Air Quality Consulting

TRC’s air quality consultants are specialist environmental science technicians monitoring and reporting on airborne pollution levels through sampling and inspections. Air quality consultants help maintain compliance with state and federal regulations.

The Clean Air Act (CAA) and subsequent amendments and regulations promulgated by the EPA address the country’s air quality issues by providing the basic framework to protect human health and the environment. These federal laws and regulations, supplemented with state and local regulations, change regularly as the US finds its balance between economic and environmental interests.

Each of these regulatory requirements must be considered in the overall air permitting and regulatory compliance strategy for a facility. Air quality consultants help you navigate these regulatory requirements and remain compliant.

As a nationally recognized leader in the air quality industry, TRC maintains the technical expertise, experience, innovative personnel and in-depth regulatory knowledge needed to tackle the complex issues raised by the CAA Amendments.

Air Permitting and Regulatory Assistance

The process of identifying and demonstrating compliance with applicable air regulations can be complicated and overwhelming. TRC works with you to develop the best air quality permitting and compliance strategies to achieve your business goals, while streamlining the permitting process for timely review and approval.

By serving a wide range of industries and continually staying at the forefront of regulatory developments, we can handle large and complex projects and save our clients time and money. With offices across the country, we have long standing relationships with state regulators and can offer an effective combination of local and national expertise.

Our staff performs air quality services for clients ranging from large power plants to small manufacturing facilities, incorporating all aspects of facility permitting, regulatory compliance and enforcement support related to the state and federal regulations and requirements listed below:

• National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS)
• Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD/NSR), Non-Attainment New Source Review (NNSR)
• Visibility Protection/Regional Haze
• Standards of Performance for New Stationary Sources (NSPS)
• National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP/MACT)
• Power Plant Regulations (MATS, NSPS and ESPS/Clean Power Plan)
• Compliance Assurance Monitoring (CAM)
• Chemical Accident Prevention Provisions/Risk Management Program (RMP)
• State and Federal Operating Permits
• Acid Rain Program
• Protection of Stratospheric Ozone
• Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting
• Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), Sections 301-303, 304, 311-312, and Section 313 TRI Form R

With more than 200 air professionals in over 30 offices nationwide, TRC provides critical air quality support from start-up through closure.

Air Permitting and Regulatory Assistance Services Include:

• 112(R) Clean Air Act Risk Management Plans
• Air Permitting and Strategic Consulting
• Auditing and Reporting
• Compliance Auditing
• Compliance Management
• Emission Inventories and Monitoring
• Expert Testimony
• Fugitive Emission Programs
• Green House Gas Inventories, Monitoring, Reporting and Strategies
• Odor Studies
• Offsets/Allowance Planning
• Permit Strategy Development
• Transactional Due Diligence
• PSD/NSR Expertise
• Regulatory Policy Analysis
• RMP Compliance Support
• SARA Title III, Section 313
• Source Apportionment
• Sustainability Assessments
• Toxic Emission Assessments

 

Air Modeling

As a leader in the air sciences for over 50 years, we provide modeling support for all aspects of project development phases, from conception to operation, including air quality permitting, monitoring network design, environmental impact statements, compliance demonstrations, risk assessments, emergency response situations, litigation, atmospheric research programs, odor evaluation studies and military/defense programs.

TRC maintains a complete and current library of EPA recommended models, and air quality guidance documents from federal, state and local agencies to ensure that our model applications and modeling results will be acceptable for the intended regulatory application. Further, we have developed dispersion modeling algorithms to address specific project objectives.

Our modeling staff, comprised of certified consulting meteorologists (CCM), qualified environmental professionals (QEP), environmental engineers and other related disciplines work closely with our project managers, permitting engineers and clients to conduct ambient air quality impact analyses. Our expert staff are proficient in the application of EPA recommended regulatory models as well as assessing and selecting alternative models that may be applicable to non-traditional applications. Our staff has worked for decades with federal and state regulatory agencies as well as federal land managers and understand the applicable modeling requirements and protocols to assure that our modeling analyses will be readily accepted and approved.

In support of risk assessment projects, we perform air modeling to characterize the release, transport and fate of chemicals in the environment. Then we provide exposure pathway evaluations, addressing both inhalation and non-inhalation exposure pathways as appropriate, to fully characterize air emissions-related risks.

 

Air Modeling Services Include:

• Application of Air Dispersion Models, including: AERMOD, AERSCREEN, CALPUFF, SCICHEM, PLUVUE, VISCREEN, SCREEN3, ISCST3, OCD, CTSCREEN, CTDMPLUS, CAL3QHC/QHCR, NATE, CHARM® , DEGADIS, ALOHA, SLAB, EpiCODE, OBODM and ARCHIE
• Meteorological Modeling: WRF, MM5
• Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD): FLUENT, OpenFOAM
• Photochemical Grid Modeling: CMAQ, CAMx
• Odor Modeling
• Emissions Modeling: MOVES, SMOKE

Process and Air Pollution Control Engineering

We provide a comprehensive mix of environmental compliance expertise, process engineering knowledge and construction project management capabilities to help industry meet chemical, industrial, mechanical and environmental process challenges.  We integrate the best air emission control approaches with plant process operations, indoor air quality and regulatory requirements to provide solutions that address the full spectrum of client needs.

Process and Air Pollution Control Engineering Services Include:

• Industrial Ventilation Assessments and System Engineering
• Air Pollution Control System Design and Engineering
• Emission Reduction Credit (ERC) Banking and Trading Support
• Emissions Control Technology Analyses (RACT, BACT, MACT, or LAER)
• Pollution Control Equipment Assessments and System Troubleshooting
• Manufacturing Process Design Improvements
• Incineration, Combustion and Thermal Oxidizer System Design and Engineering
• Energy Recovery Assessments and System Engineering
• Industrial Hygiene Assessments and Design of Engineered Controls
• Turnkey Project Design and Implementation