HIGHLIGHTS
- The NEI’s accuracy is crucial to EPA efforts to preserve and restore air quality.
- Abt developed emissions estimation methodologies and estimates for nonpoint sources.
- Our work has contributed to a more accurate and transparent NEI.
The Challenge
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Emission Inventory and Analysis Group (EIAG) produces the National Emission Inventory (NEI), a comprehensive estimate of air pollutant emissions. States need these data to evaluate emissions trends and to compare the trends among states. The NEI is also used as a basis for various EPA modeling and regulatory analyses, and to produce the National Air Pollutant Emission Trends report. Given its multiple uses, the NEI’s accuracy and timeliness is crucial to EPA efforts to preserve and restore air quality.
The Approach
Abt Global has supported EPA’s development of the NEI since 2012. This includes developing emissions estimation methodologies and estimates for nonpoint sources, such as:
- Agricultural pesticides, tilling and livestock.
- Asphalt paving and paved and unpaved roads.
- Aviation gasoline and gasoline distribution.
- Residential heating, including residential wood combustion.
- Mercury sources, such as dental amalgam and cremation.
- Commercial cooking.
- Construction and mining and quarrying.
- Industrial, commercial, and institutional fuel combustion.
- Open burning.
The Results
In addition to developing emission estimation methodologies, we developed a series of user-friendly, Microsoft Access-based tools to help state and local agencies estimate emissions from these nonpoint sources.
We also developed a particulate matter augmentation tool to ensure completeness of particulate matter inventories by correcting inconsistencies and filling gaps in submitted data.
Our work has contributed to a more accurate and transparent NEI, thereby enabling EPA to better understand the air pollutant source categories that are doing the most damage to air quality in the United States.
Read more about this work: