American Petroleum Institute

MANUAL ON DISPOSAL OF REFINERY WASTES VOLUME ON ATMOSPHERIC EMISSIONS CHAPTER 5-SAMPLING AND SURVEYS
 N PUBL 931 C5

Annotation

Introduction

Knowledge of the kinds and amounts of contaminants refineries are discharging into the atmosphere and the effects of emissions on surrounding areas is required:

1. To evaluate existing control practices and to ensure compliance with government regulations.)*

2. To assess effects the emissions might have on the health of humans and plants.

3. To deal effectively with complaints.

4. To design and justify improved methods of reducing emissions.

5. To forecast the effect proposed changes in processing might ·have on emissions.

6. To provide data for use in preparing an environmental impact statement on the effect of a new refinery or the expansion of an existing refinery.

7. To maintain historical records of air quality.

8. To develop and test diffusion models.

The necessary data can be collected by means of (I) analyses of rainwater and vegetation samples, (2) horticultural surveys, (3) source surveys of the types of objectionable refinery materials emitted, and (4) ambient air quality surveys of the quantities of polluting materials existing in the surrounding atmosphere under various meteorological conditions.

While refinery technical staffs should be capable of making a meaningful source survey, it is usually necessary to engage the services of outside specialists to make reliable surveys of ambient air quality.^  To be effective, such surveys must correlate the concentrations of polluting materials in the surrounding atmosphere with the local meteorological conditions so that reliable predictions of the effects of given levels of emissions can be made. For most practical applications the problem is very complex due to: