Two IT air high quality information techniques that inform the U.S. Environmental Safety Company’s (EPA’s) regulatory and compliance selections are outdated, the U.S. Authorities Accountability Workplace (GAO) has urged. The federal company should make progress to develop a enterprise case to switch them, it stated.
The congressional watchdog in a report made public on Sept. 29 famous the EPA primarily depends on two legacy techniques—the Air High quality System (AQS) and the AirNow system—to handle and report air high quality information collected by way of the nationwide ambient air high quality monitoring system. “The information inform regulatory and compliance selections which have related financial impacts totaling billions of {dollars}, together with the prices of decreasing air air pollution and the advantages related to decreasing opposed well being results from poor air high quality,” the GAO stated.
Nevertheless, the “age and design” of the EPA’s AQS and AirNow techniques “could be troublesome to keep up, entry, and use.” That “limits their performance and poses useful resource and different challenges” for the federal environmental company, monitoring companies, and different information customers, it stated. Whereas the GAO had beforehand reported issues in regards to the AQS, and the EPA moved to make the IT system one in all its prime three “mission-critical techniques in want of modernization,” progress stays restricted, it stated.
Legacy System Information a Cornerstone for EPA’s Regulatory, Compliance Efforts
Below the amended Clear Air Act of 1970, the EPA regulates a number of air pollution. Amongst these are “standards” pollution, a set of six widespread pollution—carbon monoxide, lead, ozone, particulate matter (PM), nitrogen dioxide, and sulfur dioxide—which are emitted by energy crops, different industrial sources, and automobiles.
The EPA regulates these pollution by setting “allowable” ranges underneath Nationwide Ambient Air High quality Requirements (NAAQS). The Clear Air Act requires the company to evaluate NAAQS each 5 years and revise them if acceptable. Ozone NAAQS, for instance, are a main function within the EPA’s controversial Good Neighbor Plan, a March 15–finalized rule that the company urged may lead to a further 14 GW of coal retirements nationwide.
One other air pollutant class, often called “hazardous air pollution (HAPs)”—and extra generally, “air toxics”—spans 188 pollution that would pose well being dangers in small portions. These embody mercury emissions from energy crops and benzene from gasoline. The EPA’s Mercury and Air Toxics Requirements (MATS), for instance, set limits on energy plant HAP emissions. In April, notably, it proposed to significantly tighten the MATS, with particular repercussions for coal- and oil-fired technology.
The EPA collects most pollutant emissions information from regulated energy plant sources, which monitor, measure, and report emissions by way of steady emission monitoring techniques (CEMS) or sorbent traps (for mercury), although some models with low emissions could conduct periodic stack checks in lieu of steady monitoring.
However, underneath the Clear Air Act, states and territories are usually liable for managing air high quality of their jurisdictions, together with by establishing State Implementation Plans (SIPs) that describe how every state will attain and keep compliance with the NAAQS. To find out NAAQS compliance, state and native governments function air high quality screens which are a part of a nationwide ambient air monitoring system to measure air air pollution ranges. (Ambient air means the portion of the ambiance outdoors buildings to which the general public has entry.)
The nationwide system, which incorporates screens situated at greater than 4,000 fixed-location monitoring websites, “offers standardized data important for implementing the Clear Air Act and defending public well being,” the GAO says. The EPA, in flip, makes use of two legacy IT techniques—AQS and AirNow—to handle and report air high quality information collected by way of the nationwide ambient air high quality monitoring system.
Air High quality Information Managed Via Two Legacy Techniques: AQS and AirNow
AQS, developed and applied in 1996, is the EPA’s “repository” for ambient air high quality information about standards pollution. That information, despatched to the EPA by 128 monitoring companies, helps “actions important to Clear Air Act implementation, corresponding to identification of areas that don’t meet air high quality requirements,” the GAO stated.
“Monitoring companies are required to report information to AQS quarterly, take high quality assurance steps to confirm and validate their information, and yearly certify that the information they undergo AQS are full and correct to the most effective of their data,” the company famous. “EPA makes use of AQS as its long-term repository of regulatory ambient air high quality information, in accordance with EPA paperwork.” The information is made public by way of the EPA’s AirData web site
AirNow, developed and applied within the late Nineties receives and shops “close to real-time” information totally on ozone and particulate matter. Monitoring companies robotically submit information totally on ozone and PM hourly. AirNow additionally permits customers to entry uncooked monitoring information that organizations use to judge day by day well being dangers. “AirNow is programmed to carry out preliminary information high quality assessments,” the GAO famous. “Nevertheless, in contrast to the information submitted to AQS, the information submitted to AirNow aren’t licensed as full and correct. It’s because AirNow information aren’t used for regulatory functions and, as an alternative, are used to supply the general public with close to real-time data.”
Age and Design of AQS Current ‘Upkeep and Usability Challenges’
Whereas the EPA has established inner processes for administration and oversight of the company’s IT techniques, “resulting from their age and design, AQS and AirNow could be troublesome to keep up, entry, and use, in accordance with our evaluation of EPA and stakeholder views,” the GAO stated.
Whereas AQS prominently makes use of an Oracle database and Oracle Varieties and Reviews, Oracle introduced that it’s going to stop supporting Oracle Reviews in September 2023. The EPA is now “working with a contractor to transition to a special software program for AQS studies,” the report notes.
Nevertheless, the getting old system may also current “technological and staffing challenges for each EPA and monitoring companies,” the watchdog famous. For instance, EPA advised the GAO that as of January 2023, there was “one particular person at EPA who had been engaged on AQS for greater than a yr. As well as, AQS has collected in depth quantities of code over time, which has made the system more and more prone to bugs when EPA officers try to make modifications to the system, in accordance with EPA officers.”
The legacy system can also be proving expensive to keep up. “EPA pays license charges for legacy information storage, which is extra expensive than cloud-based storage.” That’s precarious as a result of the amount of AQS’s air high quality information has “grown considerably,” as rules evolve and with the shift to digital information. And, as the quantity of knowledge in AQS will increase, the price of information storage has elevated. “Additional potential will increase in information, corresponding to from will increase in steady monitoring throughout a wider vary of pollution, would create considerably extra information to handle.”
The outdated software program, notably, additionally poses new difficulties in protecting the system “updated” with monitoring data and regulatory and safety updates. “Particularly, EPA officers stated that they have to commit a lot of their time to fixing present issues with a view to hold AQS practical for customers, permitting little time to replace the system with regulatory and different modifications. Based on monitoring company officers, it might probably take years for AQS to replicate regulatory necessities or nationwide steerage for monitoring.” As considerably, the outdated AQS software program can “complicate efforts” to entry and analyze air high quality information,” it stated.
Among the many EPA’s largest challenges is that it should handle separate techniques—AQS, AirNow, and the AirToxics Archive—posing inefficient use of sources and potential confusion for customers. That’s proving particularly cumbersome because the EPA grapples with discovering and retaining IT workers with the data to assist its legacy techniques.
A Mission-Vital Job
Recognizing these challenges, the EPA has for the previous 5 years explored changing AQS and AirNow with a brand new “single IT system.” In 2017, the GAO notes, “EPA’s performing CIO listed AQS as one in all EPA’s prime three mission-critical techniques in want of modernization.”
Nevertheless, the EPA has “not clearly recognized AQS and AirNow” as candidates for alternative by way of its IT administration and oversight processes which are meant to make sure that the techniques successfully assist the company’s mission and strategic objectives. Moreover, EPA has not documented a enterprise case to safe administration approval for a brand new system.” These gaps are partially pushed by the EPA’s “competing priorities and useful resource limitations,” the report suggests.
“Officers from EPA’s air workplace acknowledged that they’re engaged on the duties wanted to develop the enterprise case for the brand new system. Particularly, the company is working to doc the imaginative and prescient for the brand new system, together with the scope, timeframe, and estimated value,” it added. “Officers from EPA’s air workplace acknowledged that they may use this data as a part of their enterprise case to request administration approval for funding to develop the brand new system.”
Nonetheless, in accordance with the report, the EPA has made some positive factors in creating air high quality monitoring modernization. The EPA advised the GAO that to this point, the company has used appropriations from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 and the Inflation Discount Act of 2022 to award $53.4 million to reinforce air high quality monitoring in 37 states, and almost $22.5 million to tribal, state, and native companies for “enhanced monitoring” of standards pollution.
—Sonal Patel is a POWER senior affiliate editor (@sonalcpatel, @POWERmagazine).
