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Federal air quality webcast July 18

July 15, 2008, Lincoln, Neb. – The national series of air quality webcasts from U. S. land-grant universities continues July 18.

July 15, 2008, Lincoln, Neb. – The national series of air quality webcasts from U. S. land-grant universities continues July 18.

The hour-long webcast, which begins at 1:30 p.m. (CDT), will feature an update on animal feeding operations’ reporting requirements, application of the Clean Air Act for animal operations, and recent developments about greenhouse gases and national ambient air quality standards and other topics.

Purdue University professor Albert Heber and Sally Shaver from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Air and Radiation will lead the session. Speakers will discuss the National Air Emissions Monitoring Study, a project monitoring air emissions from roughly 20 livestock and poultry facilities as part of the Air Quality Compliance Agreement for Animal Feeding Operations (commonly known as the Consent Agreement).

Heber directs Purdue’s Agricultural Air Quality Laboratory. His primary research is the assessment and mitigation of particulate matter, odor and gas emissions from livestock barns and waste storage and treatment facilities. He has conducted other research on science-based separation distance guidelines for U.S. pork and dairy production, testing of odor measurement protocols, pathogen emission and dispersion from swine houses and odor emission from industrial composting operations.

Shaver is the associate counselor for agricultural policy in EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation. She has a master’s in environmental engineering. She was responsible for setting and implementing the national ambient air quality standards for several years before spending eight years in charge of the air toxics program. She has led the U.S. delegation on two international task forces and been a member of the USDA's Agricultural Air Quality Task Force since its inception.

Articles about animal manure management are on the national eXtension web resource at Animal Manure Management.

The seminar is hosted by the Livestock and Poultry Environmental Learning Center, part of eXtension. The center advocates that individuals involved in public policy issues, animal production and delivery of technical services for animal producers should have on-demand access to the nation’s best science-based resources.

All information including 20 archived webcasts is on www.eXtension.org under the resource area animal manure management.