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Lesson 1 - Emissions Inventory Overview

1.3 - How much work will it take to complete an EI?

How much work will it take to complete an EI?
The amount of effort needed to complete an EI depends on the level of accuracy a tribe wants to achieve. The level of accuracy needed is determined by what the EI will be used for and how much effort is available to complete the EI.

Level 1 EI - Supports enforcement, compliance or litigation. This level requires the most effort. Data collected must be as accurate and precise as possible.
Tribal Example: A waste incinerator has been operating on the reservation since 1972, taking advantage of the fact that the state did not permit sources located on the reservation. The Tribe has now started an air program and plans to permit this source itself. The Tribe plans to require that the incinerator install pollution control devices.

Level 2 EI - Supports strategic decision making
Tribal Example: The tribe has about 20 natural gas wells located on their reservation. A gas company wants to drill another 50 wells on the reservation in the next two years. The tribe wants to know how much pollution is being released from the existing wells. They also want to estimate how much additional pollution would be released if the 50 new wells are drilled and if they want to require that the new wells have pollution control devices.

Level 3 EI - General assessment and research
Tribal Example: The tribe does not have any major sources of air pollution on their reservation. A brown haze is often observed over the reservation and people in one community complain about excessive dust. The tribe wants to determine where the brown haze and dust are coming from and whether or not it can be controlled. The tribe would like to have some data to support their funding request to install ambient air monitors on their reservation.

Level 4 EI - Inventory compiled entirely from previously published data or other inventories.
Tribal Example: The tribe has a very small reservation with no significant sources of pollution on it, but they are concerned about their air quality.

Once you have decided what Level of EI you need to do, the amount of effort needed to complete the EI will depend on:

• How many sources you have on your reservation that you want to include in the EI,
• How complicated your data collection effort needs to be, and
• How big your reservation is.

Through this web course, you will learn how to use TEISS to figure out what data you need to collect. That information will help you estimate how long it will take you to collect that data. If you need to do only a Level 4 EI, TEISS can easily import existing data and organize it into tables and graphs that can show you want the biggest polluters in your area are. Using that information, you could write a summary report that would constitute your Level 4 EI. This operation could be done in under a week for most reservations. For a Level 4 EI, the more off-reservation sources you include, the more time you will need to summarize the information. Therefore, a Level 4 EI for a reservation near an urban or industrial area would take significantly longer than a Level 4 EI for a reservation in a rural area.

TURN IN 1c.: What level of EI do you want to do on your reservation and why?

End of Lesson 1.3

Lesson 1.2

Lesson 1.4