Ambient Air Quality Standard

COLORANTS FORFOOD,DRUGS,COSTffiTICS AND TffiDICALDEVICES] (Vol 6) NAAQS. See National Ambient Air Quality Standard. 

Table 3. National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Criteria Pollutants ...

United States Congress, Public Eaw 101-549, MnMct toMmend the Clean Air Met to Provide for Attainment and Maintenance of Health Protective National Ambient Air Quality Standards, andfor Other Purposes, Nov. 15,1990. 

National Ambient Air Quality Standards. Under the Clean Air Act, six criterion pollutants, ie, pollutants of special concern, have been estabhshed by the EPA sulfur oxides (SO ), particulates, carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NO ), o2one (photochemical oxidants), and lead. National Ambient Air QuaUty Standards (NAAQS) were developed by EPA based on threshold levels of air pollution below which no adverse effects could be experienced on human health or the environment. 

ERA promulgated the basic set of current ambient air-quality standards in April 1971. The specific regulated pollutants were particulates, sulfur dioxide, photochemical oxidants, hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen oxides. In 1978, lead was added. Table 25-1 enumerates the present standards. 

Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) Of aU the federal laws placing environmental controls on industiy (and, in particular, on new plants), perhaps the most confusing and restrictive are the limits imposed for the prevention of significant deterioration (PSD) of air quahty. These limits apply to areas of the countiy that are already cleaner than required by ambient air-quality standards. This regula-toiy framework evolved from judicial and administrative ac tion under the 1970 Clean Air Act and subsequently was given full statutoiy foundation by the 1977 Clean Air Act Amendments. 

TABLE 25-1 National Primary and Secondary Ambient Air Quality Standards... 

NR = No index values reported at concentration levels below those specified by "alert level" criteria (Table 5-1). Annual primary National Ambient Air Quality Standard. 

There are several different strategies for air pollution control. The strategy just discussed and shown in Fig. 5-1 is called the air quality management strategy. It is distinguished from other strategies by its primary reliance on the development and promulgation of ambient air quality standards. 

IDENTIFICATION AND QUANTIFICATION.—Such plan provisions shall expressly identify and quantify the emissions, if any, of any such pollutant or pollutants which will be allowed, from the construction and operation of major new or modified stationary sources in each such area. The plan shall demonstrate to the satisfaction of the Administrator that the emissions quantified for this purpose will be consistent with the achievement of reasonable further progress and will not interfere with the attainment of the applicable national ambient air quality standard by the applicable attainment date. 

Public Law 101-549, 101st Congress—November 15, 1990, An Act to Amend the Clean Air Act to provide for attainment and maintenance of health protective national ambient air quality standards, and for other purposes. 

Describe the rationale for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency s establishment of a standard reference method for measurement of National Ambient Air Quality Standard air pollutants. 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has established National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for protection of human health and welfare. These standards are defined in terms of concentration and hme span for a specific pollutant for example, the NAAQS for carbon monoxide is 9 ppmV for 8 hr, not to be exceeded more than once per year. For a state or local government to establish compliance with a National Ambient Air Quality Standard, measurements of the actual air quality must be made. To obtain these measurements, state and local governments have established stationary monitoring networks with instrumentation complying with federal specifications, as discussed in Chapter 14. The results of these measurements determine whether a given location is violating the air quality standard. 

Annual United States National Primary Ambient Air Quality Standard promulgated in 1971 ... 

Sources Air Quality Criteria for Particulate Matter and Sulfur Oxides, final draft, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC, December 1981 Review of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Sulfur Oxides Assessment of Scientific and Technical Information, Draft OAQPS Staff Paper, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC, April 1982. 

United States National Primary and Secondary Ambient Air Quality Standard, attained when the expected number of days per calendar year with maximum hourly average concentrations above 0.12 ppm is equal to or less than 1, as determined in a specified manner... 

Annual geometric mean United States Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standard as of September, 1987... 

Notes National primary ambient air quality standards define levels of air quality which the EPA Administrator judges are necessary, with an adequate margin of safety, to protect the public health. National secondary ambient air quality standards define levels of air quality, which the Administrator judges necessary to protect the public welfare from any known or anticipated adverse effects of a pollutant. 

These regulahons will apply to an estimated 34,000 "major" industrial sources. "Major" sources are defined according to their "potential to emit" and the cutoff levels vary depending on both the pollutant and the local areas compliance status with the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for that pollutant. For the present, the EPA has exempted all "nonmajor" sources, of which there are estimated to be about 350,000, from this permithng, unhl they have studied further the feasibility of permithng them. However, the states can require permitting of some of these sources. 

Some variants of best practicable means are spelled out in the U.S. Clean Air Act of 1977. One is the requirement that best available control technology (BACT) for a specific pollutant be employed on new "major sources" that are to be located in an area that has attained the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for that pollutant. BACT is also required for pollutants for which there is no NAAQS [e.g., total reduced sulfur (TRS), for which emission limits are specified by a Federal New Source Performance Standard (NSPS)]. BACT must be at least as stringent as NSPS but is determined on a case-by-case basis. 

Attainment Area a geographic area in which levels of a criterion air pollutant meet the health-based National Ambient Air Quality Standard for that specific pollutant. 

Criteria Air Pollutant a group of very common air pollutants regulated by EPA on the basis of criteria, and for which a National Ambient Air Quality Standard is established (SOj, NOj, PM,q, Pb, CO, O3). 

National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) permissible levels of criteria air pollutants established to protect public health and welfare. 

Nonattainment Area An area designated by the EPA Administrator pursuant to Section 107(d) of the Clean Air Act as having air quality which does not meet one or more National Ambient Air (Quality Standards (NAAQS). For a list of nonattainment areas, see 40 CFR Part 81, Subpart C. 

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