Archived: Air Pollutant Emission Inventory report: annex 2 - inventory development: part 8

A2.4 Facility-reported data

This section presents the procedures used to incorporate facility-reported data into the APEI.

Information on facility-reported data was provided by the provinces for 1985, 1990, 1995 and 2000. In some cases, additional information was provided to fill in intervening years or to update the original submissions. Trends for the intervening years were interpolated. The compilation of emissions for 2001 to 2005 occurred during a transition to using emissions data reported to the National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI) as the major source of industrial emissions. In general, facility-reported data from the NPRI and data provided by the provinces were used for the 2002, 2004 and 2005 inventories, and interpolation was used for 2001 and 2003.

Since 2005, information on facility-reported data has originated mainly from the NPRI, with limited data obtained from provincial governments (Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Ontario and Quebec) on selected sources that are not reported to the NPRI.

The NPRI groups substances into the five parts listed below. Each part has its own reporting thresholds or triggers of mandatory reporting.

• Part 1A: Core Substances, and Part 1B – Alternate Threshold Substances
• Part 2: Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons
• Part 3: Dioxins, Furans and Hexachlorobenzene
• Part 4: Criteria Air Contaminants (CACs)
• Part 5: Speciated Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)

Table A2-22 shows the 17 air pollutants reported in the APEI and their NPRI reporting thresholds. Details on the NPRI reporting requirements for each substance group are available in the Guide for Reporting to the National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI) (EC 2015a). No VOC data collected under Part 5 is used in the APEI.

Notes

MPO: Manufactured, processed or otherwise used
N/A: not applicable

In 2016, approximately 6000 facilities reported releases to air of one or more APEI pollutants to the NPRI.

Using the 2016 NPRI database, facility information and air emissions data for the pollutants in Table A2-22 were extracted for each province and territory. The quality control process described in Section 4.1 was applied to the NPRI data to identify outliers or missing substance reports. Each extracted NPRI facility was assigned to an APEI source, sector and subsector.

For new NPRI reporting facilities, the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes (Statistics Canada 2012), reported by the facilities, were used to assign the related APEI sector and subsector classifications. In some cases, additional research and verification was required to provide the correct classification for facilities with a number of activities that were different from the NAICS code reported by the facility to the NPRI.

NPRI reporting facilities may not report all three of the PM size fractions. For cases where only one or two of the three PM size fractions were reported to the NPRI, a distribution procedure is applied to estimate a complete set of PM emissions for facilities. The procedure is based on sector-specific PM distribution profiles developed based on PM emissions reported by facilities to the NPRI for the 2006 to 2016 inventory years. The ratios were calculated for each facility and averaged by sector. The resulting distributions are presented in Table A2-23.

The PM distribution procedure described in equations A2-1, A2-2 and A2-3 is applied on a case-by-case basis to fill data gaps.

Equation A2-1: PM₁₀ Distribution Ratio

Where

PM₁₀ ratio = Ratio of the sector’s PM₁₀ emissions to TPM emissions

PM₁₀ emissions = PM₁₀ emissions for the sector

TPM emissions = TPM emissions for the sector

Equation A2-2: PM_2.5 Distribution Ratio

Where

PM_2.5 ratio = Ratio of the sector’s PM_2.5 emissions to TPM emissions

PM_2.5 emissions = PM_2.5 emissions for the sector

TPM emissions = TPM emissions for the sector

Equation A2-3: PM_2.5/PM₁₀ Distribution Ratio

Where

PM_2.5/PM₁₀ ratio = Ratio of the sector’s PM_2.5 emissions to the PM₁₀ emissions

PM_2.5 emissions = PM_2.5 emissions for the sector

PM₁₀ emissions = PM₁₀ emissions for the sector

The TPM, PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 emissions calculated using the distribution procedure are added to the list of facility-reported data and flagged as an Environment and Climate Change Canada estimate.

Table A2-23: Particulate Matter (PM) Distribution Ratios^a

Notes

^a Based on the facility-reported data for 2006 to 2013 except where indicated otherwise.

^b For the purpose of this table, this category does not include Limestone.

^c Adapted from Environment Canada (2014)

^d Adpated from ECCC (2017)

^e Values for PM ratios for these categories vary by subsector: Other Chemical Industries - values range from 0.465 to 0.886.

^f Values for PM ratios for these categories vary by subsector: Other Manufacturing Industries - values range from 0.122 to 0.771.

^g Values for PM ratios for these categories vary by subsector: Printing - values range from 0.786 to 1.0.

^h Ratios derived from particulate matter ratios provided in the NPRI Toolbox guidance document entitled Guidance on Estimating Road Dust Emissions from Industrial Unpaved Surfaces.

A2.5 Reconciliation of facility-reported data and in-house estimates

A reconciliation process is in place to prevent the double-counting of emissions when combining the in-house estimates  and facility-reported data for the purpose of forming the final APEI. Reconciliation is performed separately at the subsector level for each province and territory. Table A2-1 in Section A2.2 provides a complete list of sectors and indicates the origins of the estimates for each.

A2.5.1 General procedures

The approach for reconciling facility-reported data and in-house estimates  from a province, sector and subsector and for a specific pollutant is as follows:

• For most industrial sectors, the NPRI facility-reported data captures all facilities’ emissions, resulting in in-house estimates not being required (i.e. InHouseEstimate_REC = 0). However, certain industrial sectors still have an in-house estimate component and require reconciliation.

In general, reconciliation procedures were performed for sector/subsectors that had both in-house estimates and facility-reported data (Table A2-1). For example, for 2015, reconciliation was performed for the asphalt paving industry

• If the total of the in-house estimates  is greater than or equal to the total facility-reported data, the reconciled in-house  estimate is equal to the total of the in-house  estimates minus the total of the facility-report data , as outlined in Equation A2-4.

Equation A2-4:

If, InHouseEstimate_Total ≥ FacilityReportedData_Total

Then, InHouseEstimate_REC = InHouseEstimate_Total - FacilityReportedData_Total

• If the total in-house estimate quantity is less than or equal to the total of the facility-reported data for the source , the reconciled in-house estimate is equal to zero, as outlined in Equation A2-5.

Equation A2-5:

If, InHouseEstimate_Total ≤ FacilityReportedData_Total

Then, InHouseEstimate_REC = 0

Some points to consider:

• In general, InHouseEstimate_REC represents non-reporting facilities (including smaller facilities or emissions from reporting facilities that do not meet reporting requirements).
• In cases where InHouseEstimate_REC = 0 (Equation A2-5), facility-reported data are considered to reflect all the sector emitting sources.

A2.5.2 Wood products

Particulate matter emissions (TPM, PM₁₀ and PM_2.5) from Sawmills and Panel Board Mills (Wood Products sector) were not reconciled using the procedure described in section A2.5.1. Rather, NPRI facility-reported data from Sawmills and Panel Board Mills were used to characterize the entire industry. The facility-reported  data, together with a number of production indicators, were used to estimate the PM emissions from facilities that are not required to report to the NPRI. The sum of the resulting emission estimates represents the total emissions for these subsectors. All other pollutants were reconciled at the subsector and provincial level according to the standard procedure and equations outlined in section A2.5.1.

A2.6 Dry cleaning, general solvent use, printing and surface coatings

The in-house estimates in the Dry Cleaning, General Solvent Use, Printing, and Surface Coatings sectors (Paints and Solvents source category) include a total of 92 different kinds of solvents and applications. The challenge is to reconcile the in-house estimates with facility-reported data, which includes a variety of sources (solvent use as well as processes, fuel combustion, road dust, etc.) grouped under the same North American Industry Classification System. Due to this sector’s complexity, reconciliation of in-house estimates with facility-reported data from the NPRI requires that several steps be performed by a specially designed database application (Cheminfo 2016a):

1. Allocating the solvent use in-house estimates to the 4-digit NAICS level from the NPRI;
2. Allocating the NPRI VOC inventory totals at the 4-digit NAICS level to “Process” and “Solvent” type emissions;
3. Subtracting the “Solvent” type NPRI emissions from the solvent in-house emissions estimates.

If subtraction of the facility-reported data from the in-house estimates for a certain solvent use yields a small negative value, the emission estimate for that in-house estimate  is set to zero. However, if the reconciliation yields a large negative value, examination/verification of both the in-house estimates and the facility-reported data and the allocation percentages for that solvent use is performed, and the estimates are adjusted accordingly.

A2.7 Mercury in products

Mercury can be released to air throughout the life cycle of mercury-containing products, including during manufacture, distribution, use, disposal, transportation and final disposition, as well as through waste streams. Releases can also result from breakage and processing. As such, reconciliation of Hg air emissions from mercury in products with NPRI facility-reported data involves a review and characterization of the source of the Hg air emissions included in the facility-reported estimate (primarily in the waste sector, such as landfills) to ensure that the Hg emissions estimated through the life-cycle approach are not duplicated in the facility-reported data.