Rocky Mountain States Section of the Air & Waste Management Association

Mark your calendars for our April AWMA-RMSS meeting on Wednesday, April 22. This will be a web-based meeting, instructions will be sent to those interested. Our guest speaker will be Maninder Thind and his talk is titled: “Quantifying Air Quality and Health Impacts from Energy Systems: Electricity, Agriculture, Transportation.”

Time:  12:00 PM (no cost)

Place: Meeting will be through Microsoft Teams. RSVP to [email protected].

Maninder Thind is a PhD Candidate in Air Quality in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of Washington, Seattle. Maninder brings extensive experience in energy-related air quality modeling and analysis. His doctoral research work is at the intersection of air quality and public health with focus on quantifying air quality metrics and fine particulate matter (PM_2.5)-related health impacts from different energy systems – electricity generation, agriculture, and transportation. As part of this work, he acquired deep proficiency in a novel and emerging air quality model called, Intervention Model for Air Pollution (InMAP). Maninder was previously a graduate intern (currently on collaborative appointment) at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO. Maninder earned a Master’s degree in Environmental Engineering from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee.

Abstract: Through this talk, Maninder will present methods and important contributions from his doctoral work that aims to quantify and evaluate metrics for greenhouse and criteria air pollutants to estimate environmental consequences from interventions, quantify air quality impacts on human population from point, area, and mobile emission sources, and evaluate health impacts from air pollution by race, income, and geography. He will introduce an emerging spatial air quality model called, Intervention Model for Air Pollution (InMAP) that he used to estimate human health impacts from different emission source sectors and their impacts on demographic groups (race-ethnicity, income).

If you plan to attend this meeting, please RSVP to Sergio Guerra ([email protected]) by COB Tuesday, April 21. Meeting link and instructions will be emailed.

Please join us for our next AWMA lunch meeting, where we will hear from Sara Heald, who is a Technical Planner in the Planning and Policy group at the CDPHE, Air Pollution Control Division. Sara is a chemical engineering graduate of the Colorado School of Mines and spent 10 years working in the petroleum industry, mostly in refining and specialty chemicals.

Her presentation will cover the 2019 Colorado greenhouse gas inventory.  This is a 5-year update of the inventory in accordance with Governor Bill Ritter’s Executive Order D-004-08.  The inventory is the most recent in an ongoing process and will be updated more frequently in the future in accordance with SB-19-096, which was signed into law on May 30, 2019.  The inventory addresses emissions of greenhouse gases from a wide range of economic sectors and activities within the state for the years 1990 through 2015.  The inventory also includes a high-level projection of emissions through 2030.

The meeting will be held in the Colorado State Bank Building, located at 1600 Broadway, Denver, CO 80202 in the 5th floor Conference room, (SE end of the 16th St mall at Broadway), on Wednesday, August 21^st. 

We’ll start with refreshments and networking at 11:30, followed by the presentation around noon, and we’ll adjourn around 1pm.  If you plan to attend this meeting, please RSVP to Dawn Eisinger ([email protected]) by COB Monday, August 19th.

Please join us for our next AWMA lunch meeting, where we will hear from Phil von Hake, who works in the Mobile Sources (motor vehicle emissions inspection) program at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. That usually means working on the Air Care Colorado program, but the past year has also involved developing Colorado’s new Low– and Zero-Emission Vehicle rules. Phil will provide an update on these rules, how they relate to Colorado’s air quality, and how they will lead to a wider variety of electric vehicles available for sale. 

The meeting will be held at 1801 California Street, Denver, CO 80202 in the 1st floor New York Conference room, on Thursday, July 25^th. We will start with refreshments and networking at 11:30 am, followed by the presentation around noon, and we’ll adjourn around 1 pm.  

If you plan to attend this meeting, please RSVP to Ginger Fast ([email protected]) by Tuesday, July 23^rd. _____________________

Please join us for our next AWMA lunch meeting, where Jill Engel-Cox, Director of the Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis (JISEA) at the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), will speak on Clean Energy Technologies for Economic and Environmental Transitions.

The meeting will be held at the EPA Region 8 building at 1595 Wynkoop St, Denver, CO 80202 in the Dakota Room on the 2nd floor conference center, on Wednesday, June 19^th. **Please bring a valid ID (e.g., driver’s license, passport, etc.) and do not bring any weapons, as all attendees will have to pass through a security checkpoint. ** We will start with refreshments and networking at 11:30, followed by the presentation around noon, and we’ll adjourn around 1pm.  

If you plan to attend this meeting, please RSVP to Miriam Hacker ([email protected]) by Monday, June 17^th.

Jill Engel-Cox is Director of the Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis (JISEA) at the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Over her 25-year career, Dr. Engel-Cox has been an engineer, researcher, program manager, and strategic planner for a diverse suite of renewable energy, clean technology, and environmental programs in the United States, Asia, and Middle East. Her first job was climbing smokestacks in Los Angeles, followed by leading industrial pollution prevention programs for small and medium sized businesses and R&D laboratories in the United States and internationally. In the past decade, she has led international strategic planning and technology assessments for renewable energy and environmental sustainability research programs, working extensively in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia. She also teaches industrial processes and environmental communications courses at Johns Hopkins University Engineering for Professionals Program.

Abstract: Energy systems across the world are undergoing fundamental transformations.  Electricity and heat production are becoming cleaner and more distributed, driven by declining energy prices and higher technology efficiencies, as well as a desire to reduce environmental impact.  The technologies that produce clean energy, such as solar photovoltaic panels, wind turbines, and lithium ion batteries for vehicles and storage, depend less on fuel costs and more on technology costs and global manufacturing and trade.  Therefore, innovations in technology manufacturing, systems integration, and deployment can reduce costs of materials, equipment, labor, operations, and transportation, across all the links in the energy supply chain.  The clean energy trends are expected to continue and perhaps grow through expansion of clean energy technologies for industrial and transportation sectors, although there are many possible future scenarios due to the diversity of resources and societal objectives in different communities, countries, and regions.  This presentation will summarize the status and potential futures of key clean energy technologies and their manufacturing, deployment, and integration with other energy systems and sectors.