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DEP > Air Bureau > EIP > Air-Inventory List Server > February
2006
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-air-inventory@lists.maine.gov [mailto:owner-air-inventory@lists.maine.gov] On
Behalf Of Gould, Tammy
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2006 1:44 PM
To: air-inventory@informe.org
Subject: air-inventory Mail Has Been Sent!
Hello, everyone!
By now, you should have received the second of this year's 2005 Inventory
mailings. For those reporting criteria pollutants, its a BIG packet. Sorry
about that, but there is a lot we wanted to let you know about.
Just a couple of things in the mailing that I wanted to follow-up on:
(1) Greenhouse Gases - Maine DEP did complete backfilling all greenhouse
gas emissions and CO2, CH4, and N2O should be fully populated for all
combustion process units. We relied on information supplied by facilities
in 2004 to do the backfilling. We also created the facility-wide stack,
group, process unit and process unit emissions if you reported releases
of refrigerants or other ozone-depleting chemicals.If your facility had
used AP-42 greenhouse gas emission factors for the last couple of years,
then that is what you will find in your Satellite i-STEPS file. For facilities
which used the DEP-recommended factors, WE ARE USING
THE NEW DEP RECOMMENDED GREEENHOUSE GAS EMISSION FACTORS which you can find with the new DEP Greenhouse
Gas Calculation tool on http://www.maine.gov/dep/air/emissions/ghg-tools.htm.
As I said in the letter, these new factors are the result of more up-to-date
information and replace emission factors found in all previously released
GHG tools.If you have any questions, please call me.
(2) E-Mail Submission Guidelines are still being finished. We'll post them to the 2005 Inventory page (http://www.maine.gov/dep/air/emissions/2005.htm)as soon as they're ready.
(3) The NEW HAP Emission Factor sign-off sheets for combustion of residual, distallate and wood will be posted to the 2005 Inventory page early next week, not by this Friday as stated in the letter.
(4) Finally, did you know that there's a way to be alerted by e-mail when I post updates to the 2005 Inventory page? It's a great feature offered by the Maine.gov website!At the very top and center of the 2005 Inventory webpage (and many other DEP and Maine.gov webpages), you will see a series of links - "Agencies | Online Services | Web Policies | Help" and three small icons in the shape of the State of Maine. Run your cursor over the middle of the three icons (the one that has a clock) and it should say "Watch this page and e-mail me when it is updated." When you click that icon, you will be asked to log-in to your Maine.gov account and the page will be marked as a "(W)" or watch page. When I update the 2005 Inventory page, you will receive an e-mail and can check out the changes at your leisure. Don't have a Maine.gov account? They're free and allow you to tailor a page specifically to the information and sites you visit frequently. Give it a try!
As always, Becky, Rich
and I are available to answer your questions. - Tammy Gould,
DEP
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-air-inventory@lists.maine.gov [mailto:owner-air-inventory@lists.maine.gov] On
Behalf Of Gould, Tammy
Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2006 11:09 AM
To: air-inventory@informe.org
Cc: Hodsdon, Becky S; Greves, Rich; Ross, Lynn; Roberts, Mark
Subject: air-inventory HAP Emission Factor Forms On-Line and "Where are
my VOC emissions?"
Greetings!
(1) HAP Emission Factor Forms On-Line
The default emission factor forms for wood, distillate and residual oil
have been posted on the 2005 Inventory website at http://www.maine.gov/dep/air/emissions/2005.htm.
Most facilities received these forms a few weeks ago in their packet under
the cover memo entitled, "Alternative Method for Reporting Combusion
HAPs in the 2005 Air Emissions Inventory." We have now posted the
three forms on our website as editable Adobe PDF documents.
(2) "Where are my VOC emissions?"
We've received a couple of calls last week asking that very question. If you were using a VOC emission factor that was from the previous AP-42 table in i-STEPS (Emission Estimation Method 8), then you may find that factor is now missing. You are, however, probably finding a new pollutant, TNMOC - Total Non-Methane Organic Compounds, with a similar, if not the same, emission factor value you used for VOC.
Total organic compounds(TOCs)include VOCs, semi-volatile organic compounds, and condensable organic compounds. It appears that for some SCCs, EPA's new version of the FIRE database breaks down organic compound emission factors into TOC, Methane and TNMOC. In general, Total Organic Compounds(TOC) = Methane (74828) + Total Non-Methane Organic Compounds (TNMOC).
We also spoke with Licensing Engineers Lynn Ross and Mark Roberts about this question. When there is no factor in AP-42 specifically listed for "VOC," the Licensing Engineers said that TNMOC is an acceptable equivalent for VOC where methane is not a significant portion of the emission.
So, what should you do? Nothing. We'll flag records where we have process unit emissions for both TNMOC and VOC (it's usually the VOC record that is no longer supported) and have them reviewed during the QA process. When we ship your facility data to EPA, we will make the TNMOC - VOC linkage where appropriate.
If you have specific questions about VOC emission factors or the assumptions
used when setting your license limits, please contact your Air Licensing Engineer.
If you have questions about Satellite i-STEPS, please contact either Becky
Hodsdon (287-8672) or myself (287-7036).
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-air-inventory@lists.maine.gov [mailto:owner-air-inventory@lists.maine.gov] On
Behalf Of Gould, Tammy
Sent: Thursday, February 23, 2006 1:54 PM
To: air-inventory@informe.org
Cc: Hodsdon, Becky S; Greves, Rich
Subject: air-inventory Data Import Errors
To air-inventory list:
Maine DEP has been getting sporadic calls about errors with Satellite i-STEPS
when importing data. These errors range from re-indexing immediately upon
import to causing the program to crash during import because i-STEPS cannot
locate a sys.dbf file. We've been able to replicate these errors, but at
this point, don't have a real solution. The errors seem confined to importing
files into a Satellite i-STEPS program that has no other facilities already
loaded (the situation for the vast majority of our users). For those editing
multiple facilities, it's unlikely that you'll see this problem when loading
the second or third facility. The errors don't seem to affect the data
within the file or further functioning of the editing or exporting capabilities.
Even when the program crashes upon import, the data is imported correctly
and is fully functional.
As you're deleting, loading patches and importing a new dataset, please
don't forget these basic rules:
* After deleting your previous year's facility data, remember to Index/Pack
(Toolbox > Utilities > Index/Pack).
* After installing the Satellite i-STEPS patch and importing your new data
set, we recommend running the Rebuild Views (Toolbox > Utilities > Rebuild
Views)
* And, whenever Satellite i-STEPS crashes, remember to run the MAINT01.exe
file found in the C:\i-sat5\ directory. The data directory is C:\i-sat5\data\.
We're continuing to try to identify more commonalities to these errors.
Anyone having problems with Satellite i-STEPS should feel free to contact
me.