Burn Determinations During Emergency Response Smoke Events

Emergency Response Events in the SJV

Tracy Tire Fire

Westley Tire Fire

Crippin Waste Wood Fire

Wildfires (Manter, McNally)

Burn Declarations During Emergency Response Smoke Events

Public is sensitized to smoke

Health statements

Overwhelming arguments against adding avoidable emissions into the air

Measured impacts spotty

Cannot monitor everywhere

Analyses Needed During Emergency Response Events

Amount of emissions

Area and magnitude of impact

Complaints

PM and ozone precursor emissions

Plume rise

Actions by air agencies during emergency response smoke events

Monitoring (PM, CO, Toxics, metals)

Health statements

Emission curtailments including burns (STA and PDLT)

Decision of when to resume normal operations

Westley Tire Fire(9/22/99-10/28/99)

Tracy Tire Fire

(8/1998-12/2000)

McNally Fire22 July 2002 19:10 GMT

Crippin Wood Waste Fire (January 11-February 9, 2003)

San Joaquin Valley APCD Air Quality Monitoring, Analyses, and Forecasting During the Crippin Fire

Twice daily particulate matter reports and forecasts

Health Statements (13)

Declaration of agricultural no burn days

Active attendance at press conferences

Responding to media and issuing press releases

Deploying and operating a monitoring trailer at Chandler Airport and siting guidance to ARB

Agencies Involved in Crippin Fire

EPA

OES

ARB

SJVAPCD

Monitoring Results

Fire impacted monitors on 14 days

1- hour PM2.5 maximum 228ug/m3

24- hour PM2.5 maximum 80ug/m3

159 AQI=Unhealthy

Normal maximums in Fresno=205 AQI

Crippin Air Quality MeasurementsFresno-1st Fresno-Fremont Elem. School Clovis

1/13/2003 BAM2.5 BAM10 BAM2.5 BAM10 TEOM10

0 31 29 38 38 18

1 37 28 41 34 18

2 35 31 40 55 16

3 33 43 27 19 12

4 34 33 65 76 15

5 48 37 86 103 18

6 59 57 72 79 20

7 59 58 59 66 32

8 55 63 53 66 37

9 29 59 48 52 32

10 21 40 29 37 18

11 18 32 23 48 20

12 19 32 41 48 23

13 19 39 192 213 20

14 119 36 260 266 18

15 228 190 135 144 17

16 201 228 183 199 37

17 187 223 103 126 95

18 89 199 77 86 66

19 88 95 80 92 62

20 95 104 78 100 70

21 77 115 79 65 34

22 55 88 56 61 21

23 52 62 53 52 23

24-HR.AVG 70.333333 80.041667 79.916667 88.541667 30.916667

AQI 154(PM2.5) 159(PM2.5)

Modeling fire with ISC

-60 00 -40 00 -20 00 0 2 000 4 000 6 000

(m e te rs)

-60 00

-40 00

-20 00

0

20 00

40 00

60 00(m

ete

rs)

D R AF T Fig ur e 22 4 -ho ur S im u la tio n @ Nie l s e n & M ar k s [(ug /m 3 )/(g /s )]1 / 1 5/ 0 3P l um e H ei gh t = 5 m e te rs

s: F re sn o Fire Fig u re 2 _ 0 3 01 1 6 . srf

Smoke Impacts During the Control of Crippin Fire

Summary and Conclusions

Quantification of impacts during events is difficult

Complaints and monitoring do not always agree

Decision to allow other burning relies on impact analyses using the corroboration of monitoring, modeling, meteorology and social factors

Discussion