This project was carried out from July 2, 2017 to July 1, 2018. The primary objects were to supervise and evaluate the execution qualities of the plans supported by comprehensive management of various air pollution prevention funds, so as to achieve the expected goal of various control jobs and integrate the specific effectiveness and characteristic results. It ensured the air quality in Taoyuan City to meet the standards to further gain the excellent performances assessment given by Environmental Protection Administration(EPA). Another focus was to keep track of the environmental loading and pollution emission data of Taoyuan City, analyzed the air quality monitoring results and discussed the cause of the pollution on the event day of poor air quality. The findings could serve as reference for EPA to revise the air pollution control strategy.
After the data analysis of the general monitoring stations of EPA in Taoyuan City, the proportion of poor air quality (AQI>100) has presented the trend of improvement year by year from 2009 to 2018, while the proportion of good air quality (AQI≦50) tend to rise year by year. In terms of the numbers of days of deterioration of poor air quality (AQI>100), the PM2.5 accounted for the highest proportion, i.e. the PM2.5 was the primary cause of poor air quality. In 2018, the concentrations for various air pollutants in Taoyuan City has been improved. Apart from the manual and automatic annual average of PM2.5 concentration and the 8th largest value of O3 concentration within 8 hours, the concentrations of other pollutants all met the air quality standards.
In terms of the works of monitoring and managing the air pollution prevention and control plan, this project checked the execution progress and quality of the air pollution prevention and control plans monthly, according to various assessment indicators. The checking results of all plans were also summarized and presented to EPA to put forward the improvement programs. In order to establish the project’s overall control directions, the following activities would be additionally conducted during the period of the project to enhance the working performances and execution qualities of every project: one education and training meeting about the comprehensive prevention and control of air pollution, one trans-bureau emergency response negotiation meeting, one negotiation meeting about air pollution control, six times of field work supervision and checking, one expert consultation meeting, three internal work review meetings, one symposium about the exchange of air quality district in the north and two air pollution fund committee meeting, one exercise about air pollution control, and three times of control system training meeting.
As for the emergency measures for poor air quality, there were respectively 54 days and 59 days for the poor air quality (AQI>100) in Taoyuan City in 2017 and 2018 according to the statistics, among which the main pollutants for poor air quality are PM2.5 and O3. According to the statistics in 2018, the notices for poor air quality in Taoyuan City and the response measures have been implemented for 69 times; in case of AQI>100 and AQI>150, the EPA informed the manufacturers to reduce the emission amount and carry out the inspection work independently. In regard to the execution effectiveness and strategy making related to air quality improvement, the data was collected monthly from automatic monitoring stations of EPA and air quality monitoring stations set by Taoyuan City on its own to conduct the analysis and the special report about the air quality analysis was proposed each quarter to deeply discuss the regional pollution problems in this city.
As for the air pollution monitoring evaluation or investigating works, the works were conducted respectively in acid rain, Taoyuan refinery plant and miniature monitoring stations. In the part of acid rain, the rainfall event database was established through meteorological information, the data of air quality monitoring stations and the rainfall’s chemical analysis results. Based on the work results of this analysis, the acid rain in this city was indeed, to some degree, affected by the foreign pollutants. In the future, the rainfall event records made by this project could be used in the early-warning operations when the rainfall might be affected by foreign pollutants. The concentrations of NO3- and nss-SO42- , which were the primary acidic ions in the rainwater, were highly correlated to the concentrations of aerosols, which showed that the rainwater’s pollution degree was related closely to the air quality. In Taoyuan refinery plant, an automatic sampling method was used to establish a system for rapidly analyzing VOC. In order to explore the source of pollutants in the plant. A total of 56 point locations have been integrated in the miniature monitoring stations and the functions of cloud platform system would be further designed. In order to subsequently make an effective use of the pollutant concentrations exported by miniature monitoring stations, the concentration diffusion diagram would be upload to the cloud platform to continuously promote the platform update.
In terms of media advocacy, the mass media was used for advocacy to make the public timely master and understand that EPA devotes to various kinds of prevention and control works to create a clean and comfortable environment. At the same time, the news release and advocacy manuscript have been respectively published on the website of EPA for 2 times and 14 times to help with the integration of media’s active report results, with a total of 16 editions. The advocacy work will be continuously executed in the future to publicize the air pollution prevention and control effectiveness in Taoyuan City by means of newspapers and broadcast to make the public know clearly about the air pollution prevention and control works of the EPA and build the public consensus, so that all the people could engage in the works of environmental protection. Besides, a joint award ceremony for air pollution control and excellent manufacturers has been held on April 15, 2019. To commend the excellent vendors who promoted air pollution prevention and production to reduce air pollutants and improved air quality. By awards ceremony, it was expected that more vendors would strive for the honor in the future.
