National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS)

NAAQS were established for six principal pollutants. Describe each and give examples of each applicable pollutant. (10 points) 

The Clean Air Act requires the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for six principal pollutants (EPA, 2015). These pollutants include ground-level ozone, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, lead, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide (EPA, 2015). Examples of ground-level ozone are emissions from motor vehicle exhausts, industrial facilities, and chemical solvents. Examples of particulate matter are dust, smoke, and soot. An example of carbon monoxide is urban smog seen in both developing and developed cities. Lead is present in gasoline, drinking water, and consumer products like paint. Most sulphur dioxide comes from fossil fuel combustion. Manufacturing and chemical processing industries and power plants are largely responsible for the presence of sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere and environment. Nitrogen dioxide is dispersed from engines. 

In Hepburn’s Speed Model, the coefficients of vehicles are indicated for C and D. As the chief of operations in your organization, you are responsible for presenting the yearly budget for the semi trucks in your company’s inventory. Since your safety officer is insisting that each of your drivers must maintain an average speed of 55mph, what would be the vehicle operating cost of your company for each semi-truck in cent per mile? ____(10 points) 

Since the average speed is 55 mph, the formula shown below is used (Sinha & Labi, 2011): 

In this case, 

Therefore, 

A taxi driver plans to pick you up at the airport and drop you off at the bank so you can complete some financial transaction before you head home. He notes that the change in vehicle operating cost (VOC) is 42 cents per mile. Given that his fuel consumption per minute is 0.2, what is the approximate price of fuel for this given arrangement if you delayed the driver for 36 minutes at the bank? ____(10 points) 

In this case, 

The simple interest for buying a passenger transit rail is shown as the product of the principle amount (P), time (in years), and annual rate (R). The City of Phoenix plans to buy five additional mass transit cars for $15 million, and pay off its loan in 30 years. What would the annual percentage rate be if the city plans to make an interest payment of $2 million? ____(10 points) 

In a box model, the maximum distance to transport particle across a city is calculated as follows: Approximate length of one side is 30 miles, width is 28 miles and the mixing height is 2 miles. To the nearest mile, what will be this distance? ____(10 points) 

In this case, 

In a box model, the maximum distance to transport particle across a city is calculated as follows: Approximate length of one side is 30 miles, width is 28 miles and the mixing height is 2 miles. For a pollutant particle emitted on one side of the town, what is the maximum time it will take to be transported across the city with wind velocity of 10 miles per hour (to the nearest hour)? ____(12 points) 

Therefore, 

In a box model, the maximum distance to transport particle across a city is calculated as follows: Approximate length of one side is 30 miles, width is 28 miles and the mixing height is 2 miles. To the nearest hour what will be the average time it will take a particle to travel from one side to the other (to the nearest hour)? ____(12 points) 

If you are the planning engineer for an apartment complex your organization plans to build close to the highway and you know that your potential tenants will complain of traffic noise hazards. You want to assure them that you have adequately carried out the noise impact analysis. Given that the sea level pressure is 0.00002N/m, to ensure that pressure level does not exceed 12 decibels, the sound pressure of concern must be___________ (in N/m). ____(13 points) 

In the Rocky Mountain region, there are endangered species like jumping mice and burrowing owls that are protected by the EPA. If you want to build a roadway to facilitate traffic congestions in Denver, part of your plan will include using Simpson’s diversity index to calculate the number of organisms in two communities. If EPA warned you that there are 400 burrowing owls in proposed region Community A and 500 burrowing owls in proposed region Community B, determine Simpson’s diversity index for community A. ____(13 points) 

References 

Sinha, K., & Labi, S. (2011). Transportation decision-making: Principles of project evaluation and programming. [Online]. Retrieved from: https://engineering.purdue.edu/~srg/book/files/PDF/7.%20Impacts%20on%20VOC.pdf . Accessed October 13, 2019. 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2015). Environments and Contaminants: Criteria air pollutants. [Online]. Retrieved from: https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-10/documents/ace3_criteria_air_pollutants.pdf . Accessed October 13, 2019.