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Air Quality and Fire Issues

Welcome to this public thread on smoke management hosted by the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) Smoke Committee (SmoC). My hope is to use this forum as a place for dialog on smoke management issues, air quality regulations, strategies for managing smoke from wildland fire, approaches to technical smoke questions, and fire environment issues that affect smoke generation, transport, impacts and measurement. Leave your questions and the NWCG Smoke Committee members will strive to address them as well as other experts in the field. Share your success stories or emerging issues. Thoughts are appreciated on making this tool effective for creating a dialog and information on smoke management.

Pete Lahm
US Forest Service
Air Quality/Smoke Management Specialist
Fire and Aviation Management
Washington, DC

SmoC 2009 Accomplishment Report

SmoC Charter (7/28/2009)

Webinar: On 01/08/2010 Dr. Sim Larkin of the Forest Service AirFIRE Team, PNW Research Station, gave a presentation on Integrating Air Quality Tools with the Wildland Fire Decision Support System (WFDSS, http://firesmoke.us/wfdss/). The Wildland Fire Decision Support System (WFDSS) is intended to assist fire managers, agency administrators and analysts in making strategic and tactical decisions for fire incidents. It is designed to replace the WFSA (Wildland Fire Situation Analysis), Wildland Fire Implementation Plan (WFIP), and Long-Term Implementation Plan (LTIP) processes with a single process that is easier to use, more intuitive, linear, scalable, and progressively responsive to changing fire complexity. Efforts are underway to implement air quality (AQ) and smoke related tools into WFDSS so that air quality can be considered along with the suite of other considerations when tactical decisions are being made on fire incidents. A web-based portal has been developed which uses data from WFDSS to drill-down into existing AQ/smoke tools for relevant information. The existing tools are: smoke guidance point forecasts, smoke guidance regional maps, diurnal surface wind pattern analysis, climatological ventilation index point statistics, current air quality conditions map, fire information and smoke trajectories, probabilistic smoke impacts based on past weather, and customized fuels, consumption and smoke modeling. This information is customizable to the WFDSS users needs based on attributes such as: instant access (speed of tool/info delivery), easy to use (simple or more complex), desired scale (local, regional), and desired format of information (graphics, text). This suite of air quality tools on the portal can be used independently of WFDSS for planning and prescribed fire applications. For a .wav recording of the presentation click HERE (47 MB). For a pdf version of the powerpoint click HERE (5 MB).

Webinar: On 10/27/2009 Dr. Sim Larkin of the Forest Service AirFIRE Team, PNW Research Station, gave a presentation on the Smoke Emission Model Intercomparison Project (SEMIP, http://www.semip.org/). SEMIP is a multi-year community effort to analyze fire consumption, fire emissions, plume rise, and smoke dispersion models. SEMIP is sponsored by the Joint Fire Science Program and is designed to be an open collaborative project that will create an open standard for comparing smoke and emissions models both against each other and against real-world observations. Phase 1 begins the real analysis work of SEMIP where fire information systems, fuel maps, and fire consumption, emissions, and dispersion models will be run for initial test cases. SEMIP is a designed to quantify the many permutations these inter-model comparisons yield so that they may be of use to both the scientific and management communities who need; 1) model performance comparisons to be able to better focus new model development, and 2) to be able to better utilize existing model output. For a .wav recording of the presentation click HERE (50 MB). For a pdf version of the powerpoint click HERE (6 MB).

New Proposed Ozone Standards (posted 1/23/2010): On 1/19/2010 the Environmental Protection Agency proposed strengthening the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for ground-level ozone. They are taking comments on a primary standard level between 0.070 ppm and 0.060 ppm (8-hr averaging period). They are also proposing a new secondary standard known as the W126 with levels between 7 ppm-hrs to 15 ppm-hrs. Comments are due 3/22/2010 and the Rule will be finalized 8/31/2010. At the most stringent proposed levels it is estimated that 650 counties may exceed the primary standard and 579 counties may exceed the secondary standard, whereas under the old standard 85 counties exceeded the standard. More information at: http://www.epa.gov/air/ozonepollution/actions.html

EPA Finalized the PM2.5 Nonattainment Area (NAA) designations for the 2006 PM2.5 Standard (posted 10/9/2009)

On October 8, 2009 EPA finalized nonattainment area (NAA) designations for the 2006 PM2.5 standard (24-hr 35 micrograms/m³). For more information go to:
http://www.epa.gov/pmdesignations/2006standards/index.htm

Also see this neighborhoods "PM2.5" discussion area for GIS shapefiles of the final NAAs and links to further information (maps, timelines, etc.).

Black Carbon and Wildland Fire - Whitepaper (updated 9/24/2009)
Black carbon (BC), also known as elemental carbon, is a component of particulate matter (PM), and is released from the incomplete combustion of biomass (e.g. forests, savannahs, agricultural crops and residues), fossil fuels, and biofuels (solid, liquid or gaseous fuels made from plant matter). Recent research suggests that black carbon is a potent force in global climate change. Congressional hearings, EPA reports and several bills in Congress have discussed and targeted black carbon for potential control. Select HERE for the Whitepaper.

News Release: 12/15/2009
Final Rule "EPA Endangerment Findings for Greenhouse Gases" is published in the Federal Register
See the "Greenhouse Gases" Discussion Area below for further information

News Release: 10/30/2009
Final Rule "Mandatory Reporting of Greenhouse Gases" is published in the Federal Register
See the "Greenhouse Gases" Discussion Area below for further information

News Release: 3/10/2009
EPA released it's draft report "Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2007" and a Proposed Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rule
See the "Greenhouse Gases" Discussion Area below for further information

News Release: 2/10/2009
EPA posted the final version of the 2008 National Emission Inventory (NEI) Plan for Event Emissions (i.e. Fire).
See the "Emission Inventories" Discussion Area below for further information

News Release: 1/15/2009
EPA Proposes Revisions Air Quality Index Reporting and Significant Harm Level for Particle Pollution
See the "PM2.5 - new std etc." Discussion Area below for further information

Smoke Management Training Information (updated 3/15/2009)

* The SmoC has developed 3-day regional Workshops on "Effective Communication for Smoke Management in a Changing Air Quality Environment." The first was hosted at the Great Smokey Mountains National Park in September 2008, and the second occured February 2009 in Omaha, Nebraska. More information available at: http://www.cnr.uidaho.edu/wildlandfire/regional_workshop.htm. Workshop presentations are available from the "SmoC Workshop Materials" discussion area in this neighborhood.

* The NWCG Smoke Committee (SmoC) hosts three discussion areas regarding Smoke Management and related training. Go to the discussion area:

"RX410 Smoke Management Techniques Materials" for presentations by various instructors for RX410.

"Smoke Monitoring Equipment" for information/discussion on smoke monitoring equipment.

"Smoke Management Trainers, Teachers and Course Cadres" to get information on who teaches the various RX410 modules.

WESTAR Fall 2009 Meeting: The Fall WESTAR meeting was held November 9-10, 2009 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. More information available from the interactive agenda at:
http://www.westar.org/Docs/Business%20Meetings/Fall09/SantaFe/00.0%20WESTAR%20Fall%202009%20Agenda.htm
WESTAR Spring 2009 Meeting: The Spring WESTAR meeting was held April 6-8, 2009 in Incline Village, Nevada. Topics included exceptional events, regional haze, and climate. More information available from the interactive agenda at:
http://www.westar.org/Docs/Business%20Meetings/Spring09/Incline/WESTARspr09agenda.htm

SmoC members represent the perspectives of the fire and air programs of their respective agencies. Current members are:

Pete Lahm, Forest Service, Chair

Susan O'Neill, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Vice-Chair

Vacant, Executive Secretary
Ann Acheson, Forest Service

Anthony Matthews, Forest Service (Acting for Ann Acheson)

Pat Brewer, National Park Service
Mark Fitch, National Park Service

Mike Broughton, Fish and Wildlife Service

Vince Carver, Fish and Wildlife Service

Ted Milesnick, (Acting) Bureau of Land Management

Lisa Bye, Bureau of Land Management (Acting for Ted Milesnick)

Claudia Standish, Bureau of Land Management (Acting for Ted Milesnick)

Robert Jolley, Bureau of Land Management

Ed Brunson, Bureau of Indian Affairs

Vacant, Bureau of Indian Affairs

Gary Curcio, National Association of State Foresters (east), North Carolina

Vacant, National Association of State Foresters (west)

Gordon Andersson, National Association of Clean Air Agencies, Minnesota

Tammy Eagan, National Association of Clean Air Agencies, Florida

Shawn Ferreria, National Association of Clean Air Agencies, California

Dan Johnson, National Association of Clean Air Agencies, WESTAR

Julie Oliver, National Association of Clean Air Agencies, Washington State

Jennifer Ridgway, National Association of Clean Air Agencies, California

Elaine Waterbury, NWCG Policy, Planning & Management Branch Coordinator

SmoC Subcommittees

Technical Smoke Topics Subcommittee, Mark Fitch, National Park Service, Chair

Smoke Managers Subcommittee, Ron Sherron, Forest Service, Chair

Smoke Training Subcommittee, Thomas Dzomba, Forest Service, Chair