Calculations from Compliance Emissions of Long- and Short-Term SO2 Concentrations in the Southwest Pennsylvania Air Quality Control Region

摘要

This report describes the results of dispersion-model calculations of maximum annual, 24-hour and 3-hour average ground-level SO2 concentrations for selected areas in the Southwest Pennsylvania Air Quality Control Region (AQCR). The primary purpose of the model calculations was to assist EPA Region III and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources in determining the attainment or non-attainment of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for SO2 in the Beaver Valley and Monongahela Valley Air Basins exclusive of Allegheny County. All of the dispersion-model calculations were made using the LONGZ and SHORTZ dispersion models with 1980 compliance emissions inventories containing 492 major SO2 sources located within the Southwest Pennsylvania AQCR and in Ohio and West Virginia near the western border of the AQCR. The only calculated maximum that exceeds the NAAQS for SO2 is the maximum annual average concentration at an isolated grid point located on high terrain about 1 kilometer north of the Monessen Plant of Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel. The model calculations also indicate contributions of major SO2 sources located along the Ohio River in Ohio and West Virginia to the air quality in the Southwest Pennsylvania AQCR.