Air Quality and Climate: Analysis, Permitting, and Support

Tree Raine explains that one of the key challenges air quality and climate clients have is growing operations while maintaining compliance with air regulations and increasingly stringent standards.

Air Quality Management & Air Pollution Control

Government regulations for air quality and emissions continue to rapidly evolve. Companies must understand, plan for, and adhere to rapidly changing requirements including monitoring, testing, emissions control, recordkeeping, and reporting.

Attaining and maintaining compliance while minimizing operational and financial impacts can be a challenge, particularly in today’s regulatory climate. Geosyntec’s comprehensive understanding of air quality laws and regulations, along with our expertise in state-of-the-practice emissions control and monitoring technologies, equip us to provide our clients with innovative and cost-effective solutions for their air quality compliance challenges.

Our practitioners offer clients a broad array of services, including permitting, compliance reporting, and air pollution control technology selection and optimization. Our projects routinely involve minor and major source air permitting, compliance assistance, and regulatory negotiations, as well as air pollution control equipment troubleshooting, optimization, and testing.

Practice Specifics

Air Permitting

On behalf of clients, we create unique solutions that often help them avoid major source permitting requirements, like Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) or nonattainment area New Source Review (NSR). Relying on our extensive knowledge of operating permit programs and our experience in a broad range of industries and emissions sources, we offer clients permitting assistance that aligns with federal, state, and local air jurisdictions. We craft strategic approaches to air quality challenges.

When major source permitting cannot be avoided, our air dispersion modelers and control technology experts know how to respond to challenges associated with major source permitting requirements. Geosyntec’s experts address control technology evaluations, including Best Available Control Technology (BACT) and Lowest Achievable Emission Rate (LAER) evaluations. They are also adept at understanding and conducting ambient air impact analyses, like National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) increments, and state toxic air pollutant (TAP) demonstrations.

Air Compliance and Reporting

With federal, state, and local air quality regulations constantly in flux, maintaining compliance can be a burden on businesses. Our nuanced understanding of policies, regulations, and drivers empowers us to craft effective and efficient compliance solutions for our clients to help them address challenges and remain in compliance. Together, we develop frameworks for comprehensive environmental management strategies that help clients meet air compliance and reporting requirements. Some of the compliance programs we helped design include those governing emission inventory reporting; Title V annual and semiannual reporting; greenhouse gas (GHG) reporting; and deviation reporting.

Evaluation and Optimization of Air Quality Control Devices

Our practitioners evaluate air pollution control devices and advise clients to help them meet emission standards and minimize operational costs. Our project experience includes combustion management and tuning for boilers, thermal oxidizers, and other combustion devices. We also specialize in area and source measurement of complex pollutants such as mercury, sulfur trioxide (SO3) and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), Geosyntec has installed state-of-the-practice hardware and software using cross-duct lasers to continuously monitor ammonia (NH3) and SO3. In addition, we can assist clients with selection of continuous emission monitoring systems (CEMS) and offer operational assistance, data management, and equipment maintenance.

Continuous Emission Monitoring System Design and Ambient Air Monitoring

Geosyntec has supported clients with development of comprehensive environmental management strategies, optimization of plant operations, and increasing efficiency of their air emissions control systems. This has included installation, evaluation, and enhancement of CEMS at point sources and ambient air monitoring systems for fence line or offsite monitoring.

Air Litigation Support

Leading law firms throughout the United States seek technical support from Geosyntec due to our expertise and credibility providing litigation support. Geosyntec provides resources for attorneys to advocate for their clients’ interests on a myriad of air subjects related to business transactions, environmental management, compliance and enforcement, toxic tort, and general litigation topics. Geosyntec’s team of senior air professionals frequently provide expert witness testimony opinion reports, claims assessments, and agency negotiations and settlement support.

Advancing the State of the Practice

Experts in process and air pollution control technology design, we help clients develop strategic approaches to complex, multipollutant emission issues and provide clients with a balanced approach to plant operations. In the electric power industry, Geosyntec practitioners design strategies that reduce the amount of coal required to produce energy through improvements in fuel use, waste generation systems, and air pollution controls. Optimal air pollution controls, such as selective catalytic reduction (SCR, or thermal oxidizers), can result in substantial fuel savings and decrease emissions through improved performance of control devices.

Geosyntec practitioners frequently collaborate with colleagues and industry peers at the USEPA, the US Department of Energy (DOE), the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), the Air and Waste Management Association (AWMA), and other organizations on new strategies for reducing air quality impacts. These collaborate strategies involve NOx control, mercury capture, scrubber optimization for heavy metals, catalyst selection and optimization, and plume opacity mitigation.

In addition, our experts have developed methods to measure emissions of specific pollutants under complex operating conditions which have been accepted by air agencies across the country.

Representative Services

Air Permitting for New Facilities and Facility Expansions
Air Pollution Control Engineering
Ambient Air Monitoring and Source Testing Program Support
Air Dispersion Modeling, Accidental Release, and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Modeling
Carbon Management and Greenhouse Gas Inventories
Compliance Reporting and Auditing Services
Capital Project Permitting Assessments
Emission Inventories and Mobile Source Studies
Feedstock Testing Analyses to maximize Air Pollution Source Control
Health Risk Assessments
Indoor Air Quality Monitoring and Management
Litigation Support and Expert Witness Testimony
Odor and Noise Modeling, Monitoring, and Control
Operator and Employee Training
Process Engineering and Controls Optimization
Regulatory Strategy and Compliance Management
Strategic Technical Support to Trade Associations

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Air Quality Management & Air Pollution Control Services

Life Cycle Assessment
Life cycle assessment (LCA) explores the environmental impacts of products, processes, and policies.
Overview of Air Quality Management and Air Pollution Control
Geosyntec's comprehensive understanding of air quality laws and regulations, along with our expertise in state-of-the-practice emissions control and monitoring technologies, equip us to provide our clients with innovative and cost-effective solutions for their air quality compliance challenges.
Air Pollution Control Evaluations and Performance Assessments
Geosyntec's air quality clients need services for emission control, device conceptual design and selection, feasibility, monitoring, evaluation, and optimization for their facilities.
Air Dispersion Modeling
Under many jurisdictions, facility owners are required to evaluate potential offsite air quality impacts to gain regulatory approvals.
Hazardous Air Pollutant Control Program Development and Implementation
Geosyntec helps clients determine performance and the cost of air pollution control techniques.
Air Quality Permitting and Compliance
Government regulations are constantly evolving. Air quality and emission standards require companies to plan for and demonstrate ongoing compliance with monitoring, testing, emissions control, recordkeeping, and reporting requirements.
Climate Change and Greenhouse Gas Evaluations
Navigating climate change risks is increasingly critical for businesses worldwide.
Landfill Gas Collection and Management Systems
A significant component of Geosyntec's landfill engineering practice is the management of landfill gas and compliance with air quality standards. Our expertise with landfill gas is built upon a legacy of being a recognized leader helping our clients achieve safe, secure containment of regulated wastes since our founding in 1983.
Landfill Gas to Energy Systems
A significant component of Geosyntec's landfill engineering practice is the management of landfill gas and compliance with air quality standards.