Ambient monitoring at Tennessee Valley Authority power plants

Conference · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1975

OSTI ID:7273015

Owen, Jr, A E; May, R

The Tennessee Valley Authority's ambient air quality monitoring system around its coal-fired power plants is described. Ambient levels of sulfur dioxide are measured by both conductivity and coulometry, though conductimetric monitors are to be replaced by coulometric monitors approved by the Environmental Protection Agency. Meteorological and ambient SO/sub 2/ monitoring are coordinated to control operation of the power plants so that ambient air quality meets state and Federal standards. Standard high-volume samplers are used to collect suspended particulates, and polyethylene sampling gauges are used for the collection of settled particulates. All samples of suspended particulates that exceed the national primary standard and some samples collected near urban areas that exceed the secondary standard are evaluated for fly ash content to assess the power plant contribution to the total concentration of particulates. Biological field inspections around each plant throughout the growing season identify and delineate any areas of pollution effects on vegetation. The latter results are correlated with ambient air quality data.

• OSTI ID: 7273015
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

500200* -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
AEROSOLS
AIR POLLUTION
AIR QUALITY
CHALCOGENIDES
COLLOIDS
DISPERSIONS
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
MONITORING
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
POLLUTION
POWER PLANTS
SAMPLING
SOLS
STANDARDS
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
SULFUR DIOXIDE
SULFUR OXIDES
TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY
URBAN AREAS
US ORGANIZATIONS