This website will serve as a repository of information for the Lakeshore Air Toxics Study and will be periodically updated as the project develops.
Executive Summary:
The Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) conducted an assessment of air toxics in the highly industrialized and heavily traveled area of Lake and Porter counties. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) identified this area as a potential high risk area via its 2005 National Air Toxic Assessment (NATA). IDEM’s goal was to perform a detailed evaluation using methods specifically developed for evaluating air quality on a community-level scale. IDEM evaluated ambient air monitoring data and performed air dispersion modeling of industrial and mobile sources (cars and trucks) within the study area to assess potential health risks.
The results of the study indicate that air toxics concentrations and risk within the lakeshore area are not as high as reported by previous national scale screening analyses. Air toxics concentrations are comparable to concentrations seen in other cities. There is some increased risk associated with emissions from some industrial permitted sources and IDEM is working with those sources to identify pollution prevention opportunities. The results also support the efforts being made to reduce emissions from mobile sources nationwide.
Sources and monitors within the Lakeshore Air Toxics Study Area
Results:
Study Links:
- Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
- U.S. EPA Mobile Source Air Toxic Webpage
- U.S. EPA 2005 NATA
- U.S. EPA Assessing Outdoor Air near Schools
- U.S. EPA Regional Air Impact Modeling Initiative
- IDEM Southwest Indianapolis Air Toxic Study
- IDEM ToxWatch Data Analysis Report [ZIP]
- U.S. EPA Toxic Air Pollutants
Emissions Information:
- IDEM Emissions Reporting
- IDEM Online Air Permits Search
- IDEM Virtual File Cabinet (VFC)
- U.S. EPA Toxic Release Inventory (TRI)
- U.S. EPA 2008 National Emissions Inventory (NEI)
- U.S. EPA Clearinghouse for Inventories and Emissions Factors (CHIEF)
- Risk Assessment Document for Coke Oven MACT Residual Risk [PDF]
- National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for Integrated Iron and Steel Plants - Background Information for Proposed Standards Final [PDF]
- U.S. EPA SPECIATE Data Browser