STUDY OF LONG-RANGE AIR-POLLUTION PROBLEMS RELATED TO COAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE NORTHERN GREAT PLAINS

Potential environmental problems from coal development in the Northern Great Plains were examined in this paper. A regional-scale air pollution model was used to assess the impact of pollutant emissions on air quality at large distances. This model is based on the numerical solution of the atmospheric diffusion equation. Sulfur dioxide emissions inventories constructed for 1976 and 1986 were used with this model to calculate long range transport, diffusion, and dry deposition of SO2 and sulfates for three meteorological conditions: a strong-wind winter case, a stagnation spring case, and a moderate-wind summer case. Calculated SO2 concentrations near point sources are highest for the stagnation spring case, intermediate for the strong-wind winter case, and lowest for the moderate-wind summer case. Long range transport of SO2, in contrast, appears to be slightly greater in the winter and summer cases than in the spring. For an SO2/sulfate conversion rate of 0.3% h-1, the predicted sulfate concentrations are not significantly above the background level. A simulation using a rate of 3% h-1, however, yields a maximum 3-h average sulfate concentration of 20 μg m-3. © 1979.