International Air Quality Advisory Board

SPECIAL REPORT ON
TRANSBOUNDARY AIR QUALITY ISSUES

November 1998

CONSOLIDATED RECOMMENDATIONS

  1. SEAMLESS BORDER

    Recognizing the need to manage the transboundary region in as seamless a manner as possible, the Board recommends the following:

    • The Commission propose to governments that the Canada­United States border region (extending far enough on either side to capture transport distances for at least the common air pollutants) be segmented into Transboundary Air Pollution Transport Regions (TAPTRs) as a focus of further joint effort by the governments. The Board commits itself to provide continual advice and guidance to the Commission as the governments consider this approach and attempt its implementation.
    • Within each of the TAPTRs, the Commission should advocate the generation of common harmonized data sets, including emission inventories and monitoring data. Monitoring networks and methodologies and transport models should be continually examined to determine the comparability of their outputs. These data resources should be used to develop truly borderless air quality representations for the transboundary regions.
    • For pollutants transported over great distances, such as mercury and POPs (Persistent Organic Pollutants), the Board should continue to identify source regions that contribute significantly to Canada­United States transboundary pollution and review the effectiveness of the governments' control programs in reducing emissions in these regions. This will support a broader continental effort led by the Commission for Economic Cooperation (CEC) in North America. Source regions of these PTSs may in some instances be subsets of the TAPTRs or may be located beyond the boundaries of the TAPTR border zone.

  2. NITROGEN OXIDES -THE PIVOTAL POLLUTANT

    While many complex factors influence their production, it is likely that NOX emissions will change substantially in eastern North America. Given this, the Board recommends the following:

    • Current monitoring of NOX emissions, ambient air concentrations, and deposition should continue. At the same time, further monitoring and process research should be carried out to better understand transformation mechanisms leading to ozone and particulate formation, as well as deposition of nitrogen species in acid rain and as excess nutrient loadings. In addition, resources should be devoted to further research and monitoring of sensitive endpoints affected by NOX.
    • Caution should be used in implementing programs that would result in seasonal control of NOX as a response to ozone formation which occurs principally in the summer. Such a strategy would not address the formation of other nitrogen pollutants that are believed to have year-round adverse effects on the environment and human health.

  3. CONTINENTAL ISSUES - PERSISTENT TOXIC SUBSTANCES

    The Board recommends that the Commission closely track implementation of the Great Lakes Binational Toxics Strategy at regular intervals and review the progress in completing specific elements of the strategy as identified by the Board under the strategy.

  4. MONITORING and MODELING

    Based on the its review of monitoring and modeling activities for both common pollutants and PTSs, the Board recommends the following:

    • The United States and Canada should address and eliminate gaps in available data on levels of fine particulate matter and ozone in the transboundary region through a coordinated binational strategy for monitoring within the region.
    • Both countries should collaborate in developing a number of sites where co-located instrumentation can be operated to assure that data generated by each country can be directly compared. The Detroit­Windsor transboundary region should be the location of one such site for monitoring PM2.5.
    • Both countries should work together to place Canadian and U.S. chemical and meteorological modules on the Models-3 system/platform so that modelers from both countries can compare and develop the best modeling tool to address air pollution issues.
    • Both countries should expand routine monitoring capabilities for trace quantities of substances, such as those measured by the IADN, to include measurements immediately downwind of urban areas.
    • Both countries should develop comparable and compatible high-quality and publicly accessible binational emissions inventories. These inventories would have a variety of uses, including abatement planning, policy development and implementation, modeling analyses, and public education.

  5. REGIONAL ISSUES

    The Board recommends that any regional control strategies to limit transboundary air pollution be based on source transport and receptor regions as defined by the pollutant, meteorology and contributing sources.

  6. HARMONIZATION AND STANDARD SETTING PROCESSES

    While the merit and possibility of harmonized standards continues to be considered by both governments, the Board recommends that, in addition to establishing the TAPTRs, the Commission advocate appropriate inclusion of experts from both countries in the development of air quality standards and criteria by each country, including joint involvement in elements (e.g. monitoring and emission inventory development) that contribute to such processes.

  7. COLLABORATION WITH OTHER ORGANIZATIONS

    The Board recommends that the Commission maintain a dialogue with the CEC and consider opportunities for interaction with the UNECE to ensure that their work reflects North American practices and to consider which European approaches to determining and managing air quality might be applicable in North America.

  8. SURVEILLANCE ISSUES

    In conjunction with efforts to assess the release and transport of PM2.5, the Commission should ensure that any monitoring network established by the United States over the next five years is at least compatible with, or can be compared to, PM2.5 monitoring done in Canada.

    The Commission should urge governments to determine appropriate endpoints and indicators of air quality (such as hospital admissions and alterations in fisheries) and to conduct periodic surveys of air pollution receptors (such as sensitive vegetative species) to determine the effects of cleaner air in the border region. This indicator monitoring should include a research component to ensure that all the significant health and ecosystem linkages (e.g. air quality effects on forests) are determined and understood.

  9. EMERGING AND ANTICIPATORY ISSUES

    The Board has recommended to the Commission the development of a uniform standard throughout both countries for sulfur content in gasoline of 30 ppm annual average, with a maximum level of 80 ppm, optimally by the year 2001 but certainly no later than 2005. Subsequently, the Commission made largely the same recommendation to the governments of the United States and Canada. The Board also considered the need for further reductions in mercury and NOX emissions from the coal-fired electrical generation sector. It will be considering possible recommended actions involving this sector in the next several months.

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