Thursday, June 18th from 11:30-1pm our guest speaker Marco Rodriguez of AECOM, will present his studies on “Winter Ozone Model Performance for the Utah Bureau of Land Management’s Air Resource Management Strategy (ARMS) Modeling Project” at the EPA Region 8 Conference Center located at 1595 Wynkoop Street in downtown Denver (in the Bitterroot Room)?
If you would like to attend this meeting, please RSVP to Sara Nuttall ([email protected] ) by Wednesday June 17th. Lunch and beverages will be provided. Please note there is no public parking at this address, but there are many parking garages and lots in the downtown Denver area. In addition, the Union Station public transit center is about one block away – www.rtd-denver.com. You must show a valid ID at the security desk before you will be allowed to enter the EPA center.
Abstract
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Utah State Office, initiated several studies focused on air quality in the Uinta Basin; one of these studies is the Air Resource Management Strategy (ARMS) Modeling Project. The Uinta Basin is an area in northeastern Utah that is projected to have continued development of oil and gas reserves in the foreseeable future. One of the air quality concerns in the Uinta Basin is the elevated ozone levels measured during winter. Several periods of elevated 8-hour ozone concentrations have been measured during winter in the Uinta Basin since monitoring began in 2009. The United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (USEPA) National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for the 8-hour average ozone concentration is 75 parts per billion (ppb). At a non-regulatory monitor in the Uinta Basin, the 8-hour average concentrations exceeded 120 ppb three times in late winter and early spring 2010.
To produce a suitable modeling platform for the ARMS Modeling Project, the Uinta Basin oil and gas emissions inventory was refined and the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) meteorological model was optimized for the study area. These data were used in conjunction with other inputs required for the Community Multi-Scale Air Quality (CMAQ) Model and the Comprehensive Air Quality Model with Extensions (CAMx) Model. The CMAQ and CAMx photochemical modeling results are compared with available ambient measurements collected during January through March 2010. In addition, CMAQ and CAMx results are inter-compared.
Marco Rodriguez’s Biography
Dr. Rodriguez is an atmospheric scientist with extensive experience providing solutions to complex air quality problems. His expertise includes photochemical atmospheric modeling, data analysis, and statistical analysis. Dr. Rodriguez has used urban and regional three-dimensional chemistry transport models to provide insight into the physical and chemical transformations of aerosols and other pollutants such as ozone in the atmosphere. He has in-depth knowledge on the setup and use of photochemical grid models such as CAMx. He has also performed multiple model performance evaluations, and the corresponding data analysis. Prior to joining AECOM, Dr. Rodriguez worked at the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA/Colorado State University), where he performed regional haze assessments as well as source apportionment studies of ambient pollutants. He has also participated in the RoMANS study to understand the role of atmospheric nitrogen deposition of nitrogen on National Parks in the Western United States.