BHUBANESWAR: With the ambient air quality in urban pockets deteriorating gradually, Odisha State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) has decided to commission a new study to detect the source of air pollution and quantify the amount of pollutants/contaminants in air in major cities and towns.The Source Apportionment Study will be carried out in seven urban areas of the State that have been categorised by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) as non-attainment cities for consistently showing poorer air quality than National Ambient Air Quality Standards. They are Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Angul, Talcher, Balasore, Rourkela and Kalinga Nagar in Jajpur district.
The two-year study, for which CPCB has issued Terms of Reference (ToR) to OSPCB, is likely to commence by March 2020 after engagement of research agencies and installation of automatic air quality monitoring and pollution measurement stations.The study will be carried out by OSPCB through consultant agencies under National Clean Air Programme of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
Sources said OSPCB has received Expression of Interest (EoI) from five institutes, including Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay, National Engineering and Energy Research Institute (NEERI) Nagpur, Agharkar Research Institute (ARI) Pune. The project proposals of these institutes will undergo technical and financial evaluation after which the selected institutes will sign a contract with the Board for study. The process may take two to three months after which the study will commence, sources added.So far, Source Apportionment Study has been done in six cities such as Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Pune and Kanpur. Besides, NEERI is carrying the study in Kolkata and Howrah at present.
An OSPCB environmental scientist said the samples to be collected will be analysed using chemical mass balance (CMB) models for identification of ambient air pollution sources and quantification of their contribution to pollution levels.
“The study will help us know the quantity of harmful chemicals released by industry into the air, emission from vehicles, pollution due to construction work, use of biomass, LPG, open drains and other sources and develop action plan accordingly for effective air quality management,” said OSPCB Member Secretary Debidutta Biswal.OSPCB officials said the study is important as the air quality of these urban areas often fail to meet the ambient air quality standards and found to be having level of particulate matter (PM) 10 and PM 2.5 in the air above the standard.