Publications by authors named "R J Staebler"
Article Synopsis
- Dry deposition plays a significant role in removing reactive organic carbon from the atmosphere, impacting airborne chemical reactions and transferring this carbon to other environmental systems.
- Using aircraft measurements, researchers found that oil operations can lead to high deposition rates of organic carbon, reaching up to 100 tons per hour, with rapid lifetimes of about 4 hours that can compete with oxidation processes.
- Traditional models for gas-phase deposition may not capture all deposited organic carbon, indicating a need to consider these deposition processes in assessing the effects on freshwater ecosystems, as they contribute significantly to the overall carbon balance compared to terrestrial sources.
Continuous ambient sulfur measurements are routinely conducted around the globe at numerous monitoring sites impacted by industrial sources, such as gas and oil processing facilities, pulp and paper mills, smelters, sewage treatment facilities, and concentrated animal feeding operations, as well as by natural sources, such as volcanoes. Various jurisdictions have or plan to establish air ambient quality objectives, guidelines, or standards for total reduced sulfur (TRS) based on odor perception and/or health effects. A conventional TRS monitoring technique is widely used, but few studies have looked at potential biases in the resulting TRS measurements.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOil and gas wells (OGWs) can lead to soil and well emissions of methane (CH), a potent greenhouse gas, and hydrogen sulfide (HS), a highly toxic gas, both of which reduce air quality and can cause explosions when emitted into confined spaces. Developments have been occurring over OGWs, posing health and safety risks. However, to our knowledge, previous studies have not conjunctively analyzed well and soil emissions while considering development on or near OGWs.
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- Dry deposition is a significant source of air pollutants, and this study focuses on evaluating different predictive models for estimating its impact on ozone levels across various locations in the Northern Hemisphere.
- The research compares 18 dry deposition models against real-world ozone flux observations, revealing a wide range in their predictions, with models differing significantly in both predicted deposition rates and relative contributions from various pathways.
- This initiative aims to improve the accuracy of these models by bringing together researchers who develop air quality models and those who measure ozone fluxes, with the goal of enhancing both scientific understanding and regulatory applications.
A mapping study targeting emissions of polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs) from an oil sands tailings pond was undertaken in the Athabasca Oil sands Region (AOSR). Ten passive air samplers comprising polyurethane foam (PUF) disks were deployed around the perimeter of Suncor Tailings Pond 2/3 for a five-week period to generate time-integrated concentrations in air for PACs, which included ∑unsubstituted polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), ∑alkylated PAHs (alk-PAHs), and ∑dibenzothiophenes (DBTs) (both unsubstituted and alkylated). Concentrations in air ranged from 13 to 70, 220-970, and 30-210 ng/m, respectively, and were elevated in samplers downwind of the tailings pond.
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