Impacts of prescribed fires and benefits from their reduction for air quality,health, and visibility in the Pacific Northwest of the United States

Using a WRF-SMOKE-CMAQ modeling framework, we investigate the impacts of smoke from prescribed fires on model performance, regional and loc al air quality, health impacts, and visibility in protected natural environments using three different prescribed fire emission scenarios: 100% fire, no fire, and 30% fire. The 30% fire case reflects a 70% reduction in fire activities due to harvesting of logging residues for use as a feedstock for a potential aviation biofuel supply chain. Overall model performance improves for several performance metrics when fire emissions are included, especially for organic carbon, irrespective of the model goals and criteria used. This effect on model performance is more pronounced for the rural and remote IMPROVE sites for organic carbon and total PM_2.5. A reduction in prescribed fire emissions (30% fire case) results in significant improvement in air quality in areas in western Oregon, northern Idaho, and western Montana, where most prescribed fires occur. Prescribed burning contributes to visibility impairment, and a relatively large portion of protected class I areas will benefit from a reduced emission scenario. For the haziest 20% days, prescribed burning is an important source of visibility impairment, and approximately 50% of IMPROVE sites in the model domain show a significant improvement in visibility for the reduced fire case. Using BenMAP, a health impact assessment tool, we show that several hundred additional deaths, several thousand upper and lower respiratory symptom cases, several hundred bronchitis cases, and more than 35,000 workday losses can be attributed to prescribed fires, and these health impacts decrease by 25–30% when a 30% fire emission scenario is considered.

Implications: This study assesses the potential regional and local air quality, public health, and visibility impacts from prescribed burning activities, as well as benefits that can be achieved by a potential reduction in emissions for a scenario where biomass is harvested for conversion to biofuel. As prescribed burning activities become more frequent, they can be more detrimental for air quality and health. Forest residue-based biofuel industry can be source of cleaner fuel with co-benefits of improved air quality, reduction in health impacts, and improved visibility.     

The effects of repairs on tailpipe emissions for on-board diagnostics II-equipped vehicles with the malfunction indicator light illuminated

A total of 77 On-Board Diagnostics II (OBDII)-equipped vehicles with illuminated malfunction indicator lights (MILs) and non-evaporative codes were tested before and after repair. The test cycles included the Federal Test Procedure (FTP), IM240, and steady-state cycles. A total of 17 vehicles were found with emissions greater than 1.5 times their respective FTP emissions standards. Repair of these vehicles resulted in dramatic reductions in overall emissions for all the cycles. A majority of the remaining vehicles were found to have emissions below the certification standard for the FTP both before and after repair. Repairs for the vehicles with emissions <1.5 times the standard resulted in some smaller but quantifiable emission reductions over the FTP and IM240 but larger reductions over the steady-state driving tests. Misfires, bad oxygen sensors, and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) problems were the most common non-evaporative causes for triggering the MIL. The results show some fundamental differences between identifying malfunctioning vehicles using OBDII as opposed to more traditional dynamometer tests. In particular, for many systems, OBDII identifies components that are operating outside their design specification rather than for a specific emissions threshold.     

Using dispersion and mesoscale meteorological models to forecast pollen concentrations

This work describes the results of research into a source-oriented pollen concentration forecasting technique. Tests were conducted using the National Center for Atmospheric Research/ Penn State Fifth Generation Mesoscale Model (MM5), the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT_4) Model combined with the locations of oak trees and their aerial coverage from biogenic emissions land cover database version 3.1 (BELD3). Daily forecasts of pollen concentrations via MM5 and HYSPLIT_4 were made with 30-min increments and tested against 30-min oak pollen data collected by the St. Louis County Department of Health in Clayton, Missouri, for the month of April 2000.Results from these tests show that the combination of MM5 and HYSPLIT_4 with accurate source locations can provide short-term forecasts as indicated by the levels of forecast pollen and actual oak pollen levels, which follow similar profiles for the day. From the 30 individual pollen concentration forecasts, two example forecasts are presented. Additional studies need to be conducted to further validate these results, using an array of pollen collectors. A better understanding of the biology of pollen release is critical to improving these pollen concentration forecasts.     

The interaction of 1,3-diaryltriazenes with the receptor

Certain substituted 1,3-diaryltriazenes possessing anorectic activity were evaluated for their ability to compete with ³H-TCDD for specific binding to the receptor. The N-substituent had little effect while aromatic substitution was important in determining binding to the receptor.     

Trends in speciated fine particulate matter and visibility across monitoring networks in the Southeastern United States

Trends in fine particulate matter <2.5 microm in diameter (PM2.5) and visibility in the Southeastern United States were evaluated for sites in the Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments, Speciated Trends Network, and Southeastern Aerosol Research and Characterization Study networks. These analyses are part of the technical assessment by Visibility Improvement-State and Tribal Association of the Southeast (VISTAS), the regional planning organization for the southeastern states, in support of State Implementation Plans for the regional haze rule. At all of the VISTAS IMPROVE sites, ammonium sulfate and organic carbon (OC) are the largest and second largest contributors, respectively, to light extinction on both the 20% haziest and 20% clearest days. Ammonium nitrate, elemental carbon (EC), soils, and coarse particles make comparatively small contributions to PM2.5 mass and light extinction on most days at the Class I areas. At Southern Appalachian sites, the 20% haziest days occur primarily in the late spring to fall, whereas at coastal sites, the 20% haziest days can occur through out the year. Levels of ammonium sulfate in Class I areas are similar to those in nearby urban areas and are generally higher at the interior sites than the coastal sites. Concentrations of OC, ammonium nitrate, and, sometimes, EC, tend to be higher in the urban areas than in nearby Class I areas, although differences in measurement methods complicate comparisons between networks. Results support regional controls of sulfur dioxide for both regional haze and PM2.5 implementation and suggest that controls of local sources of OC, EC, or nitrogen oxides might also be considered for urban areas that are not attaining the annual National Ambient Air Quality Standard for PM2.5.     

Effects of Metal Mining and Milling on Boundary Waters of Yellowstone National Park, USA

/ Aquatic resources in Soda Butte Creek within Yellowstone National Park, USA, continue to be threatened by heavy metals from historical mining and milling activities that occurred upstream of the park's boundary. This includes the residue of gold, silver, and copper ore mining and processing in the early 1900s near Cooke City, Montana, just downstream of the creek's headwaters. Toxicity tests, using surrogate test species, and analyses of metals in water, sediments, and macroinvertebrate tissue were conducted from 1993 to 1995. Chronic toxicity to test species was greater in the spring than the fall and metal concentrations were elevated in the spring with copper exceeding water quality criteria in 1995. Tests with amphipods using pore water and whole sediment from the creek and copper concentrations in the tissue of macroinvertebrates and fish also suggest that copper is the metal of concern in the watershed. In order to understand current conditions in Soda Butte Creek, heavy metals, especially copper, must be considered important factors in the aquatic and riparian ecosystems within and along the creek extending into Yellowstone National Park.KEY WORDS: Mining; Metals; Toxicity; Biomonitoring; Copper; Yellowstone National Park