Two New Resources Now Available for Air Emission Information

The Department of Environmental Protection now has available two new sources of air emission information—facility by facility emission inventory statements and 43 ambient air monitoring stations.

Emission Inventory: Each year about 1,250 facilities are required to submit annual emission inventory statements that contain information used to calculate air emissions from industrial sources.

A new webpage is now available on DEP's website to provide access to current and historical facility summary emission inventory data. The data shown on the website is from the annual emission statements submitted by facilities on a yearly basis. Emission inventory data is available for the years 1999 to 2003.

Access to the data is available through the eFacts webpage. Users can access summary data at the facility level by using the “Facility Search” option. Reports that summarize emissions by pollutant and area are available under the “Reports” option.

Ambient Air Monitors: Every hour of every day, the COPAMS Air Monitoring System samples ambient air continuously in 43 locations, statewide. The air monitoring sites measure the level of gaseous and particulate pollutants as well as several meteorological parameters.

The information available before through the principal pollutants webpage presented hourly updates, with no way to access historical information.

DEP is now updating the webpage to provide both current and historical ambient air monitoring data. The data shown on the website has undergone preliminary quality assurance checks, but may not be considered validated and official. Caution should be used for any data that is less than 90 days old. Ambient air monitoring data averages are available starting with the year 1999.

Monitoring data from Philadelphia and Allegheny counties, which conduct their own monitoring programs, is not available through this webpage.


4/1/2005

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