NARSTO
/
Currently NARSTO is in the midst of conducting an assessment of the technical challenges of implementing accountability within a multi-pollutant air-quality management framework. Accountability is the process of evaluating the effectiveness of air-quality management actions in terms of their success in achieving air quality management goals. NARSTO has assembled expert panels from the health and ecosystem communities to meet with the atmospheric scientists to assess the state of the science with respect to accountability questions and to determine the information needed to address them. The assessment report is scheduled to be completed by January 2009.
NARSTO is a public / private partnership dedicated to improving management of air quality in North America. It was established on February 13, 1995 when representatives of Canada, the United States, and Mexico signed the NARSTO Charter in a ceremony at the White House.
Since its founding, NARSTO has completed three major scientific Assessments of critical air quality management issues. NARSTO maintains the Quality Systems Science Center and the NARSTO Data Archive for storing data from NARSTO Affiliated Research Activities and making these data available to the scientific com munity.
NARSTO also facilitates activities, such as the Reactivity Research Working Group, which provide critical reviews of the state of the science in areas of interest to air quality policy makers. Currently, NARSTO will be working to improve collaboration between the air-quality and health-sciences research communities, to advance understanding of the scientific issues involved in effecting a multi-pollutant/multi-media approach to air quality management, and to increase understanding of the linkages between air quality and climate change.
MCE2/INE/NARSTO Technical Symposium
Co-Management of Atmospheric Pollutants and Greenhouse Gases
Agenda
Accountability in a Multi-Pollutant Air Quality Management Environment : A Canadian Perspective
Air Quality Accountability; A Work in Progress
Energy in Mexico and its contribution to air quality
Industry and EcologyCambio Climático en México y su Contexto Internacional
Atmospheric Pollutants and Greenhouse GasesImpactos en salud
La Agricultura en el Contexto del Cambio Climático
Actividades de Cambio Climático del Instituto Nacional de Ecología
Cobeneficios del control conjunto delas emisiones de contaminantes locales
y globales
Mercado Interno de Permisos de Emisiones de Carbono
NARSTO Multi-Pollutant Air Quality Management Assessment (MPAQMA)
NARSTO Mex Meeting 12-17-07
NARSTO Mex Meeting 10-29-07
Air Quality - Climate Change
NARSTO Mex Meeting 10-8-07
NARSTO Mex Meeting 9-13-07
NARSTO Mex Meeting, 8-16-07
NARSTO Mex Meeting, 2-15-07
Workshop on EcoSystem Health
Workshop on Population Health
Workshop on Modelling
NARSTO Assessment Drafts
Definitions, Scope and Charge
Definitions
1. Multi-Pollutant Air Quality Management. An integrated approach to protecting human and ecosystem health that considers the combined effects of more than one pollutant species or type. A multi-pollutant approach recognizes that sources can emit multiple pollutants and pollutant precursors and that all emissions participate in the chemistry of the atmosphere. An integrated approach to reducing pollutant and pollutant precursor emissions considers all emissions and emission control technologies in attempting to maximize air quality improvement while minimizing the unintended consequences that can result from implementing emission reduction strategies one pollutant at a time.
An example: In the United States, the integration of emission controls for power plants with respect to O3, SO2, PM, NOx, and relevant HAPs (e.g., Hg).
2. Accountability for Air Quality Improvement. Accountability is a formal iterative process for evaluating the effectiveness of air quality management actions in meeting air quality management objectives. These objectives can include reducing the adverse effects of air pollution on human health, reducing the effects of air pollution on ecosystems, improving visibility, reducing air-pollution related damage to materials, etc. The accountability process attempts to verify whether or not air quality actions have contributed to the achievement of air quality management objectives. Verification includes (a) confirming that emission reductions were achieved in accordance with air quality management plans, (b) determining whether or not changes in emissions have resulted the expected changes in pollutant concentrations and human or ecosystem exposure, (c) determining whether or not these changes have resulted in detectable responses in human health and welfare and ecosystem health. The knowledge gained during this verification is used to modify current or improve future air quality management actions.
Accountability involves a continuum of activities starting with the air quality management action of interest and proceeds through assessments of changes in source emissions, ambient air concentrations, exposure of individuals and deposition and exposure to sensitive ecosystems, and subsequent changes in human and ecosystem health. As one moves through this continuum, confounding factors beyond the direct, expected impact of an air quality management action increase uncertainty and confound the ability to associate a change in emissions, for example, with a reduction in health effects.
Risk-Based Air quality Management. Development and implementation of an air quality management strategy that prioritizes emission reduction actions in terms of their effect (both short-term and long-term) on improving human health and welfare and in achieving other air quality management objectives.
Scope of Assessment:
Summarize and assess the scientific resources today and projected over the next five years to address multi-pollutant options for air quality improvement and consequent improvement in public health and welfare, and ecosystem health, with examples from the energy production and transportation sectors.
Charge to NARSTO Assessment Group:
Provide a state-of-science evaluation of the technical challenges of implementing risk-based, multi-pollutant air quality management strategies that employ an accountability process to measure their effectiveness and to provide feedback for their improvement. The assessment will provide a critical analysis of the ability of the atmospheric sciences, within the next five years, to provide the information needed to design and assess the performance of the kinds of multi-pollutant air quality management strategies that may be implemented in North America. These strategies will certainly encompass the traditional set of pollutants (O3, CO, SO2, PM, and NOx) and certain hazardous air pollutants, but they may also include greenhouse gases as well. Thus, the assessment should include an evaluation of our ability to understand and account for the coupled effects of climate change and air quality. The intended audience for the assessment is air quality management decision-makers in the three NARSTO countries.
Some Additional Definitions and Considerations of Scope
Multiple Pollutants: Atmospheric gases and aerosols – including primary emission, pollutant precursors, intermediate products, and secondarily formed species – considered as (or involved with through chemical or physical mechanisms) harmful to human health and welfare or to the environment. [Note: Emphasis will be placed on those species that participate in core atmospheric oxidant chemistry processes, such as secondary PM, ozone, aromatics, and mercury. Limited attention will be given to specific “stand-alone” HAPs such as trace metals (lead, cadmium, arsenic), certain industrial solvents and cleaners and others that are very local in terms of their impact or have limited impact on the chemical environment. Other persistent HAPs that may not participate strongly in atmospheric chemistry – such dioxins, PAHs, PCBs and pesticides – will be addressed because they share certain source (e.g. combustion) or process (e.g., long-range transport) commonalities with the principal pollutants of concern to this assessment. With respect to greenhouse gases, the focus will be on those gases and aerosols that share common sources, participate in or affect chemical or physical processes important to other air pollutants, or whose control would affect emission control decisions for these pollutants.]
Media: The principal media of interest will be air and natural terrestrial and watershed systems that are physically or chemically integrated through atmospheric deposition. Non-air media effects of principal concern include acidification, eutrophication, mercury methylation, and foliar damage. [Note: Topics such as corrosion of man-made structures, waste disposal and other topics that could be affected by air quality management actions will not be addressed, or addressed only in context of a particular topic, e.g., the effect of atmospheric deposition on surface-water acidification, surface/sediment chemistry, and fish mortality.
Accountability indicators: NARSTO is predominantly an atmospheric science consortium; thus, an emphasis will be placed on the effects of air quality management rules and regulations on source emissions, atmospheric composition, and deposition. However, the ultimate measure of the effectiveness of air quality management actions is their effect on human and ecosystem health and welfare. Thus, we will engage the health and ecosystem research communities in determining the kinds of indicators the atmospheric sciences might be able to provide to help these communities assess the effectiveness of air quality regulations.
Space, time and climate considerations: Any assessment of multi-pollutant air quality management would be shortsighted not to include long-range (hemispheric to global) transport and the interactions between air quality and climate. However, this NARSTO assessment cannot become a treatise on climate and long-range transport. But where important connections exist, they must be identified, illustrated and commented upon. For example, the fate of mercury in the atmosphere cannot be addressed without acknowledging the multiple scales (local to global) involved in its transport, transformation, and removal, including the bidirectional feedbacks between media involved in the release of Hg from soil and vegetation.
With respect to climate and greenhouse gases, the interactions include emissions, technology, atmospheric processes, and effects. For example, we know that climate change will affect air pollution meteorology and the frequency and persistence of conditions conducive to poor air quality. Likewise, greenhouse gas emissions affect chemical climatology and could, for example, affect the oxidative capacity of the atmosphere as well as other processes important to the transformation and removal of air pollutants. Climate change could have significant effects on biogenic emissions through effects on the mix of vegetative species, soil and atmospheric temperature, and the frequency of drought conditions. And from the policy perspective, decisions that might be made to address air pollution problems on the short term could affect the long-term choices that might be available to address greenhouse gas emissions, and vice versa.
Finally, some attention must be given in the assessment to emerging remote measurement capabilities (e.g., satellites), chemical data assimilation, and to some of the strategic initiatives underway through IGACO, GEOSS, and HTAP TF.
NARSTO Multi-Pollutant Accountability Assessment Website
Website for materials from the Lead Authors meeting (North Carolina, January 2007)
