Exceptional Events Analysis of Smoke Impacts on Ozone Levels in Kansas

Sonoma Technology, along with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE), analyzed meteorological conditions and air quality concentrations to determine whether smoke transported from agricultural prescribed fires in Kansas promoted ozone formation and led to violations of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ozone.
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Sonoma Technology provided documentation to KDHE that helped show that
<ul>
<li>There is a clear causal relationship between the measured ozone values under consideration and the wildland fires</li>
<li>Measured values are in excess of normal historical fluctuations</li>
<li>No exceedance or violation would have occurred “but for” each event</li>
</ul>
Sonoma Technology used several tools to analyze smoke-enhanced ozone formation in Kansas, including trajectory analysis, GIS, and photochemical modeling. All findings were documented in a format that satisfies the requirements of the U.S. EPA's Exceptional Events Rule.