Opens: December 6, 2024
Closes: February 14, 2025
The Utah Division of Air Quality (UDAQ) is seeking proposals for air quality research projects that help achieve UDAQ’s goals and priorities for the upcoming 2026 fiscal year (FY). See the following section for a description of 2026 FY goals and priorities. Coinciding with this announcement, UDAQ expects to award nearly $500,000 in State funding. UDAQ anticipates awarding any number of grants from this announcement, subject to the availability of funds, the quality of proposals received, and other applicable considerations. Applicants are limited to three proposal submissions per funding cycle.
Fiscal Year 2026 Goals and Priorities
The purpose of this funding opportunity is to obtain data and information that improves or/and informs DAQ’s policy, rulemaking, State Implementation Plan (SIP) modeling efforts, and/or emerging areas of concern. One focus of our agency is summertime ozone pollution in the Northern Wasatch Front. Results that can be readily applied to our work are appreciated. A link to our recently developed Moderate Area Ozone SIP is provided below:
Additional air quality concerns relevant DAQ are listed in the following goals and priorities.
To be considered for funding under this RFP, each project proposal must address at least one of the following topics:
1. Summertime Ozone Chemistry and Sources
The Wasatch Front often experiences exceedances of the national ambient air quality standard for ozone during the summer. Regulating locally-formed ozone to reach attainment is complicated by the fact that ozone has a mix of different sources and its formation can be limited by NOx, VOCs or both. To help establish control strategies, more measurements and photochemical modeling is needed to identify and characterize summertime ozone formation. The following topics are directly relevant for UDAQ modeling and policy goals:
- Measurement and/or modeling of: biogenic VOCs (2-methyl-3-buten-2-ol (MBO), formaldehyde, isoprene, terpenes, etc.), soil NOx, oxygenated VOCs.
- Measurement and/or modeling of O3-NOx-VOC sensitivity
- Utah-specific validation of remote sensing/satellite products
- Assessment of factors contributing to increasing monitored ozone and model uncertainty, including topics like: changes in population, hotter and drier summers, changes in ozone chemical regimes, and “background” (international/regional) ozone and ozone precursors.
- Simplified machine-learning or box models to assess changing chemical regimes using recent observations. Ideally, simplified models will easily adapt to various emission scenarios to aid in rulemaking development.
2. Emissions Inventory Improvements
Recent studies along the Wasatch Front highlight discrepancies between inventory estimates and measurements of several key precursors to the formation of ozone and PM2.5. These include carbonyls, hydrocarbons, alcohols, halogens and ammonia, among others. Reconciling differences between inventory estimates and observations is needed for improved modeling of ozone and PM2.5. Improved representation of emission sources and their estimated activity, spatio-temporal distribution and chemical speciation is particularly needed. For the Wasatch Front, this entails a better characterization of:
- Source-specific emission rates estimates for VOCs/volatile chemical products (VCPs)
- Composition of emissions and emission rates from tank farms at Wasatch Front refineries
- Emission factors, activity and spatial allocation of major ammonia sources, including animal husbandry, landfills, composting facilities, livestock and agriculture
- Emission rates and emission spatial allocation for long-haul and short haul trucks
- Emission rates for halogens and biogenics from the Great Salt Lake
- Estimation of prevalence of electric lawn & garden equipment by county
- Magnitude and composition of PM emissions associated with tire and brake wear from electric vehicles and heavy duty vehicles
- Wildfire emission inventory improvements, applicable to multiple years (especially UDAQ’s 2017 modeling base year)
3. Meteorology-Chemistry Coupling
Air mass exchanges are important meteorological processes affecting the transport and formation of air pollutants. Measurements and models to better characterize the complex meteorological features, chemical mechanisms and physical processes associated with wintertime and summertime air pollution episodes are needed.
- Vertical oxidants exchange
- Canyon, slope and valley flows
- Snow and cloud cover representation
- Lake breeze and its impact on boundary layer evolution and pollutant transport
- Top-down turbulent erosion, PCAPS inversion depth and strength
- Snow surface chemistry
- Improvement to regional boundary conditions from global models
4. Great Salt Lake Dust
Reduced levels of the Great Salt Lake increases the exposure of contaminant-containing sediments which could impact public health and regional levels of particulate matter. This evolving PM source is commingled with historic natural and anthropogenic dust sources, such as Lake Seiver and Bonneville dry lakes, quarries, and mine tailings. Better understanding of local dust source regions, source compositions, how sources change over time, and what populated areas are most impacted is critical for improved monitoring and planning.
- Dust event modeling
- Composition measurements
- Analysis of historic trends and/or future scenarios
- Community impact assessments
5. Uinta Basin
Wintertime ozone formation in the Uinta Basin remains a concern. Oil and gas production in the Uinta Basin has evolved greatly since the early 2010’s. Modeling and measurements of important emission sources require updates to reflect this new regime.
- Uinta Basin emissions inventory improvements:
- Characterization of fugitive and missing emission sources (e.g. gathering pipelines, pigging, produced water tank emissions, solvents)
- NOx emissions associated with short and long-haul trucking, drilling, and engines
- Parameterization of super-emitters, incidents, and leaks not currently in the inventory
- Photochemical and/or wintertime inversion meteorological modeling improvements
- Measurement and/or modeling of O3-NOx-VOC sensitivity during peak ozone events in the wintertime
- Top-down measurement of basin-wide emissions
Submission Instructions
Please download and review the RFP document for eligibility and conditions:
Proposals must comply with the proposal submission instructions and content requirements set forth in this RFP or else they will not be reviewed. In addition, proposals must be submitted via email to [email protected] on or before the proposal submission deadline. Applicants are responsible for following the submission instructions of this announcement to ensure that their proposal is timely submitted.
To submit proposals, send your complete proposal application package via email to [email protected]. The subject heading should include the project title and the applicant (organization) name, and FY2026. Proposals submitted after the submission deadline will be considered late and deemed ineligible without further consideration unless the applicant can clearly demonstrate that it was late due to UDAQ mishandling or because of technical problems associated with the state email system used for submission. Applicants affiliated with Universities must submit their proposals through their sponsored projects/research office.
Contact Information
Please contact Chris Pennell ([email protected]) for questions relating to this RFP.