Meeting the next environmental challenge: Air Quality

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Meeting the next environmental challengeAir
Quality
By Virginia Ishler Dairy Alliance Nutrient
Management
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How are dairy livestock affected?

• Agriculture's role in air quality.
• What practical measures can be implemented?
• Implement nutrient friendly feeding strategies
• Reduce nitrogen intake

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Air Quality Regs

• 1997 Clean Air Act Amendments
• National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS)
• Standards set by the federal EPA for the maximum
  levels of air pollutants that can exist outdoors
  without negative affects on human health and
  welfare.
• Six criteria pollutants
• Ozone, Carbon Monoxide, Sulfur Dioxide, Lead
• Particulate matter PM10, PM2.5
• Nitrogen Dioxide NO2

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http//www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/airwaste/a
q/
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The main players (atoms) that determine air
quality. Through complex sets of chemical
reactions, gases are formed.
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Nitrogen Issues

• Water quality
• Nitrate leaching to groundwater
• Nitrate enrichment of coastal waters, causing
  excessive algae growth.

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Nitrogen Issues

• Air Emissions
• Acid rain
• Excess fertilization of fragile environments
• Formation of particulates (2.5u)
• Nitrous oxide formation and global warming
• In poultry and swine houses, ammonia
  concentration can directly affect human and
  animal health.

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Ammonia

• Volatile alkaline gas
• Readily combines with trace gases
• Form aerosols, i.e. ammonium nitrate, ammonium
  bisulfate, ammonium sulfate.
• These compounds are the basis of fine particle
  aerosols (PM2.5)
• Reduced visibility, respiratory problems

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Source Katherine Knowlton and Wendy Powers
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Potential consequences with excess N

• Respiratory diseases
• Nitrate contamination of drinking water
• Eutrophication
• Vegetation and ecosystem changes
• Climatic changes
• N saturation of forest soils
• Soil acidification

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Sources of Ammonia
Source Katherine Knowlton and Wendy Powers
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(No Transcript)
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Particulate matterPM 2.5

• Particles that are smaller
• than 1/8th the diameter of a
• human hair.
• Primary pollutant
• respiratory and cardiac problems
• livestock sources include feed dust (fugitive)
• Secondary pollutant
• visibility (haze)
• livestock sources include feedlot dust, road and
  tillage dust (fugitive)

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Fugitive dust

• The generation of particulate matter to the
  extent that some portion of the material escapes
  beyond the property line or boundaries of the
  property, right-of-way, or easement on which the
  source is located."

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Air quality regulations
National Ambient Air Quality Standards, 1997

• PM2.5 timeline
• monitoring network in place to determine
  non-attainment areas
• designation of non-attainment areas by July 2004
• identify specific control measures by January
  2009
• attainment deadlines between 2009-2016

Non-attainment Areas where air pollution levels
persistently exceed NAAQ standards.
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Committee on Air Emissions from AFO

• Review scientific basis for estimating air
  emissions from AFO.
• PM10, PM2.5, hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, odorous
  substances, VOC, methane, and nitrous oxides.
• Characteristics of AFO that affect
• Emissions
• Mitigation techniques
• BMP
• Evaluate
• Animal production stages
• Weather
• Biological and physical factors

Clean AIR
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Committee on Air Emissions from AFO

• Evaluate local and long-range affects on health
  and the ecosystem
• Identify critical research needs over the next 5
  years for improving approaches for estimating
  emissions and reducing their levels.

Clean AIR
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Summary of concerns by the committee on EPAs
report Air Emissions from AFOs (EPA, 2001)

• Proposed EPA regulations aimed at improving water
  quality may affect rates and distributions of air
  emissions from AFOs.
• i.e. manure management

Clean AIR
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Summary of concerns by the committee on EPAs
report Air Emissions from AFOs (EPA, 2001)

• To understand health and environmental impact on
  a spatial scale
• Information on the spatial relationships among
  individual farms and the dispersion of air
  emissions from them is needed.

Clean AIR
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Summary of concerns by the committee on EPAs
report Air Emissions from AFOs (EPA, 2001)

• Direct measurements of air emissions at all AFOs
  is not feasible.
• A statistically representative subset of AFOs are
  needed.
• Additional resources will be required.

Clean AIR
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Summary of concerns by the committee on EPAs
report Air Emissions from AFOs (EPA, 2001)

• Model farms may be a plausible approach for
  developing air emission estimates from individual
  farms or regions.
• May not be useful for estimating acute health
  effects.
• May be useful in estimating annual regional
  emission inventories for some pollutants.

Clean AIR
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Summary of concerns by the committee on EPAs
report Air Emissions from AFOs (EPA, 2001)

• Reasonably accurate estimates of air emissions
  from AFOs at the individual farm level require
  defined relationships with various factors.
• Animal type
• Nutrient inputs
• Manure handling
• Animal outputs
• Feeding management
• Confinement
• Physical characteristics of the site
• Climate and weather conditions

Clean AIR
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Summary of concerns by the committee on EPAs
report Air Emissions from AFOs (EPA, 2001)

• The model farm construct as described by EPA
  cannot be supported because of weaknesses in the
  data needed to implement it.
• Out of 500 possible literature sources, only 33
  were found to be suitable for use in a model.

Clean AIR
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Summary of concerns by the committee on EPAs
report Air Emissions from AFOs (EPA, 2001)

• The model farm construct as described by EPA
  cannot be supported for estimating annual amounts
  or temporal distributions of air emissions
  because of the inadequate way feeding operations
  are characterized.
• i.e. geography, climate, animal life stages,
  management approaches

Clean AIR
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Summary of concerns by the committee on EPAs
report Air Emissions from AFOs (EPA, 2001)

• A process-based model farm approach that
  incorporates mass balance may be an
  alternative.
• Focus on activities that determine the movement
  of nutrients and other substances into, through,
  and out of the system.

Clean AIR
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What can we do now?

• Improve N efficiency minimize N loss
• Reduce purchased N
• Reduce dietary N in the diet
• Reduce N excretion
• Additional approaches to conserve NH3
• Manure handling and storage
• Manure application

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Lots of questions..
No absolute answers..