Battelle's Expertise Supports
Military Readiness

As our armed forces strive to achieve higher levels of readiness during a period of potential conflict, regulators and communities near military installations are concerned about the environmental impacts of military activities. Base expansions to support additional personnel or equipment, increased training activities related to new mission objectives, and assessments of environmental impacts from existing or new weapon systems are among the issues. Traditionally, the military planning cycle did not include consideration of environmental impacts. This sometimes resulted in substantial delays, when interested parties sought information on the nature of the impacts just as a project was scheduled to begin.

Battelle has used its innovative environmental modeling techniques to evaluate several important military readiness and sustainability projects over the past several months. Considering the environmental implications of projects during their early phases can help military commands achieve adequate readiness while ensuring that environmental consequences are minimized. Recently, the U.S. Army asked Battelle to help prepare the air quality portion of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for four training areas in Alaska, which encompass thousands of square kilometers of open ranges, unpaved roads, targets, and other facilities. Routine training produces air pollutant emissions in the form of fugitive particulates, vehicle exhaust, and trace elements from munitions use. Battelle scientists estimated the quantity of particulate emissions from training activities in each area and determined the impact of these emissions on surrounding air quality. They also assessed whether military activities would adversely impact nearby national parks, including Denali National Park, where Mt. McKinley is located.

Use of a new Stryker vehicle, which is part of the Army's transformation of itself in the field, impacts ambient air quality. Personnel need extensive training to use the vehicles effectively, including mock, partial, and actual troop deployments. These maneuvers add emissions and create fugitive dust in the area. Fugitive emissions associated with travel to and from the training sites were also evaluated.

Battelle addressed the specific issues required by the EIS and used Army estimates of maneuver impact miles (MIMs) to calculate particulate emissions on unpaved roads from each class of training vehicle. These emissions were modeled as area sources, using the Industrial Source Complex Short Term model, which is the regulatory model that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) currently uses for a variety of air permitting applications. The impact of emissions on visibility at national parks was also assessed.

Our scientists are also assisting several military installations during expansion projects, which now typically require an environmental modeling component to demonstrate that the projects comply with regulatory requirements. At Eareckson Air Station in the Aleutian Island chain, for example, Battelle has developed the inputs for an air quality dispersion model that simulates air pollutant releases from more than 250 different stationary sources during five different operating conditions. The large number of inputs allows complete characterization of potential air quality impacts from improvements that have been made to the Air Station over the last 20 years and from those proposed for the future. With detailed accounting of construction activity on the island, Battelle demonstrated that the operation of air pollutant sources in the past has not caused degradation of air quality on or off the island, and that proposed construction projects can also be implemented without degradation. This accounting required both detailed review of equipment changes over the years and establishment of complex models to study source-receptor relationships for critical periods of activity.

Addressing concerns about the impact of discharges from munitions is another important area in which Battelle supports military readiness. Our scientists are carrying out a multi-phase research project designed to report emissions from training ranges under EPA's Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), using advanced testing and modeling techniques to understand the release and transport of toxic chemicals emitted during military testing and training activities. Both point-of-discharge and point-of-impact evaluations are being made. In addition to estimating the mechanisms and rates of toxic chemical releases from a range of munitions, Battelle is using carbon mass balance, chemical tracer, and three-dimensional photogrammetry techniques to account for plume dilution of the emissions as the emission cloud expands and moves downwind. These techniques assist in modeling transport of pollutants from both impact and firing areas. Eventually, the results of these model evaluations will be combined with chemical measurements to derive emission factors for a variety of weapons, and Battelle will apply those factors to determine emissions for a broad range of DOD training activities.

For more information, contact Joe Carvitti at (614) 424-4843, carvittij@battelle.org.