REGULATION OF AIR QUALITY AND AIR QUALITY MODELING

This chapter presents the most common approaches of the regulatory framework for air quality and air dispersion modeling. The first major federal initiative in the United States to regulate air quality was the Clean Air Act of 1963. The Clean Air Act required the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop air quality standards. Air emissions are regulated by the states. They are responsible to ensure that the air quality standards are met. Each state (U.S.) and province (Canada) has its own air quality standards, based on the local conditions, industry, and the like. A screening technique in air dispersion modeling is the use of a simple model such as SCREEN3 to calculate the worst-case scenario resulting from a proposed air pollution source. When screening techniques predict the ambient air quality objectives to be exceeded, a refined modeling technique must be used to evaluate the proposed pollution source.