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Emissions, Meteorological Data, and Air Pollutant Monitoring for Alaska's Emissions, Meteorological Data, and Air Pollutant Monitoring for Alaska’s North Slope prepared for Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation Division of Air Quality 410 Willoughby Ave., Suite 303 Juneau, AK 99811-1800 Contract Number 18-6004-17 Notice to Proceed 18-6004-17-30B prepared by MACTEC Engineering & Consulting Research Triangle Park, NC December 21, 2011 North Slope Energy Assessment December 21, 2011 This page intentionally left blank i North Slope Energy Assessment December 21, 2011 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................................ ii LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................................... iv LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................................ v ABBREVIATIONS / ACRONYMS.............................................................................................. vi EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...................................................................................................... ES-1 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 1-1 1.1 REFERENCES .............................................................................................................. 1-4 2. OVERVIEW OF NORTH SLOPE ........................................................................................ 2-1 2.1 GEOGRAPHY .............................................................................................................. 2-1 2.2 COMMUNITIES – POPULATION AND ECONOMY ............................................... 2-2 2.3 FEDERAL LANDS....................................................................................................... 2-4 2.4 OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY ........................................................................................ 2-6 2.5 CLIMATOLOGY .......................................................................................................... 2-8 2.6 AIR QUALITY ........................................................................................................... 2-11 2.7 VEGETATION ........................................................................................................... 2-13 2.8 WILDLIFE .................................................................................................................. 2-13 2.9 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................ 2-14 3. AIR QUALITY MODELS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................. 3-1 3.1 TYPES OF MODELS AND APPLICABILITY ........................................................... 3-1 3.1.1. Screening Models................................................................................................. 3-1 3.1.2. Refined Models .................................................................................................... 3-1 3.1.3. Photochemical Grid Models ................................................................................ 3-2 3.1.4. Coastal Process Models ....................................................................................... 3-3 3.1.5. Other Models ....................................................................................................... 3-3 3.1.6. Additional Model Considerations ........................................................................ 3-3 3.2 EXISTING MODELS FOR THE NORTH SLOPE AND RECOMMENDATIONS .. 3-4 3.2.1. Screening Models................................................................................................. 3-6 3.2.2. Refined Models .................................................................................................... 3-6 ii North Slope Energy Assessment December 21, 2011 3.2.3. Regional Photochemical Grid Models ............................................................... 3-12 3.2.4. Recommendations .............................................................................................. 3-14 3.3 SUMMARY OF MODEL INPUT REQUIREMENTS FOR RECOMMENDED MODELS .................................................................................................................... 3-15 3.3.1. Near Field - AERMOD ...................................................................................... 3-15 3.3.2. Far Field/Regional - CALPUFF ......................................................................... 3-18 3.3.3. Photochemical Grid – CMAQ or CAMx ........................................................... 3-19 3.4 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................ 3-22 4. EMISSION SOURCES/SOURCE CHARACTERISTICS ON THE NORTH SLOPE ........ 4-1 4.1 POLLUTANTS OF INTEREST ................................................................................... 4-1 4.2 SOURCE ACTIVITIES PRODUCING POLLUTION ................................................ 4-3 4.2.1. Industrial Point Sources ....................................................................................... 4-9 4.3 DATA GAPS............................................................................................................... 4-16 4.4 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................ 4-20 5. METEOROLOGY ON THE NORTH SLOPE...................................................................... 5-1 5.1 NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AND OTHER HOURLY DATA ...................... 5-1 5.2 SITE-SPECIFIC METEOROLOGY............................................................................. 5-4 5.2.1. MMS Nearshore Meteorological Monitoring Project .......................................... 5-4 5.2.2. Data Collection by Industry ................................................................................. 5-7 5.3 GRIDDED METEOROLOGICAL DATA ................................................................. 5-12 5.4 METEOROLOGICAL CHALLENGES ON THE NORTH SLOPE ......................... 5-13 5.5 DATA GAPS IN NORTH SLOPE METEOROLOGY AND FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS .................................................................................................. 5-16 5.6 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................ 5-18 6. AMBIENT MONITORING ON THE NORTH SLOPE ....................................................... 6-1 6.1 DATA GAPS AND FILL PROCEDURES .................................................................. 6-4 6.2 REFERENCES .............................................................................................................. 6-6 APPENDIX A ............................................................................................................................. A-1 APPENDIX B ............................................................................................................................. B-1 APPENDIX C ............................................................................................................................. C-1 iii North Slope Energy Assessment December 21, 2011 LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1: Overview of Air Quality Model Characteristics (Memorandum of Understanding, June 2011) ........................................................................................ 3-5 Table 4.1: Health and Environmental Impacts of Pollutants and Regulatory Activities ............. 4-2 Table 4.2: NEI2008 Emission Summary for the North Slope Borough ...................................... 4-7 Table 4.3: Comparison of NEI2008 and ADEC Rural Communities Inventories for the North Slope Borough (Excludes Point Sources, Commercial Marine and Aviation) .................................................................................................................... 4-8 Table 4.4: Permitted Facilities Located in the North Slope Borough, Grouped by Source Type, Sorted by Total PTE ...................................................................................... 4-12 Table 4.5: Non-major Sources with Total PTE Greater Than 200 Tons Per Year .................... 4-19 Table 5.1: Surface Meteorological Data Available from the National Climatic Data Center ......................................................................................................................... 5-2 Table 5.2: Meteorological Monitoring Sites in MMS Report (from MMS, 2007) ...................... 5-5 Table 5.3: Site-specific Meteorological Data Collected or Used By Private Industry ................ 5-9 Table 5.4: Summary of the Historical Use of AERMOD-ready Meteorological Data Files ..... 5-11 Table 6.1: North Slope Ambient Monitoring Stations and Highest Measured Concentrations in micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m3) ........................................... 6-2 Table A.1: Bibliography of Potential Data Sources for the North Slope .................................... A-3 Table B.1: June 2011 Memorandum of Understanding, Appendix Table A .............................. B-3 Table B.2: June 2011 Memorandum of Understanding, Appendix Table B .............................. B-4 Table C.1: Data Gaps in the ADEC Emission Inventory for Major Sources on the North Slope ..........................................................................................................................C-3 iv North Slope Energy Assessment
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