Not logged in - Login
< back

Nonpoint Workgroup

Contents [hide]

Collaborative Wiki Main Page

Inventory Collaborative Google Drive Link

Nonpoint Workgroup Charge

Members

Co-leads: Christopher Swab (Oregon), Caroline Farkas (EPA), Jennifer Snyder (EPA)

Ariel Holway-Jones (Alabama), Vanessa Crandell-Beck (Alaska), Farah Mohammadesmaeili (Arizona), Ryan Templeton (Arizona), Sylvia Vanderspek (California), Alexandra Catena (DC), Shane Cone (Delaware), Byeong-Uk Kim (Georgia), Richard McDonald (Georgia), Marnie Stein (Iowa), Lynn Deahl (Kansas), Walter Simms (Maryland), Ken Santlal (Massachusetts), Tom Shanley (Michigan), Azra Kovacevic (Minnesota), Stacy Allen (Missouri), Judy Rand (New Jersey), Nicholle Worland (New Jersey), John Barnes (New York), Carlos Mancilla (New York), Andy Bollman (North Carolina), Laura Woods (Ohio), Erica Fetty-Davis (Ohio), Mark Houser (Pennsylvania), Michael Ege (Texas), Greg Mortensen (Utah), Collin Smythe (Vermont), Jeff Merrell (Vermont), Thomas Foster (Virginia), Nishanthi Wijekoon (Wisconsin), Jennifer Snyder (EPA), Caroline Farkas (EPA), Brian Keaveny (EPA),

Nonpoint Workgroup Meetings

Held the 4th Monday of the month at 2:00pm Eastern.

April 23, 2018

Attendees

NJ, NY, DE, VA, AL, NC, WI, TX, IA, MO, Chris Swab (OR) Caroline Farkas (EPA), Jennifer Snyder (EPA)

Agenda

  • Welcome and Roll Call
  • Wiki site
  • Open Burning Land Clearing Debris Deep Dive
    • Findings Overview
    • Information from other states
    • Request Burn Bans from states
  • Population Growth for specific subsectors
    • Total emissions impacted
    • Sources
  • Nonpoint to Point migration, double counting

Minutes/Notes

  • Slides have been loaded to Google Drive and emailed out to workgroup members

Wiki Site

  • The wiki site went down for a few days. Colorado State got it back up on a slightly different URL. Link was provided to group via email and slides. (If you're reading this here, you found it!)

Open Burning Land Clearing Debris Deep Dive

  • Findings Overview
    • Several members suggested (and provided ideas for) a method revision to Open Burning Land Clearing Debris.
    • Jennifer and Caroline analyzed the emissions and discovered that 8 states submitted their own land clearing debris data (AZ, DE, GA, IL, MD, NC, UT and WA).
      • NJ says that they did as well - maybe with a different SCC? Jennifer going to check on this.
    • On average, EPA estimates (compared to these 8 state submissions) are 25% too high, but the range is large with both over- and under-predictions.
    • We divided the data into instances where EPA's estimates were too low (178 counties) and too high (249 counties) and discovered that of the counties that EPA's estimates were too high, about 1/3 of them had zero emissions reported from the State
      • This could point to not enough data on burning bans or that our "percent urban" threshold is too high for no burning.
  • Information from other States
    • We contacted the 8 states to learn more about their methods and how they differ from EPA's
    • Jennifer compiled a summary of the responses and we are working to compare them to find commonalities and compare to EPA's method.
  • Request Burn Bans from States
    • We are asking States to submit information for 2016 on burning bans of any type and duration (e.g., county-wide, municipal, summer only, etc).

Population Growth for specific subsectors

  • The slides showing candidates for population-based growth and their emissions were incorrect: RWC, residential open burning and residential fuel use are not population based, and there are controls applied to these sectors (including a new woodstove NSPS)
  • Chris has replaced the incorrect slides with a slide showing those sectors (with emissions) that are population based, referencing work done by MARAMA’s contractor for 2011 NEI growth. MARAMA’s population-based sectors include various types of consumer and commercial solvent use, graphic arts, architectural surface coatings, charcoal grilling, some industrial maintenance adhesive and coating categories, and waste disposal including POTWs, TSDFs and cremation.
  • The group considers US Census national county-based 2010-2017 population estimates (available online) appropriate to use for 2014-2016 population growth. An option for 2023 and 2028 projections is extrapolation off of the 2010-2017 Census data.
  • EIA - Annual Energy Outlook (AEO) data may be appropriate to use as a growth surrogate for energy-based sectors; this idea was discussed by the group, however there may not be enough time to complete growth estimates before the Beta deadline.

Nonpoint to Point migration, double counting

  • Steve Potter (CT) brought up this possible issue on the non-EGU Workgroup call
  • Some states, CT included, may have nonpoint sources in 2014v2 NEI that, due to rule changes, are now considered point sources and were submitted with the 2016 submissions.
    • NC mentioned they had a similar situation but in the other direction
  • If States know this is an issue, please send us a list of the sources that need to be removed from nonpoint or point to avoid double counting
    • Andy Bollman asked for an example of the format needed from the States to submit these corrections - Caroline will work on this.

March 26, 2018

Attendees

MA, VT, NY, NJ, DE, DC, VA, NC, GA, AL, OH, TX, KS, IA, MO, Chris Swab (OR) Caroline Farkas (EPA), Jennifer Snyder (EPA)

Agenda

  • Welcome and Roll Call
  • Base Case Discussions
    • Linear growth, 2014 vs. 2016
    • Open burning – land clearing debris
    • Other sectors
  • Review data available
  • Wrap-up

Minutes/Notes

Base Case Discussions

  • Chris Swab spoke about a linear regression analysis he did to help the group decide whether we should use the 2014v2 NEI nonpoint inventory as-is for the base 2016 modeling platform or if we should grow some or all of the sectors to 2016.
  • The group discussed potential sectors that may need to be grown to account for population or meteorology changes.
    • Judy Rand (NJ) suggested looking into the subsectors whose activity data is population-based. This is similar to what MARAMA does and could be a quick change to implement.
    • Ken Santlal (MA) suggested using 2016 EIA growth data for combustion sources since they could change significantly from year to year.
  • Andy Bollman (NC) presented slides on Open Burning of Land Clearing Debris and the difference between EPA's estimation method and the method NC uses.
    • A few states agreed that EPA's method of assuming 100% of debris burned in counties less than 80% urbanized was an overestimation of what most likely is being emitted in their states.
    • A question was asked if EPA could clarify which states submit their own Open Burning Land Clearing Debris data and which use EPA estimates. Jennifer Snyder and Caroline Farkas plan to look into this more before the next meeting.
    • The suggestion was made that perhaps we could reduce, by a certain percentage, the estimated Land Clearing Debris burned, or we could revisit the land-use requirement for burning.
  • Byeong Kim (GA) asked about unpaved road dust and the transport discount. Caroline said she would check with Alison and others about this since she was not clear on how that was calculated.

Review Data Available

  • The group ran out of time on the call but the data Chris discussed on the call is available on the google drive (or by email if you cannot access the drive). The projection packet examples from the 2011 modeling platform are available on EPA's FTP site: ftp://newftp.epa.gov/Air/emismod/2011/v3platform/reports/

  • The slides from this call are also available on the google drive or can be requested via email to Caroline Farkas.

February 26, 2018

Attendees

Caroline Farkas (EPA), Jennifer Snyder (EPA), Chris Swab (OR), Judy Rand (NJ), NY, Alexandra Catena (DC), DE, Mark Houser (PA), Thomas Foster (VA), Richard McDonald (GA), Andy Bollman (NC), Steve Lachance (MI), Azra Kovacevic (MN), Laura Woods (OH), WI, Michael Ege (TX), Marnie Stein (IA)

Agenda

  • Welcome
    • Roll Call
  • Subsector Category Review
    • Emission totals by subsector
    • Subsector Survey Results
  • Review goals of workgroup
  • Volunteering
  • Growth & Controls Review

Minutes/Notes

Subsector Category Review

  • Emission totals by subsector
    • Chris explained and reviewed worksheet showing emission totals by nonpoint subsector, available on the google drive (https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Ps8GKotVvQVg8GS8gJCkBSvfDdGg_vjK?usp=sharing).
    • Open Burning showed to be a large contributor to CO emissions.
      • Question for modelers: Is CO important in modeling? Should we be looking to improve this subsector?
      • Question for Jennifer/NEI: How does EPA calculate open burning? NC suggests that EPA's estimation is too high.
  • Subsector Survey Results
    • We have heard from a few S/L/Ts about their priorities for subsector improvements to the modeling platform. Chris has compiled these into a chart on the google drive.

Review goals of workgroup

  • Caroline reiterated the goals of the workgroup. This is an effort aimed to allow S/L/Ts to collaborate with EPA on the modeling platform if they feel that they have data or information that could better the base case or projections. This is not a new NEI. This effort is completely voluntary.

Volunteering

  • Chris asked for volunteers to take on a subsector and try to improve it
    • RWC was a topic of conversation. Suggestions that EPA should go back to old methodology. NJ has worked extensively on this.

Growth and Controls

  • Ran out of time but Caroline will send out an email point to growth and control raw data or (as suggested by a few members) projections from an older platform to demonstrate growth/control factors that currently exist.

Action Items

All members: Watch for email from Co-leads with links to data. Review data and decide which subsectors the workgroup should aim to improve.

Next Call: March 26, 2018 at 2pm EST

January 19, 2018

Attendees

Caroline Farkas (EPA), Jennifer Snyder (EPA), Chris Swab (OR), MA, VT, NY, MD, VA, DC, GA, OH, TX, KS, MO, UT, AZ, CA, AK

Agenda

  • Welcome
    • Co-Chair Introductions
    • Roll Call
  • Introduction to overall Collaborative Workgroup effort
  • Introduction to Nonpoint Workgroup
  • Timeline and Milestones
  • Update on 2016a
  • Administrative Items

Minutes/Notes

Introduction to overall Collaborative Workgroup effort

  • 1st time states, tribes, MJOs, and EPA will collaborate to develop a National emissions modeling platform
  • There are approximately 10 workgroups
  • The overarching goal is to develop data files for the 2016 Modeling Platform and projections out to 2023 and 2028 that MJOs, tribes, states, and EPA can modify and augment to address their analysis and planning needs. Examples of uses: Ozone and particulate matter (PM), regional haze modeling.
  • There will be 3 main phases of the effort that Chris will talk more about when he introduces this workgroup’s charge.

Introduction to Nonpoint Workgroup

  • Chris reviewed each section of the Charge, which is currently in draft form.
  • For Table 1:
    • Chris asked for feedback regarding the source categories (Section 6.2, Table 1). Caroline asked interested members to provide top 3 priorities via email. The answers will be compiled and used to edit the Charge. The co-chairs want this workgroup to be a collaborative effort and welcome any suggestions for the charge.
    • Expected pollutants – only CAPs should be considered, however we should also include NH3, especially for Ag-related categories
    • Oil & gas will not be included since this is a separate workgroup

Timeline and Milestones

  • This was covered in Section 3 of the Charge.
    • January 2018: 2016alpha
    • Summer 2018: 2016beta with projections to 2028
    • Early 2019: 2016v1.0 with projections to 2023 and 2028

Update on 2016alpha

  • Jennifer Snyder gave an update on the initial data for the workgroup. We are hoping to have it in hand near the beginning of February.

Administrative Items

  • Recurring Meeting time: 4th Monday of the Month at 2pm EST

Questions/Comments

  • For Table 1, consider including silage.
    • Chris S. will check to see if California has documentation on emissions from silage operations, however Stacy Allen (MO) mentioned that silage ops in the Midwest are much different than those in CA.
  • For Table 1, composting should be included
  • From the NOMAD work, it was determined that the Ag tilling method from Abt has an incorrect number of passes – too many passes for some areas of the country. The group should be sure to follow up on this (Lynn Deahl)
  • Check to be sure that CAFO methodology includes VOC and dust from hooves (Stacy Allen)
  • What types of point sources should be subtracted (reconciled) with the ICI combustion tool data (John Barnes)
    • Chris suggested that this be deferred until a later date after larger issues have been ironed out.
  • For projections, what are the current growth factors used by EPA?
    • Caroline will work to get these to the group
  • How does this project fit in with EPA’s 2017 effort (Walter Simms).
    • One answer is that the 2016 modeling platform is needed for Regional Haze development, work that can’t wait until the 2017 NEI is finalized.
  • 2014 NEI (or modeling platform v.7) CAP emissions group-summed nationally by major category would be helpful in determining which categories should be prioritized
    • Chris S. will compile this and send it out.

Action Items

  • Co-chairs will compile CAP emissions nationally group-summed by major category
  • Co-chairs will work to secure answers to other questions asked during meeting
  • Group members should email co-chairs to provide top 3 priorities (after reading workgroup charge) and indicate if they are interested in helping with the projections subgroup

Next Call: February 26, 2018 at 2pm EST