Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
to deliver the gas to the user. Activities conducted in locations other than the facil-
ity site might include excavation and blasting for construction materials (e.g., sand,
gravel) and access road construction. Potential impacts from these activities are pre-
sented below, by the type of affected resources.
Air Quality
Emissions generated during the construction phase include vehicle emissions; die-
sel emissions from large construction equipment and generators; release of vola-
tile organic compounds (VOCs) from the storage and transfer of vehicle/equipment
fuels; small amounts of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulates from
blasting activities; and fugitive dust from any sources such as disturbing and remov-
ing soils (clearing, grading, excavating, trenching, backfilling, dumping, and truck
and equipment traffic), mixing concrete, storage of unvegetated soil piles, and drill-
ing and pile driving. Note that a permit is needed from the state or local air agency
to control or mitigate these emissions; therefore, these emissions would not likely
cause an exceedance of air quality standards nor have an impact on climate change.
Moreover, a construction permit under the mandated prevention of significant dete-
rioration (PSD) or air quality regulations might be required.
Cultural Resources
Direct impacts on cultural resources could result from construction activities, and
indirect impacts might be caused by soil erosion and increased accessibility to pos-
sible site locations. Potential impacts include the following:
•
Complete destruction of resources in areas undergoing surface disturbance
or excavation
•
Degradation or destruction of near-surface cultural resources on- and off-
site resulting from topographic or hydrological pattern changes or from soil
movement (removal, erosion, and sedimentation), although the accumula-
tion of sediment could protect some localities by increasing the amount of
protective cover
•
Unauthorized removal of artifacts or vandalism to the site as a result of
increases in human access to previously inaccessible areas, if significant
cultural resources are present
DID YOU KNOW?
Biomass power plants emit nitrogen oxides and a small amount of sulfur diox-
ide. The amounts emitted depend on the type of biomass that is burned and the
type of generator used. Although the burning of biomass also produces carbon
dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas, it is considered to be part of the natural
carbon cycle of the Earth. The plants take up carbon dioxide from the air while
they are growing and then return it to the air when they are burned, thereby
causing no net increase.
