Have an Air Toxics Question? NATIONAL AIR TOXICS INFORMATION CLEARINGHOUSE SEPA ------- The National Air Toxics Information Clearinghouse Has Answers You may work for a State or local air quality agency and are participating in the development of an air toxics control program. Your agency is in- terested in regulating PCB emissions. You may wonder, have other agencies regulated this pollu- tant? What acceptable ambient limits have been established by other agencies? How can this pollu- tant be monitored? Or perhaps you are with an agency that has an established air toxics program. You have specific questions about the control technology for a par- ticular source of a pollutant. What decisions have been made by other agencies on similar sources? What pollutants are emitted from these kinds of sources? A valuable information source can help you find the answers to these and other air toxics questions. The National Air Toxics Information Clearinghouse is designed to make it easier for Federal, State, and local agencies to exchange information about air toxics and development of air toxics control programs. Why a Clearinghouse? For many reasons, decision-making on toxic air pollutants is a complex and difficult task for all government agencies. This is a relatively new effort; there are many pollutants and many sources, it is often hard to obtain data in a timely manner, and toxicity data are often ambiguous. In developing and implementing air toxics pro- grams, State and local agencies need information about what other agencies are doing, what prob- lems they are encountering, and whom they can contact with questions. Agencies need information about regulatory program development, permit decision-making, ambient air and source emis- sions monitoring, inventorying emissions data, en- forcement activities, and technical document availabilitv. ------- To help meet this need, the U.S. Environmen- tal Protection Agency (EPA*) established the National Air Toxics Information Clearinghouse. The State and Territorial Air Pollution Program Administrators (STAPPA) and the Association of Local Air Pollution Control Officials (ALAPCO) are working closely with EPA to ensure that the Clear- inghouse is useful to its intended audience. In addition, State and local agencies have been encouraged to participate throughout the design, development, and implementation of the Clearinghouse. What is the Clearinghouse? The primary purpose of the National Air Toxics- Information Clearinghouse is to collect, classify, and disseminate air toxics information submitted by State and local air agencies, and to make the audience aware of published air toxics information from EPA, other Federal agencies, and similar relevant sources. The Clearinghouse collects information in several ways, including sending data collection forms to all State and local air agencies. An annual survey of ongoing Federal research and published air toxics information is also conducted, and special reports are developed from information in the data base and from in-depth agency surveys and studies. Clearinghouse information, available at no charge to government agencies, is distributed in these five ways: • quarterly newsletters containing information on State, local, and Federal air toxics pro- grams and activities, research, agency case histories, etc.; • special reports on specific air toxics issues; • a computerized data base, available at a cost of about $10-$ 15 per hour of work; • hardcopy reports of all data contained in the data base issued on a regular schedule; and • response to requests for specific information. ------- What Kinds of Information Can I Obtain From the Data Base? The Clearinghouse data base currently con- tains two basic categories of information: air pollu- tion control agency data and citations/abstracts. State and local agency data includes information submitted by agencies on: • general agency facts (including address and agency contacts), • regulatory program descriptions, • acceptable ambient limits, • permitted facilities, • source testing data, • emissions inventories, and • ambient monitoring. Selected preliminary risk assessment results related to air toxics have been submitted by EPA. Citations and abstracts are included for published EPA, National Institute for Occupa- tional Safety and Health (NIOSH), and other Federal/International agency documents such as emission factors documents, health assessments, source sampling/ambient monitoring methodolo- gies and technical monitoring documents. Ongo- ing EPA and NIOSH research projects such as chemical hazard information profiles and epidemiology studies also are cited and abstracted. How Does the Computerized Data Base Work? The core of the National Air Toxics Informa- tion Clearinghouse is a computerized data base. It contains all of the information collected by the Clearinghouse, generally indexed according to agency, pollutant, emission source, and research information. The data base resides on EPA's IBM mainframe computer and is designed to be easy to use. Using your agency's microcomputer or minicomputer, a modem, and an emulator package, you can have interactive viewing access to all data base information. Interactive access means that you are able to ask questions of the data base and receive answers ------- via your computer terminal. For example, you might ask the data base for all source emissions data that have been collected for the pollutant, captan. Or you might want to know how many States have regulated acrylonitrile and who the contact people are in each of these States. Answers to these and hundreds of other questions can be obtained quickly easily, and inexpensively. In addition, authorized State and local person* nel may now directly enter and edit data in the Clearinghouse for their agencies. Users' guides have been developed to lead you through step-by-step procedures for viewing the data and for directly entering and editing data. If you do not have access to a computer or an account for EPA's IBM mainframe, you may call the EPA Regional Office contact listed on the back of this brochure. A regularly-issued hardcopy report of all the data contained in the data base also can pro- vide you with information. How Do I Obtain Access to the Clearinghouse? The National Air Toxics Information Clearing- house was primarily designed for State and local agencies. The Clearinghouse is also available for use by the public. Access lo Clearinghouse infor- mation is as follows: State/local agencies: NATICH data base - through EPA Regional Offices. All reports, newsletters - free, contact the Clearinghouse staff. Public: NATICH data base — through the National Technical Information Service at (703)487-4807. Newsletters - free, contact the Clearinghouse staff. All reports - may be purchased from the National Technical Information Service at (703) 487-4650, or from Radian Corporation at (512)454-4797, ext. 5224. ------- For more information on Clearinghouse services, contact: EPA Regional Office Air Toxics Contacts Region Contact II III IV V VI VII VIII IX Margaret McDonough (617)565-3235 Sarah Levinson (617)565-3232 Bob Kelly (212)264-2517 Iz Milner (215)597-9090 Melvin Russell (404)881-2864 Sharon Porter (404)881-2864 Harriet Croke (312)353-6009 Jill Lyons (214)655-7208 Wayne Kaiser (913)236-2893 Dewitt Baulch (303)293-1761 Kathy Diehl (415)974-8381 Dave Kircher (206)442-4198 FTS 835-3235 FTS 835-3232 FTS 264-2517 FTS 597-9090 FTS 257-2864 FTS 257-2864 FTS 353-6009 FTS 255-7208 FTS 757-2893 FTS 564-1761 FTS 454-8381 FTS 399-4198 or the Clearinghouse staff: John Vandenberg, Beth Hassett, Nancy Riley, Karen Blanchard, or Bob Schell, Pollutant Assessment Branch, MD-12 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Research Triangle Park, NC 27711 (919)541-0850 FTS 629-0850 8/87 ------- |