Vol. 6, No. 3
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
March 1977
EPA Employee Receives Fluid Modeling Facility
Bronze Medal
by Dorothy Rose/Roger Thompson
Bill Hunt
Bill Hunt, Chief, Data Analysis Section, was recently
presented with a bronze medal for commendable services
by Bob Neligan, Director, Monitoring and Data Analysis
Division.
The citation states, "In recognition of exceptional
performance and initiative in the development of the
Environmental Protection Agency's recommended Pollutant
Standards Index, statistical quality control tests for
ambient air quality data, and the establishment of a
center of statistical expertise within the Office of
Air Quality Planning and Standards."
During the past year Hunt took on two major addition-
al responsibilities: (1) Chairman of the EPA Working
Group to develop an air quality index, and (2) Director
of the quality control development program for screening
ambient air quality data.
As chairman of the EPA Working Group, Hunt prepared
a guideline document to encourage the use of a uniform
index by state and local air pollution control agencies.
As part of this effort he also conducted a joint study
with the Office of Research and Development which
tested the index in eight cities.
The second major effort undertaken by Hunt was the
quality control development program for the National
Aerometric Data Bank, which contains over 85 million
ambient air pollution values. The purpose of this
(continued on page 2)
Lew Knight adjusting sampling rate in a towing
tank experiment.
How can watching the smoke from a scale-model smoke-
stack in a wind tunnel help solve the nation's air
pollution problems? Dr. William Snyder, Chief of the
EPA Fluid Modeling Facility explains, "If the wind
tunnel is a meteorological wind tunnel, atmospheric
air motions can be created to provide a laboratory
environment for the study of air pollution dispersion.
Quantitative results from these scale-model studies can
be directly applied to full-scale, real world
situations."
Recently I spent a very informative 45 minutes at
the Fluid Modeling Facility. I saw a short film which
described the operation of the facility, then Roger
Thompson, an engineer in ESRL, took me on a tour and
explained the functions of the wind tunnel and water
channel-towing tank. I was amazed and you will be
too, if you get a chance to visit this facility.
The EPA Fluid Modeling Facility (FMF), located in
the Grand Slam building, was established in 1974 by
the Meteorology and Assessment Division of the ESRL as
one of only a few atmospheric dispersion modeling
facilities in the world. Major research components of
the facility include a water channel-towing tank, a
meteorological wind tunnel, and an instrument calibra-
tion wind tunnel. In addition, there is a complete
mini-computer for real-time data acquisition and
analysis. Flow rates and concentrations are measured
(continued on page 4)
1
-------
Person-to-Person
Congratulations from EMSL personnel to Tom and
Wendy Lawless who are the proud parents of an 8 Ib a oz
baby boy, Geoffrey Tyler, who was born on February 25.
Tom is a Systems Analyst in our Statistical and Tech-
nical Analysis Branch.
Best wishes for a speedy recovery to Bill Harris,
GSD/OA, who is in the Veterans Hospital recovering
from a recent illness.
Buttermilk biscuits, pumpkin bread, crepes filled
with ham and mushrooms—these are just a few of the
delicacies prepared by six EPA'ers in their new "learning
to cook" venture. They meet as their budget or as hunger
moves them—eating their way through a myriad of cook-
books. Our potential gourmet cooks over in OAQPS are
Mary Whitt, Nancy Council, Priscilla Smith, Ann Eleanor,
Patrice Mansfield, and Karen Easter. The major Question:
Do you need anyone to sample' The line forms on th"e right:
Liz ^artin, OA, was recently accredited by the Public
Relations Societv of America, the national professional
association for public relations practitioners. It is the
largest association of its kind in the world with the
primary aim of advancing the standards of the publ'fc
relations profession.
Archibald Andrew tfacOueen, IV, was born on Saturday,
February 26, 1977, to Judge and Mrs. Susan 'lacQueen in
Charleston, West Virginia. Proud grandparents are Arch
and Kathleen MacQueen of Cary, fl.C. Mr. lacOueen is
with NADB, OAOPS.
Congratulations to Penny Andrews, EMB/EMSL, and her
husband, "Dink," on the birth of a daughter, Ashley
Lynn, on January 31. Ashley weighed in at 7 Ibs. 2 ozs.
Speaking Engagements
Bob Bauman, SASD/OAQPS, will discuss "Energy and the
Environment," at a meeting of the Durham Jaycees,
March 22, at the Downtowner Motor Inn, Durham, N.C.
Walter Barber, Director, OAQPS, will address the
Durham Downtown Lions Club, April 13, at the Downtowner
Motor Inn. His subject will be "Proposed Future Plans
for EPA."
Judy Graham, Microbiologist, Biomedical Research Branch,
will discuss the "Physiological Effects of a Number of
Pollutants," at Indiana University of Pennsylvania,
Indiana, Pa., April 15.
Norman Plaks, Chief, Metallurgical Process Branch,
IERL, will talk about EPA/ORD activity in the iron and
steel industry at the American Society of Mechanical
Engineers meeting, May 11-12, in Pittsburgh, PA.
Robert Hall, Research Mechanical Engineer, IERL, will
discuss guidelines for industrial boiler performance
improvement at the Air Pollution Control Association
meeting, June 20, in Toronto, Canada.
G. Tucker, Chief, Special Studies Staff, IERL, will
address the American Society of Engineering Educators,
June 27, at Grand Forks, ND. His subject will be
energy/environment management problems.
Richard Stern, Chief, Process Technology Branch,
IERL, will attend the 2nd Symposium on Stationary
Source Combustion, August 29-September 1, in New Orleans
LA. He will talk about flue gas treatment for NOX and
simultaneous SOX/NOX control.
Robert Statnick, Research Chemist, IERL, will attend
the American Society for Testing and Materials meeting,
October 2, in San Francisco, California. His subject
will be source sampling and analysis.
EMSL Sponsors Symposium
The Environmental Monitoring and Support Laboratory
is sponsoring a symposium presenting an in-depth over-
view and findings of the Los Angeles Catalyst Study
(LACS) currently in progress. The central objectives
of the study are to evaluate the impact of the catalyst
on ambient air levels of automotive pollutants, and to
provide a long-term data base upon which to assess
human exposures to automotive attribution products in
and near the roadway. Data from this study will be
presented and interpreted to determine if the use of
the catalytic converter has significantly affected the
ambient level of automotive related pollutants, espe-
cially in areas adjacent to the heavily travelled free-
ways. The symposium will be held April 12 and 13, 1977
at the Royal Villa Motor Inn, Raleigh, North Carolina.
Conferences
The Institute of Environmental Sciences is holding
its 23rd Annual Technical Meeting and Equipment Exposi-
tion April 24-27, at the Marriott Hotel, Los Angeles,
California. The theme: "Environmental Technology '77."
The Society for Advanced Medical Systems has issued
a call for papers for its 9th Annual Conference on
"Advanced Medical Systems-Challenges and Prospects."
The conference will be held November 9-12, at the
Los Angeles Hilton Hotel, Los Angeles, California.
Sign-up sheets for the Research Triangle Federal
Employees Association "TENNIS CLASSIC" will be mailed
late in March. If you're interested and do not receive
an application call: Charlie Pratt, ext. 365 or Dick
Jenkins, ext. 581.
EPA EMPLOYEE... (continued from page 1)
program is to develop and apply quality control tests
to screen ambient air quality data for inconsistent
values caused by transcription, keypunch, and other
errors.
Hunt has gone beyond the development and testing
stages and has set up cooperative studies with EPA
regional offices in Chicago and San Francisco to pro-
vide an evaluation of the quality control tests.
Hunt, a native of New Jersey, received his B.A. in
Mathematics and his M.S. in Applied and Mathematical
Statistics from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J.
Currently, Hunt, his wife, Janice, and their two
children, Bill, III, and Elizabeth, reside in Durham.
The CLEANER TIMES is published monthly by Public Affairs,
Office of Administration. U S Environmental Protection Agency,
Research Triangle Park, N C 27711
Liz Martin ... .... Editor
Dorothy Rose Assistant Editor
Elaine Hyman .. Reporter
Produced with the assistance of the Word Processing Center:
Graphics, Composition, Printing Sections, and Forms and Publica-
tions Center, GSD
-------
Practice
Safety
Tena Pipkin
practices CPR.
Your luncheon partner suddenly stops talking in mid-
sentence, turns pale and is obviously in acute distress.
He clutches his chest in panic. Within the next seven
minutes he will be dead—unless you know what to do.
Each year thousands of Americans die by choking on
a piece of food. Many of these lives could be saved
by simple first aid techniques. First aid instruction
trains employees to act swiftly and without panic in
ordinary, everyday emergencies when qualified medical
aid is not readily available.
Most of us could use a refresher course in emergency
first aid procedures and with the range and complexity
of work carried out by EPA'ers, there is an increasing
need for expert medical instruction—especially for
laboratory and field personnel.
Now three different types of emergency training
courses are available through the Personnel Division.
EPA recently concluded an interagency agreement with
the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Center for Military
Assistance at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. The Special
Forces team provides expert medical instruction in all
phases of first aid and emergency medical care. They
also teach courses tailored for specific occupational
situations.
Part of the training course covers cardiopulmonary
resuscitation (CPR) and emergency cardiac care. CPR
is an emergency method of keeping the brain supplied
with oxygen in case of cardiac arrest. The course is
designed to teach you to recognize respiratory and
cardiac arrest, and to properly apply CPR to maintain
life until professional help is available.
According to John Coggin, Personnel, there are three
standard courses being offered. There is an intensive
basic first aid course for non-laboratory personnel
which runs for 16 hours. Over 700 employees took this
course last spring at RTP. The laboratory emergency
aid course is a 24 hour course, and there is a 40 hour
field course which deals with emergency medical problems
and with evacuation procedures at remote sites.
This latter course was taught last spring at RTP to
21 "students" who do stack sampling for EPA. These EPA
staff members travel to industrial sites to determine
what pollutants are expelled into the atmosphere by
selected industrial processes. The results may be used
in further research or as reference points in setting
emission standards.
The stack sampling teams work in close quarters at
or near the top of tall stacks and tanks, some as many
as 300 feet high. Outer temperatures may rise to
230° and inner heat can reach 1200°. Personnel may be
on the job long after the close of the official working
day. While every safety measure possible is taken,
there is always the possibility of sudden expulsion of
gasses, electric shock, cuts, or other accidental
injuries.
There has been no loss of time due to accidents in
the six years of EPA's stack testing program, partly
because of continuing classes and upgrading of skills
in the safety awareness area.
Courses can be designed for a particular laboratory
or field situation or specialized safety problem. A
call to John Coggin, Ext. 1321, will answer all the
questions you have about EPA's first aid courses.
Donor News
Many thanks to all of you who unselfishly volunteered
your time and gave your blood during 1976.
We are just 65 pints short of our quota under the cur-
rent Red Cross group agreement signed in May 1976.
This month, which has been proclaimed "Red Cross Month"
by President Jimmy Carter, we want to pay tribute to all
of you who gave blood during 1976 but space does not allow
us to list all of you. A special tribute however, goes to
Gordon Ortman who has now given 11 GALLONS (yes, that's
correct) "ELEVEN." To give this much blood requires 88
pints donated over the years. Thank you, Gordon. And
thanks to all our other doners.
Very special thanks goes to Richard Atherton who gave
SIX pints this year.
Five pinters included: Robert L. Denny, Whitmel
Joyner, John Brown, and Gordon Ortman.
EPA'ers who gave four pints were: Miriam Ashe, Ralph
Baumgardner, John Cline, John Floyd, Richard Jenkins,
Charles Keadle, Bonnie Kirtz, Jerome Kirtz, Thomas Lahre,
Willie McLeod, Richard Paur, Donna Wicker, Allen Hoyt,
George Gillis, and Lula Murphy.
If you have never given blood and would like to par-
ticipate, give us a call. Liz Martin or Elaine Hyman,
Ext. 2952. We need you.
-------
FLUID MODELING... (continued from page 1)
by various electronic, chemical, and mechanical equip-
ment. The staff includes professionals trained in
environmental fluid dynamics, model makers, computer
programmers, and electronic technicians.
A boundary layer similar to that which exists in
the atmosphere is generated in the meteorological wind
tunnel by placing large fins at the entrance to the test
section. Scale models of buildings or terrain features
are mounted to the floor of the test section. Portions
of a model can be mounted on a turntable that can be
easily rotated to simulate different wind directions.
Pollutant emissions from various types of sources, such
as smokestacks, are modeled according to established
techniques. Smoke may be released from the source to
visualize and photograph the dispersion pattern. If
concentration measurements are required, hydrocarbon
.•
gas is used as a tracer in the stack gas, and samples
are taken at various locations in the test section.
Such effects as the aerodynamics of a building on the
dispersion of pollutants from a nearby stack can be
analyzed. By varying the height of the stack in the
model, the height required for avoiding the building
influences can be determined.
The water channel-towing tank was installed to study
dispersion under stably stratified atmospheric condi-
tions. The water channel mode of operation is similar
to that of the wind tunnel and only neutral (no inver-
sion) flow can be modeled. Models are fastened to the
floor of the test section; dyes are used for flow visu-
alization studies and for quantitative concentration
determinations. The towing tank mode of operations in-
volves blocking the ends of the test section and filling
it with layers of salt water of increasing density to
produce the desired stable stratification. Models are
attached to a turntable suspended from a towing carri-
age into the water, and towed the length of the test
section, making possible the study of flow and disper-
sion around building and complex terrain under stably
stratified atmospheric conditions.
An old "rule of thumb" says that a stack placed next
to a building must be at least 2-1/2 times the height
of the building to avoid downwash of the plume in the
wake of the building. Downwash would result in high
concentrations of pollutants at ground level. A wind
tunnel study showed this to be a good rule for a
conventionally shaped building. For a tall, thin
building, however, the rule was demonstrated to be
unnecessarily conservative and, therefore, wasteful.
Research proved that a thin building has essentially no
effect on plume behavior when the stack is 1-1/2 times
the height of the building. However, studies show
that downwash occurs behind a wide building when the
stack height is only 1-1/2 times the building height.
This study benefitted the consumer by demonstrating
that the construction of costly tall stacks is not
always necessary.
These and other types of studies are constantly
going on at the Fluid Modeling Facility in an effort
to gain general understanding of the mechanisms of
atmospheric dispersion.
Personnel Corner
Occasionally the Personnel Office learns of com-
plaints from employees and new retirees who claim to
have been unaware of requirements to continue their
health benefits upon retirement.
The Federal Employees Health Benefits law allows a
retiree to continue health benefits into retirement
if his or her retirement is:
- On an immediate annuity,
- After 12 or more years of service or under the
disability provisions of the retirement law, and
- After enrollment (or coverage as a family member
in a plan) (not necessarily the same plan) under
program during:
- the 5 years of service immediately preceding
retirement, or
- all service since his or her first opportunity
to enroll.
Give careful consideration to these requirements,
if you are not enrolled in a plan or are considering
cancellation of your enrollment.
The following awards were approved during
February 1977:
QUALITY INCREASES:
Joshua S. Brown, IERL Gloria J. Koch, ESRL
T. Kelly Janes, IERL Robert R. Arnts, ESRL
CONTINUED SUPERIOR PERFORMANCE:
Jean Guard Lewis, HERL
SPECIAL ACT OR SERVICE:
Karen B. Curtis, ESRL
------- |