient air. Hazardous air pollutant analysis of air samplers confirmed the presence of chloromethane, benzene, toluene, 1,2-propadiene, and 2-methyl-1-propene, whereas the absence of hydrogen chloride gas suggested that free chlorine is not generated during the combustion process.     

Field Reliability of the Orsat Analyzer

Results from four field based collaborative tests and from one laboratory based collaborative test of the Orsat analytical procedure are discussed. The results from the five collaborative tests demonstrate that routinely using Orsat data to convert particulate emissions from combustion sources to the reference conditions of 50 % excess air and 12% carbon dioxide may introduce sizeable errors in the corrected particulate loading. Ways to improve the Orsat apparatus and increase the reliability of the data are suggested.

Also reported are the results from field and laboratory studies on the reliability of using individual carbon dioxide and oxygen analyzers of the Fyrite* type to determine stack gas molecular weight. The laboratory study, which was done using three cylinders containing mixtures of carbon dioxide, oxygen, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen of known concentration, determined that these analyzers give carbon dioxide and oxygen analyses of sufficient reliability to yield accurate molecular weights. The results of the field studies, which were done on actual flue gas samples, also support this conclusion.     

Contaminant exposure of willets feeding in agricultural drainages of the Lower Rio Grande Valley of South Texas

Willets (Catoptrophorus semipalmatus) were collected in June and August 1986 at the outlets of two agricultural drainages into the Lower Laguna Madre of South Texas and at two other Texas coastal sites. Mean liver concentration of arsenic was higher in August than June. Over 20% of the livers had arsenic concentrations elevated above a suggested background level of 5.0 ppm dry weight (DW), but concentrations (maximum 15 ppm) were below those associated with acute toxicity. Selenium concentration in livers varied from 2.3 to 8.3 ppm DW for all locations and represented background levels. Mercury concentrations in livers for all locations (means = 2.0 to 3.4, maximum 17 ppm DW) were below those associated with avian mortality and similar to levels found in other estuarine/marine birds. DDE in carcasses was higher in adults (mean = 1.0 ppm wet weight) than juveniles (0.2 ppm), and higher in August (1.0 ppm) than June (0.5 ppm); however, DDE concentrations were generally at background levels. Based on brain cholinesterase activity, willets were not recently exposed to organophosphate pesticides.     

Promising new technology for managing diamondback moth (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae) in cabbage with pheromone

Experiments were conducted in plantings of cabbage in spring 1999 and 2000 to evaluate a novel, new matrix system for delivering sex pheromone to suppress sexual communication by diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella (L.). The liquid, viscous, slow-release formulation contained a combination of diamondback moth pheromone, a blend of Z-11-hexadecenyl acetate, 27%:Z-11-hexadecen-1-ol, 1%:Z-11-tetradecen-1-ol, 9%:Z-11-hexadecenal, 63%, and the insecticide permethrin (0.16% and 6% w/w of total formulated material, respectively). Field trapping experiments showed that the lure-toxicant combination was highly attractive to male moths for at least four weeks using as little as a 0.05 g droplet of formulated material per trap; and the permethrin insecticide had no apparent influence on response of moths to lure baited traps. Small field plots of cabbage were treated with the lure-toxicant-matrix combination using droplets of 0.44 and 0.05 g each applied to cabbage in a grid pattern at densities ranging from 990 to 4396 droplets/ha to evaluate the potential for disrupting sexual communication of diamondback moth. There was no significant difference in the level of suppression of sexual communication of diamondback moth, as measured by captures of males in pheromone-baited traps located in the treated plots, versus moths captured in untreated control plots, among the treatments regardless of droplet size (0.05 or 0.44 g) or number of droplets applied per ha. Plots treated with the smallest droplet size (0.05 g) and with the fewest number of droplets per ha (990) suppressed captures of male diamondback moths > 90% for up to 3 weeks post treatment. Although laboratory assays showed that the lure-toxicant combination was 100% effective at killing the diamondback moth, the mode of action in the field trials was not determined. The results indicate that the liquid, viscous, slow release formulation containing diamondback moth pheromone could be used to effectively suppress sexual communication of this pest in cabbage and other crucifers, although as many as three applications probably would be required for suppression over an entire growing season.     

An overview of policies for managing polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in the Great Lakes basin

The Great Lakes are an important environmental and economic resource for Canada and the United States. The ecological integrity of the Great Lakes, however, is becoming increasingly threatened by a number of persistent, bio-accumulative and harmful chemicals that enter the Great Lakes ecosystem through fluvial and atmospheric deposition. Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), a class of brominated flame retardant, are among such chemicals, whose concentration in the Great Lakes has greatly increased in recent years. Despite growing concern over the possible health and environmental effects of these compounds, only four of the eight Great Lakes states have enacted regulations to ban/restrict the use of PBDE while the two Canadian Great Lakes provinces are yet to endorse any regulation. Of the three main commercial PBDE mixtures (pentaBDE, octaBDE and decaBDE), penta- and octaBDE are no longer manufactured or imported into the United States and Canada. DecaBDE, however, still finds use in a variety of products. In the present paper, the authors review the current regulations and policies for managing PBDEs in the Great Lakes jurisdictions and briefly review commercially available non-bromine chemical alternatives to PBDE. As these alternatives are comparatively more expensive than PBDE, future adoption of more eco-friendly flame retardants by the polymer industry will likely depend on stricter legislation regulating the use of PBDE and/or an increased public demand for PBDE-free products.     

Facilitating Integrated Resource and Environmental Management: Australian and Canadian Perspectives

It is widely believed that improved resource and environmental management outcomes would occur if those responsible took a longer term view, considered whole systems rather than their components in isolation, and co-ordinated and integrated their activities with each other. There has been substantial action in many countries to achieve these ideals but with mixed success. Why has it not been possible to have a more co-ordinated and integrated approach to resource and environmental management (IREM)? We briefly review various conceptual issues regarding the purpose and character of IREM. The core of the paper is analysis of the factors contributing to success or failure, including the requirement that IREM, in practice, must be based on a careful analysis of the need and scope for integration in a given context, the significance of leadership, information access, and the links with other planning and management activities. Obstacles arising from these and other shortcomings, including the focus regarding what IREM involves, bureaucratic resistance, adverse financial arrangements and property rights problems, are also discussed. The paper concludes with five recommendations as to how to enhance integrated resource and environmental management dealing with need, scope and context, best management practice, information accessibility and integration, financial arrangements,and strengthening local and regional planning capacity.     

Environmental monitoring at Hanford,Washington, USA: A brief site history and summary of recent results

Nuclear and nonnuclear industrial and research activities have been conducted on the Hanford reservation since 1943. Materials originating from these activities may enter the surrounding environment through releases of airborne and liquid effluents and solid wastes. Concern about the environmental effects of these releases has evolved over the past four decades into a comprehensive onsite and offsite monitoring program. Today, environmental monitoring to assess potential impacts of released materials includes field sampling and chemical and physical analyses of air, ground and surface water, fish and wildlife, soil, vegetation, and foodstuffs. This paper reviews the history of Hanford operations and summarizes the current environmental monitoring program and its major findings. Mathematical models based on monitoring data show that radiation doses to people living near the Hanford site are well below existing regulatory standards. Only trace amounts of radionuclides from Hanford have been detected in the offsite environment.     

Rh isoimmunization following genetic amniocentesis

A series of 8009 genetic amniocenteses were retrospectively examined to evaluate the relationship of the procedure to Rh isoimmunization. Of the 615 Rh negative women giving birth to Rh positive infants and estimated to be at risk, thirteen (2·1 per cent) were sensitized subsequent to the amniocentesis. Eleven of the sensitizations occurred early in the programs, and a combination of experience and ultrasound performed concurrently with the amniocentesis appear to have reduced the risk of isoimmunization to that of control data from the literature.