A
Statement of Task
An ad hoc committee of the standing Committee on Animal Nutrition will be appointed to conduct a rigorous scientific review of air emission factors as related to current animal feeding and production systems in the United States. The committee will review and evaluate the scientific basis for estimating the emissions of various air pollutants (PM, PM10, PM2.5, hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, odor, VOCs, methane, and nitrous oxide) from confined livestock and poultry production systems to the atmosphere. In its evaluation, the committee will review characteristics of agricultural animal industries, methods for measuring and estimating emissions, and potential best management practices, including costs and technologic feasibility. The committee will focus on confined animal feeding production systems and will evaluate them in terms of biologic systems. The committee will consider all relevant literature and data, including reports compiled by the EPA and USDA on air quality research, air emissions, and air quality impacts of livestock waste. The study will identify critical short- and long-term research needs and will provide recommendations on the most promising science-based methodologic and modeling approaches for estimating and measuring emissions—including deposition, rate, cycle, fate, and transport—as well as on potential mitigation technologies. The committee will issue an interim report including a review of methodologies and data presented in “Air Emissions From Animal Feeding Operations” EPA Office of Air and Radiation, August 15, 2001.
