United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Research and Development
Air and Energy Engineering
Research Laboratory
Research Triangle Park, NC 27711
EPA/600/SR-93/173 March 1994
EPA Project Summary
RFP Tracking System:
User's Manual
Charles C. Monroe, T. Allan Dean, and William R. Barnard
The Clean Air Act Amendments
(CAAA) of 1990 called for Reasonable
Further Progress (RFP) inventories to
be submitted to EPA to demonstrate
strategies by which a 15% reduction in
volatile organic compound emissions
will be achieved over the years 1990 to
1996. This requirement applies to mod-
erate, serious, severe, and extreme
ozone nonattainment areas. In addition,
serious, severe, and extreme areas
must demonstrate at least a 3% annual
average reduction beginning in 1996
and continuing thereafter until attain-
ment is reached. In order to track the
emission reductions resulting from
these strategies, emissions reported in
the RFP projection inventories will be
compared with actual emissions re-
ported in periodic adjusted-base inven-
tories, which are also required by the
CAAA. However, this comparison will
take place a number of years in the
future. Therefore, an early warning sys-
tem capable of independently forecast-
ing emissions is required to enable EPA
management and technical staff to track
progress toward the 15% emission re-
duction goal mandated by the CAAA.
This report describes the operating
characteristics of a personal-computer-
based RFP tracking system developed
for use by EPA in evaluating the
progress that nonattainment areas are
making toward meeting the 15% reduc-
tion specified in the CAAA. Details on
the program's capabilities, file handling,
reporting, and graphics are reported.
This Project Summary was developed
by EPA's Air and Energy Engineering
Research Laboratory, Research Triangle
Park, NC, to announce key findings of
the research project that is fully docu-
mented in a separate report of the same
title (see Project Report ordering infor-
mation at back).
Introduction
Section 182(b)(1) of the 1990 Clean Air
Act Amendments (CAAA) requires all
ozone nonattainment areas classified as
moderate and above to submit a state
implementation plan (SIP) revision by No-
vember 15,1993, which describes, in part,
how the areas will achieve an actual vola-
tile organic compounds (VOC) emissions
reduction of at least 15% within the first 6
years after enactment of the CAAA (i.e.,
the SIP revisions are due by November
15, 1996). Emissions and emissions re-
ductions will be calculated on an average
daily basis for the peak 3-month ozone
period (generally June through August).
-The 15% VOC emissions reduction re-
quired by November 15, 1996, is defined
as "rate of progress." Furthermore, the
portion of the SIP revision that illustrates
the plan for achieving this emissions re-
duction is defined as the "Rate of Progress
Plan." Additionally, states with moderate
ozone nonattainment areas confined within
their state boundaries will generally be
required to submit attainment demonstra-
tions with their SIP revisions due by No-
vember 15, 1993. If these areas choose
to use the Urban Airshed Model (UAM) to
prepare their attainment demonstrations,
they will be allowed to submit attainment
demonstrations by November 15, 1994. It
is important to note that section 182(b)(1)
Printed on Recycled Paper
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also requires the SIP for moderate areas
to provide for reductions in VOC and ni-
trogen oxide (NOX) emissions "as neces-
sary to attain the national primary ambient
air quality standard for ozone" by Novem-
ber 15, 1996. This requirement can be
met by using EPA-approved modeling
techniques and by adopting any additional
control measures beyond those needed
to meet the 15% emission reduction re-
quirements. Any attainment demonstration
submitted as part of the SIP revision pro-
cess is designed to demonstrate attain-
ment of the National Ambient Air Quality
Standards (NAAQS) for ozone.
In addition to the 15% emission reduc-
tion mentioned above that applies to mod-
erate-and-above ozone nonattainment
areas, Section 182(c)(2) also requires all
ozone nonattainment areas classified'as .
serious and above to submit a SIP revi-
sion by November 15, 1994, which de-
scribes, in part, how each area will
achieve additional VOC emission reduc-
tions of 3% per year averaged over con-
secutive 3-year periods from November
15, 1996, until the areas are redesig-
nated attainment. These additional VOC
emissions reductions are defined in the
CAAA as "reasonable further progress"
(RFP) reductions: this term is used in this
paper as well. It is important to note that
Section 182(c)(2)(C) allows for actual NO
emissions reductions (exceeding growth)
since the base year of 1990 to be used to
meet post-1996 emissions reduction re-
quirements for ozone nonattainment ar-
eas classified as serious and above if
such NO reductions meet the criteria set
forth in forthcoming substitution guidance.
The portion of the SIP revision (due in
1994) that illustrates the plan for the
achievement of these further reductions
has been defined as the "Post-1996 Rate
of Progress Plan." This plan must also
contain an attainment demonstration based
on photochemical grid modeling.
Demonstrating achievement of the 15%
VOC emissions reductions by November
15, 1996, and then subsequently demon-
strating achievement of 3% VOC emis-
sions reductions per year averaged over
consecutive 3-year periods from Novem-
ber 15, 1996, are termed milestone dem-
onstrations. Achievement of the milestones
must be demonstrated within 90 days of
the milestone date (i.e., the 15% VOC
emissions reductions must be demon-
strated by February 13, 1997). Rules re-
garding the development of the milestone
demonstrations will be promulgated in
summer 1993 and will address the timing
problem of developing a full emissions
inventory to meet the milestone demon-
stration requirement.
Once the milestone demonstrations are
submitted, EPA has 90 days to determine
if the milestone demonstration is adequate.
To help determine the adequacy of the
milestone demonstration and to aid in
tracking progress that these nonattainment
areas are making toward reaching their
emission reduction goals, EPA has devel-
oped a personal-computer-based tracking
system to be used to evaluate RFP. This
report provides details on the program's
capabilities, including file handling, report-
ing, graphics, and the algorithm used to
project emissions. The system described
here is designed to track the 3% per year
reductions required of serious-and-above
nonattainment areas.
System Capabilities
The RFP Tracking System was designed
to facilitate the projection of future emis-
sions of ozone precursors, specifically
VOC, but the system can also track emis-
sions of carbon monoxide (CO) and NOx
for a variety of geographic areas. The
system is designed to give EPA manag-
ers the ability to track RFP in emission
reductions for these pollutants.-'Given a
reasonable set of input data, the program
provides EPA personnel with an early
warning of an expected future failure of a
nonattainment area to meet RFP require-
ments, as specified in the CAAA.
The RFP Tracking System was devel-
oped using Superbase 4, a Microsoft Win-
dows database package that can be
compiled and distributed as a stand-alone
product. As a Windows product, it requires
Windows in order to run. Additionally, a
computer with a 386SX or better micro-
processor and 4 Mb of random access
memory (RAM) is suggested as the plat-
form on which to run the program. This is
the minimum configuration typically rec-
ommended for running Windows. Because
the system was developed using a Win-
dows-based product, it has been config-
ured to run entirely using a mouse to
point and click on various buttons to per-
form particular commands or functions.
However, all functions can also be ac-
cessed via the keyboard. The environ-
ment is entirely object-oriented and
event-driven. This point-and-click simplic-
ity was intended in order to keep the sys-
tem as user friendly as possible and
because the intended user would prob-
ably be a novice.
An advantage of developing the system
using a Windows-based product is that
certain tasks can be performed in the
"background," since Windows offers the
capability to perform multitasking opera- '
tions when running on a 386SX or better
platform. Thus, when the system is per-
forming disk-intensive or processor-inten-
sive tasks (such as file imports or emission
projection calculations), the program can
be minimized to an icon, and the user can
work on documents in a word processor
or on a spreadsheet until the task is com-
plete. The system is designed to beep
when these tasks are complete, and the
icon's title will indicate that the task is
complete. At that point, the user can re-
turn to the program and continue the analy-
sis.
The system can project emissions out
to the year 2010 at intervals of 1, 3, and 5
years. In addition to projecting emissions,
the system can make projections in the
form of percent reduction relative to base
year emissions. The system is designed
to accept input data from either the
Aerometric Information Retrieval System
(AIRS) Facility Subsystem (AFS) or the
Area and Mobile Source Subsystem
(AMS). Output from the system is in the
form of tables or graphs, which can be
directed to the computer screen or to a
printer. Tabular results can also be output
to an ASCII file, allowing the user to sub-
sequently import the reported information
into other software for further analysis (ei-
ther numeric or graphic). Data contained
in the output file can also be exported to
Lotus 123, dBaselll, or Excel.
•&U.S. GOVERNMENT MUNTING OFFICE: »M -
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C. Monroe, A. Dean, and W. Barnard are with E. H. Pechan and Associates,
Durham, NC 27702.
E Sue Klmbrough is the EPA Project Officer (see below).
The complete report consists of one paper copy, entitled "RFP Tracking System:
User's Manual," and four diskettes. Obtain the manual by itself by requesting
Order No. PB94-104650, Cost: $19.50. Obtain the complete set by requesting
Order No. PB94-500204, Cost: $90.00. Both costs are subject to change.
The report and diskettes will be available only from
National Technical Information Service
5285 Port Royal Road
Springfield, VA 22161
Telephone: 703-487-4650
The EPA Project Officer can be contacted at
Air and Energy Engineering Research Laboratory
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Research Triangle Park, NC 27711
United States
Environmental Protection Agency
Center for Environmental Research Information
Cincinnati, OH 45268
Official Business
Penalty for Private Use
$300
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POSTAGE & FEES PAID
EPA
PERMIT No. G-35
EPA/600/SR-93/173
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