This project was carried out from July 2, 2019 to December 31, 2019. 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. On the other hand, this project also assist in compiling and implementing the air pollution prevention plan of Taoyuan City in accordance with the EPA policy.
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 2010 to 2019, 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 2019, 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, three times of field work supervision and checking, one expert consultation meeting, two internal work review meetings, one symposium about the exchange of air quality district in the north and one air pollution fund committee meeting, and one exercise about air pollution control.
As for the emergency measures for poor air quality, there were respectively 59 days and 38 days for the poor air quality (AQI>100) in Taoyuan City in 2018 and 2019 according to the statistics, among which the main pollutants for poor air quality are PM2.5 and O3. According to the statistics in the period of project in 2019, the notices for poor air quality in Taoyuan City and the response measures have been implemented for 13 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. In addition, according to the contents of the briefing of the “Environmental and Air Pollution Prevention Plan System Seminar” conducted by the EPA on September 30, 2019 and the reference standards for TEDS 10.0, the project completed and submitted the first draft of the new version of the air quality control plan.
As for the air pollution monitoring evaluation or investigating works, the works were conducted respectively in acid rain and Guanyin Industrial Zone. 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 addition, for the main industrial area emission sources in the Guanyin area, the air pollution diffusion model (ISCST3) was used for simulation. The results of each pollutant simulation showed that it had a limited load on air pollution in the whole Guanyin area and was lower than the current air quality standards. The results of future policy simulations show that TSP and SO2 can be effectively reduced in terms of the coal ban. Although the new units of the Datan Power Plant will increase the concentration of TSP pollutants, when both policies are implemented at the same time, the overall TSP and SO2 pollution concentrations are decreased. The NO2 pollution caused by the new unit of the Datan Power Plant caused a considerable increase. The coal ban also has no significant effect on the improvement of NO2. Therefore, although the two policies are implemented in parallel, although the NO2 pollution concentration does not exceed the regulatory standards, there is still a certain amount of deterioration.
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 integration of media’s active report results with a total of 22 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, the project is to conduct an air pollution control business seminar on November 12, 2019. It is hoped that experts will provide opinions and suggestions on various work progress and results to reach a consensus on the implementation of related business; During the deteriorating season, an exercise about air pollution control was conducted on October 31, 2019. The purpose of the exercise was to familiarize the response units with the operations when the "Air Quality Control Command Center" was established. The process and operation mode should be coordinated to improve the city's capacity to deal with air quality deterioration and protect the health of citizens.
