Ohio University, in collaboration with CONSOL Energy, Advanced Technology Systems, Inc (ATS) and Atmospheric Environmental Research, Inc. (AER) as subcontractors will evaluate the impact of emissions from coal-fired power plants in the Ohio River Valley region as they relate to the transport and deposition of mercury, arsenic, and associated fine particulate matter. This evaluation will involve two interrelated areas of effort: regional-scale modeling analysis and ambient air monitoring.

The scope of work for the modeling analysis will include (1) development of updated inventories of mercury and arsenic emissions from coal plants and other important sources in the modeled domain;  (2) adapting an existing 3-D atmospheric chemical transport model to incorporate recent advancements in the understanding of mercury transformations in the atmosphere; (3) analyses of the flux of Hg0, RGM, arsenic, and fine particulate matter in the different sectors of the study region to identify key transport mechanisms; (4) comparison of cross correlations between species from the model results to observations in order to evaluate characteristics of specific air masses associated with long-range transport from a specified source region; and (5) evaluation of the sensitivity of these correlations to emissions from regions along the transport path.  This will be accomplished by multiple model runs with emissions simulations switched on and off from the various source regions.

The scope of work for the ambient air monitoring will include the deployment of a surface air monitoring (SAM) station in southeastern Ohio.  The SAM station will contain sampling equipment to collect and measure mercury (including speciated forms of mercury and wet and dry deposited mercury), arsenic, particulate matter (PM) mass, PM composition,  and gaseous criteria pollutants (CO, NOx, SO₂, O₃, etc.).   If possible, the SAM station will be co-located with an existing ambient air quality monitoring station operated by a state or local air pollution regulatory agency or another ongoing air quality research project.  This will minimize the costs of establishing, operating, and maintaining the SAM site.  Laboratory analysis of time-integrated samples will be used to obtain chemical speciation of ambient PM composition and mercury in precipitation.  Near-real-time measurements will be used to measure the ambient concentrations of PM mass and all gaseous species including Hg0 and RGM.  Approximately of 18 months of field data will be collected at the SAM site to validate the proposed regional model simulations for episodic and seasonal model runs.  The ambient air quality data will also provide mercury, arsenic, and fine particulate matter data that can be used by Ohio Valley industries to assess performance on multi-pollutant control systems.

To the greatest extent possible, model results will also be compared to field data collected at other air monitoring sites in the Ohio valley region, operated independently of this project.  These sites may include (1) DOE-NETL's monitoring site at its suburban Pittsburgh, PA facility; (2) sites in Pittsburgh (Lawrenceville) PA and Holbrook, PA operated by ATS; (3) sites in Steubenville, OH and Pittsburgh, PA operated by U.S. EPA and/or its contractors; and  (4) sites operated by State or local air regulatory agencies.  An assessment will be made of the availability of appropriate data from these external monitoring stations; where feasible, these data will be obtained and compared to the modeling results.