Air protection in the Czech Republic

Air protection in the Czech Republic is regulated by the following legislation: The Act No. 86/2002 Coll.of 14 th February 2002 on air protection and changes to some other laws (The Air Protection Act) including later amendments. Government Decree No.350/2002 Coll. which stipulates ambient air quality standards, terms and ways of monitoring, judgement, assessment and management of the air quality. Government Decree No.351/2002 Coll. which stipulates mandatory emission ceilings for some air pollutants and ways of preparing and implementing emission inventories and emission projections. Government Decree No. 352/2002 Coll. which stipulates emission limits and other conditions for the running of combustion stationary sources of air pollution. Government Decree No. 353/2002 which stipulates emission limits and other conditions for the running of other stationary sources of air pollution. Government Decree No. 354/2002 which stipulates emission limits and other conditions for the incineration of waste Regulation No.355/2002 Coll. of the Ministry of Environment which stipulates emission limits and other conditions for the running of other stationary air-polluting sources that emit volatile organic substances from processes applying organic solvents and from the storage and distribution of petrol. Regulation No.356/2002 Coll. of the Ministry of Environment which specifies the list of pollutants, general emission limits, way of conveying news and information, determination of quantities of emitted pollutants, dark shade of smoke, admissible degree of bad smell irritation, smell intensity, conditions of authorization of persons, demands on keeping operating records of air-polluting sources and conditions of their application. Regulation No. 357/2002 Coll. Of the Ministry of Environment which specifies demands on the quality of fuels in terms of air protection Regulation No. 358/2002 of the Ministry of Environment, which specifies conditions of the ozon layer of the earth.

Sources of air pollution Categorization and classification of sources Mobile sources of air pollution -means of conveyance (road and rail vehicles, vessels, aircraft) -non-road mobile machines (construction machines etc.) -portable tools with combustion engines Stationary sources of air pollution -equipment of combustion processes or other technological air-polluting processes -shafts, quarries and other areas susceptible to overheating, burning or fly ash of air pollutants -areas of work or activities causing air pollution (constructions etc.) -stores and dumps of fuels, raw materials, products, waste etc. Categorization by degree of influence on the air quality or by heat input or output Extremely large – combustion sources of nominal heat input of ≥ 50 MW regardless of output, dangerous waste incineration plants with a capacity of ≥ 10 t of removed waste per day, municipal refuse incineration plants with a capacity of ≥ 3 t /hour, incineration plants for other than dangerous waste or municipal refuse with a capacity of 50 t /day Large - combustion sources of nominal heat output of > 5 to 50 MW and input < 50 MW, other incineration plants not stated in the preceding paragraph Medium - combustion sources of nominal heat output of ≥ 0,2 and ≤ 5 MW Small - combustion sources of nominal heat output < 0,2 MW Categorization by source types Point sources Non-point sources Line sources

Admissible level of air pollution – emission of pollutants The admissible level of air pollution is determined by: Values of emission limits expressed as a mass concentration of the substance in the carrying (outgoing) gas (mg.m -3 ). The emission limits are set in two ways: as specific and general ones. -Specific emission limits are set for denominated (specific) stationary sources, waste incineration plants etc. -General emission limits are set for individual pollutants or their groups. Here, the mass concentrations are related to values of mass flows of emitted substances (g/h). The general emission limit is applied if no specific limit for the given stationery source is set. Admissible opacity of smoke Odour number Admissible level of odour irritation Emission ceiling and reduction aims including time for achievement are specified in national programmes of emission abatement in order to maintain the admissible level of air pollution Determination of pollutant emissions By measuring. The measurement is performed in the following ways: -Continuous measurement concerns extremely large sources of nominal heat output of ≥ 150 MW for solid pollutants (except for sources exclusively burning natural gas), SO 2, NO x, CO. It also concerns waste incineration plants and NO x, CO, solid pollutants (SP), total organic carbon (TOC), anorganic chlorine compounds in gaseous phase expressed as HCl, anorganic fluorine compounds in gaseous phase expressed as HF. -Single measurement at prescribed dates for a set range of pollutants; heavy metals, dioxines and furanes are measured in waste incineration plants By computation on the basis of factors and data about the quantity of burned fuel per time unit, about the traffic intensity etc.

Admissible level of air pollution - imissions The admissible level of air pollution is determined by: Ambient air quality standards expressed as mass concentration of the pollutant in free air (  g.m-3) together with specification of the admissible yearly frequency of excesses. For an aggregate of pollutants (including PAH) the limits are defined as: -arithmetic mean / 1 hour -arithmetic mean / 24 hours -arithmetic mean / calendar year -arithmetic mean / winter season -maximum daily 8-hour moving average (for CO only) Limit of tolerance characterizes the degree of exceeding the air pollution limit which can be tolerated within a limited time period (the period of running abatement is specified along with the deadline for achieving the zero value) Target air pollution limits – for the tropospheric ozone Long-term air pollution goals – for the tropospheric ozone Deposition limits (g.m -2 / year). The limitation characteristic are differentiated for the health protection of people and the protection of ecosystems respectively, including the specification of dates by which they have to be reached. Reaching of the air pollution limits is realized by means of pollution abatement schemes National air pollution abatement schemes are worked out by the Ministry of Environment in cooperation with relevant central administration authorities, declared by government decrees and updated after every 5 years Regional air pollution abatement schemes are worked out by the regional body and have to be in conformity with the national schemes ; they are basic documents for the performance of public administration on regional and local levels Local air pollution abatement schemes can be worked out by a municipal body and have to conform with the regional and national schemes; they are basic documents for the performance of public administration on the local level

Determination of pollutant concentrations – i.e determination of the air pollution level Continuous measurement (automated air pollution monitoring) is performed on the whole territory of the Czech Republic and is complemented by manual measuring (ensured by the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute - CHMI, a legal entity authorized by the Ministry of Environment). Continuous measurement is primarily applied to gaseous substances with a set ambient air quality standard (PM10, SO2, NO2, NOx, CO, benzene etc.), at some stations e.g. heavy metals (Pb, Cd etc.) in dust. The measured data are integrated into the form of average characteristics compared with the limits, furthermore maximum values measured per day, month and year, as well as other statistical parameters are also measured. Single measurements are also performed. They concern for example concentrations of specific pollutants from a new source, lasting several days. Air pollution modeling is performed based on the reference methods (officially authorized methods by Ministry of Environment).

The reference methods of air pollution modeling in CR are based on the Gaussian steady-state dispersion model of the smoke plume The basic Gaussian diffusion equations assumes that  atmospheric stability and all other meteorological parameters are uniform and constant throughout the layer into which the pollutants is discharged, and in particular that wind speed and direction are uniform and constant in the domain;  turbulent diffusion is a random activity and therefor the dilution of the pollutant can be described in both horizontal and vertical directions by the Gaussian or normal distribution;  the pollutant is released at a height above the ground that is given by the physical stack height and the rise of the plume due to its momentum and buoyancy (together forming the effective stack height);  the degree of dilution is inversely proportional to the wind speed;  pollutant material reaching the ground level is reflected back into the atmosphere;  the pollutant is conservative, i.e., not undergoing any chemical reactions, transformation or decay.  c*(x, y, z) is the pollutant concentration at point ( x, y, z );  u is the wind speed (in the x "downwind" direction, m/s);  represents the standard deviation of the concentration in the x and y or z direction, i.e., in the wind direction and crosswind, in meters;  Q is the emission strength (g/s);  h is the effective stack height (see below);