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Lesson 7 - National Emission Inventory and other sources of existing EI information Overview

7.2 - Importing data for your area from the NEI

As of March 2006, EPA stopped posting the NEI data in the format that TEISS can import. ITEP is working with Lakes, the TEISS developer, to modify TEISS so that it can import the new file format being supplied by EPA. Until this issue is resolved, please contact any of the following people at ITEP to get the NEI data for your area that can be imported into TEISS.

Sarah Kelly, Sarah.Kelly@nau.edu, (928) 523-6377
Jenifer Pond, Jenifer.Pond@nau.edu, (480) 985-9570
Angelique Luedeker, Angelique.Luedeker@nau.edu, (928) 523-5037

Notes about NEI files:

The FTP sites may have four data containing folders:

1. CAP annual: Criteria Air Pollutants, annual facility emissions
   
   
2. CAP nonannual: Criteria Air Pollutants, seasonal/daily/hourly emission estimates
   
   
3. HAP annual: Hazardous Air Pollutants, annual facility emissions
   
   
4. HAP CAP annual: Hazardous and Criteria Air Pollutants Combined.
   
   

• Facilities report as either CAP, HAP, or HAPCAP, so each category may contain different facilities.
  
  
• Non annual emissions can also be temporary sources, i.e.: asphalt batch plants set for highway construction projects.
  
  

Choosing one of the folders will produce a long list of downloadable *.zip files with filenames similar to this: AZ2002NEIPTCAP_A_022005DRAFT.zip

NIF File Naming Conventions
How to translate the file name: (AZ) (2002) (NEI) (PT) (CAP) _ (A) _ (022005DRAFT). (zip)

• AZ = The state for which the data is from, two digit
  
  
• 2002 = Data reporting year
  
  
• NEI = National Emissions Inventory data
  
  
• PT = Point source file
  
  
• CAP = Criteria Air Pollutant
  
  
• A = Annual emissions, an N stands for NonAnnual
  
  
• 022005DRAFT = Draft data released in February 2005
  
  
• .zip = compressed file format, you will need some unzip utility to make the file accessible for use (Windows XP has unzipping functionality built in now - for most file types)
  
  

TEISS Exercise: Obtain the point, non-point (area), non-road mobile and on-road mobile files for your state from ITEP.

!!Note: These files can be large, therefore the download may take some time.

Step 2: When you have finished downloading the files you want, open the folder on your computer where you saved them. Use a zip utility program to unzip the file or files you downloaded and save them to the same folder. When the file is unzipped, you will have an Access file with the same name. Do not open the Access file using Access, just leave it there in your folder and launch TEISS.

Step 3: After launching TEISS, open your project. Go to the NIF menu and select Import from NIF.

The Import NIF window will open. You will see tabs for each source type, plus an additional tab labeled Fire which will be discussed later in the course. For each source type that you imported, click on that tab then check the box next to Import NEI Point (or Area, or Non-Road, etc) sources. After you have checked that box, you can use the file browse button to select the Access file that you downloaded from the NEI website.

!!Note: These files, especially the on-road and non-road mobile source files, can take a long time to import into TEISS. California's point and area source files can also take a very long time to import. You may want to do these imports at a time when you can give yourself a break from working on this project for half an hour to an hour. Your computer will also be very slow if you try to use it for other tasks during the imports, you may want to give it a break too.

Once the file is selected, a list of county names will appear in the window below. If a county is missing from this list, it means that the NEI does not contain any data about sources of that type in that county. In the Import Options box, click the radio button next to Selected Locations. When that radio button is filled in, you can go through the list of counties and check just the ones that surround your reservation. Remember that the more counties you select, the longer the import will take. We recommend only downloading those counties that you believe may have an effect on your reservation.

Repeat this operation for each source type file you downloaded from the EPA website. Once you have all the source types completed, click the Import button.



When TEISS is done importing the NEI data it will return to the map interface. If you imported point sources, they will show up as small blue squares surrounded by hatched boxes on your map.

You will get this error message if you specify an Area Source NIF File instead of a Point Source NIF file when trying to import a point source file. Check the NIF file naming conventions to be sure you have the right Access file for the source type you want to import.

» Known Import Problems: MS Access files (*mdb) are read only or have restricted permissions:

If you get this error, you will need to turn off the "read only" check box in the properties of this file. To do this, use Window Explorer to browse to the file and click on it once to highlight it. Once it is highlighted, right click on it which will bring up a small menu. Select and click on "Properties". You will then see the following window. Uncheck the read only box, then click Apply, then click OK.

End of Lesson 7.2

Lesson 7.1

Lesson 7.3