Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
2.17 Use of the CAMx Model to Assess the Air Quality
Impacts of Proposed Oil and Gas Production Projects
in the Western U.S.: Simulation of Winter High Ozone
Events
Susan Kemball-Cook, Ralph Morris, Bonyoung Koo, Uarporn Nopmongcol,
Jeremiah Johnson, and Tejas Shah
*
ENVIRON International Corporation, 773 San Marin Drive, Suite 2115, Novato, CA 94998,
USA
Abstract
The CAMx photochemical grid model is used to evaluate air quality
impacts of a proposed natural gas development project in the Western U.S.
CAMx is shown to simulate observed high winter ozone events in a region of
intensive oil and gas development.
Keywords
Winter ozone, CAMx, oil and gas development
1. Introduction
Oil and gas production in the western states has increased as demand for domestic
sources of energy has risen. Under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA),
the development of an oil and gas production project on Federal land usually involves
the preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) or Environmental
Assessment (EA) that discloses the potential environment effects of the project.
Such environmental effects include the potential impacts of emissions from oil
and gas production on air quality (AQ) and air quality-related values (AQRVs)
including visibility and acid deposition. High wintertime ozone concentrations
have recently been observed in otherwise rural regions of the U.S. where intensive
oil and gas production activity is occurring [1, 2]. Therefore, recent oil and gas
EISs [3] have applied photochemical grid models (PGMs) to address potential
ozone impacts as well as AQ and AQRV impacts.
The basic modeling strategy used in an EIS that employs a PGM is to first
simulate a current year base case without the proposed Project using a compre-
hensive regional emission inventory of actual emissions from all sources (motor
*
E-mail: skemballcook@environcorp.com
