The National Air Emissions Monitoring Study: Overview of Barn Sources

The National Air Emissions Monitoring Study (NAEMS) is required by a U.S. EPA air consent agreement, in which livestock producers agreed to collect air emission data in exchange for more time to report their emissions and apply for any necessary permits. Field measurement of livestock air emissions is a major part of the study. Compared with most previous field studies of barn air quality, the NAEMS was designed to have 1) several pollutants measured simultaneously including particulate matter (PM), ammonia (NH3), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), and non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOC), 2) a long duration of two years, 3) a large number of measured barns (38) using the same protocol, 4) careful selection of farms to enhance their representativeness, and 5) a high level of quality assurance and quality control as required by the U.S. EPA, which is supervising the study. The NAEMS is collecting continuous air emission data from 38 barns at five dairies, five pork production sites, three egg layer operations, one layer manure shed, and one broiler facility for a period of 2 years starting in 2007. At each barn monitoring site, an on-farm instrumentation shelter houses equipment for measuring pollutant concentrations at representative barn air inlets and outlets, barn airflows, operational processes, and environmental variables. A multipoint gas sampling system delivers selected air streams to gas analyzers. Mass PM concentrations are measured at one representative exhaust location per barn using real-time monitors. Motion sensors monitor activity of animals, workers and vehicles. Building ventilation rate is assessed by monitoring fan operation and building static pressure in mechanically ventilated barns, and air velocities through ventilation openings in naturally-ventilated buildings. Data is logged every 15 and 60 s and retrieved with network-connected PCs, formatted, validated, processed, and delivered to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).