Ground Level Ozone Regulations Essays - Smog, Environment

Ground Level Ozone Regulations Essays - Smog, Environment Ground Level Ozone Regulations What: In 1997 the Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) established new ozone standards. The EPA also placed special restrictions on twenty-two states in the Ohio Valley and Midwest regions to prevent emissions from coal-burning power plants from being carried into the New England States by wind currents. (Tennessee is one of these twenty-two states.) Both of these rulings were recently either struck down or placed on hold by Federal Appeals Courts. Why: The regulations put into place in 1997 by the EPA were more restrictive than the 1990 standards. The regulations limit the amount of ground level ozone and fine particle pollution permitted. Ground level ozone is produced by nitrogen oxide(NOx) which is created by burning fossil fuels. Since gasoline and diesel are both fossil fuels, then NOx is a major component of automobile emissions. Several members of the trucking and fossil fuel industries, as well as members of the twenty-two state region, have challenged the regulations in Federal Court and have been successful in blocking the implementation of the new rules. In the past two months, two separate Federal Court Of Appeals panels have ruled that the EPAs authority to establish clean air standards is not properly delegated by Congress under the Clean Air Act. Therefore, since the EPA is a part of the Executive branch of government and not the Legislative, they have no authority to produce regulations on their own. The plaintiffs in the case also argued that the amount of pollution a person can tolerate has not been established and until it is the EPA should not make the current regulations more restrictive. How: The main actors in this event are the American Trucking Associations and their fellow plaintiffs, the twenty-two state coalition, the EPA, and the Federal Appeals Court. Why would the American Trucking Associations and other fossil fuel burning industries want to limit the EPAs authority? What do they have to gain? Last year, according to the EPAs own press release detailing their enforcement efforts in fiscal year 1998, the EPA referred 266 criminal cases to the Department of Justice, as well as 411 civil court cases. Approximately half of the civil cases required violators to change the way they manage their facilities or to reduce their emissions or discharges. The EPA also assessed almost $93 million dollars in criminal fines and another $92 million in civil penalties. In addition to fines and penalties, polluters spent over $2 billion dollars to correct violations. Not included in this estimate would be the legal expenses incurred or the advertising and marketing costs required to mend a damaged pubic relations image. Clearly it is in the industries best financial interest if the regulations are less restrictive. Many companies that spent large amounts of money to meet the 1990 Clean Air Act standards would have to spend even more to meet the amended 1997 standards. Do the states in the twenty-two state region have another reason to argue against the standards? According to Sean Cavanaghs article in the April 4, 1999 edition of the Chattanooga Times/Free Press, Atlanta lost $700 million in federal roads money as a result of failing to come up with a pollution containment plan. In addition, the state of Georgia had to fund a state superagency to develop and enforce transit plans that meet federal standards. The states joined the industrial groups in claiming that the new standards are too strict and are unnecessary. Chattanooga is not expected to meet the new requirements by the year 2000 deadline and Chattanooga Mayor Kensey and Tennessee Governor Sundquist were two of the public officials who protested the new standards as being too strict. Are the new standards too strict? How does the EPA determine the required levels? According to the press release issued by the EPA following the courts decision, the Federal Courts are not questioning the science and process conducted by the EPA justifying the setting of new, more protective standards. The EPA claims that their standards, which are designed to limit the affects that smog and soot have on people with respiratory problems, protect 125 million Americans including 35 million children. The Federal Courts only have issue with the constitutionality of certain parts of the Clean Air Act that allow the EPA to establish clean air regulations in the interest of public health. The EPA is recommending that the Department of Justice appeal the ruling to the US Supreme Court. Several interest groups are closely watching the case. The powerful industrial and truckers lobby groups are supporting the plaintiffs, while several environmental lobby groups and health associations, such as the American Lung Association, are supporting the EPAs efforts.

Heres How to Calculate pH Values

Here's How to Calculate pH Values Heres a quick review of how to calculate pH and what pH means with respect to hydrogen ion concentration, acids, and bases. Key Takeaways pH is a measure of how acidic or basic a chemical solution is.Normally, pH runs from 0 to 14.A neutral pH value is 7. A value less than 7 is acidic, while a value greater than 7 is basic.The formula for pH is  pH -log[H]. This means pH is the negative base 10 logarithm (log on a calculator) of the hydrogen ion concentration of a solution. To calculate it, take the log of the hydrogen ion concentration and reverse the sign to get the answer. Review of Acids, Bases, and pH Formula There are several ways to define acids and bases, but pH only refers to hydrogen ion concentration and is only meaningful when applied to aqueous (water-based) solutions. When water dissociates it yields a hydrogen ion and a hydroxide. H2O ↔ H OH- When calculating pH, remember that [] refers to molarity, M. Molarity is expressed in units of moles of solute per liter of solution (not solvent). If you are given concentration in any other unit (mass percent, molality, etc.), convert it to molarity in order to use the pH formula. Using the concentration of hydrogen and hydroxide ions, the following relationship results: Kw [H][OH-] 1x10-14 at 25 °Cfor pure water [H] [OH-] 1x10-7Acidic Solution: [H] 1x10-7Basic Solution: [H] 1x10-7 How to Calculate pH and [H] The equilibrium equation yields the following formula for pH: pH -log10[H][H] 10-pH In other words, pH is the negative log of the molar hydrogen ion concentration. Or, the molar hydrogen ion concentration equals 10 to the power of the negative pH value. Its easy to do this calculation on any scientific calculator because it will have a log button. This is not the same as the ln button, which refers to the natural logarithm. Example: Calculate the pH for a specific [H]. Calculate pH given [H] 1.4 x 10-5 M pH -log10[H]pH -log10(1.4 x 10-5)pH 4.85 Example: Calculate [H] from a known pH. Find [H] if pH 8.5 [H] 10-pH[H] 10-8.5[H] 3.2 x 10-9 M Example: Find the pH if the H concentration is 0.0001 moles per liter. pH -log[H]Here it helps to rewrite the concentration as 1.0 x 10-4 M because if you understand how logarithms work, this makes the formula: pH -(-4) 4 Or, you could simply use a calculator and take: pH - log (0.0001) 4 Usually, you arent given the hydrogen ion concentration in a problem but have to find it from a chemical reaction or acid concentration. Whether this is easy or not depends on whether youre dealing with a strong acid or a weak acid. Most problems asking for pH are for strong acids because they completely dissociate into their ions in water. Weak acids, on the other hand, only partially dissociate, so at equilibrium, a solution contains both the weak acid and the ions into which it dissociates. Example: Find the pH of a 0.03 M solution of hydrochloric acid, HCl. Hydrochloric acid is a strong acid that dissociates according to a 1:1 molar ratio into hydrogen cations and chloride anions. So, the concentration of hydrogen ions is exactly the same as the concentration of the acid solution. [H 0.03 M pH - log (0.03)pH 1.5 pH and pOH You can easily use the pH value to calculate pOH if you recall: pH pOH 14 This is particularly useful if youre asked to find the pH of a base since youll usually solve for pOH rather than pH. Check Your Work When youre performing a pH calculation, its a good idea to make sure your answer makes sense. An acid should have a pH much less than 7 (usually 1 to 3), while a base has a high pH value (usually around 11 to 13). While its theoretically possible to calculate a negative pH, in practice pH values should be between 0 and 14. This, a pH higher than 14 indicates an error either in setting up the calculation or else using the calculator.