Local Air Quality

Supporting decision making with expertly gathered source/monitoring data, comprehensive modeling and user-friendly client-site software

At the local level, air quality issues can range from mild public nuisance to serious health concerns. Meeting air quality goals can be challenging. Solutions are becoming more elusive: New information on air quality and health is emerging; regulations are being tightened; emission sources and sensitive land uses encroach on each other more often.  

refinery

Our service

We help you find a path to achieve your air quality goals, whether those goals concern corporate social responsibility, emergency response, land use compatibility, regulation or other issues. We provide regulatory expertise and technical measurement resources so you can stay focused on your core responsibilities.  

We offer these services in the following broad areas:

(Click to download fact sheet)

Our focus is always on our clients’ questions and practical needs. We’re sensitive to timelines and experienced with meeting our clients’ time constraints. And we’re exceptionally skilled at and passionate about making complex scientific information accessible for nonscientists who need to act on our findings.

We offer source testing, air monitoring and computer simulation. We can provide any of these services independently; however, for the most complete assessment, we combine information from all three sources. These studies have two purposes: (1) to evaluate the air pollutant levels near emission source(s) and (2) to determine whether those levels fall within an acceptable range based on air quality standards and criteria. We design the services to suit our client’s need, whether that is a regulatory approval, a litigation or land use dispute, to meet conditions of an approval or to actively manage air emissions.

In these analyses, we brainstorm and work collaboratively with our clients, regulators and other stakeholders throughout the process. The first goal is to understand fully the issues and competing priorities. Then, with data in hand, we work to find the best win-win solutions.

Within RWDI our expertise spans many sectors, including mining and smelting, oil and gas, iron and steel, the aggregate industry, auto manufacturing, pulp and paper, cement manufacturing, laboratories and physical plants and transportation infrastructure (highways, railways, airports, shipping and more). By drawing on this exceptionally broad expertise, we can arrive at excellent air quality solutions quickly.

For active management of air emissions, our service is driven primarily by Plume-RT, a custom interface for use at client sites. This interface uniquely incorporates regulatory-approved air dispersion models, site-specific meteorology, weather forecasts and environmental monitoring. It provides real-time predictions and short-term forecasts of air contaminant levels. Users can customize reports to their needs and test different scenarios. The source weather data is proactively managed by our meteorology experts, and we’re always available to consult on applications or interpretations.

Our clients use Plume-RT to manage such events as accidental releases from large industrial plants, odors from waste management facilities, and predicting smoke and visibility impacts from controlled burns of crop stubble and brush.