AMES, Iowa — The Egg Industry Center at Iowa State University has released a new report to help the U.S. egg industry understand the science behind the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed emission models.
The Egg Industry Center (EIC) assembled a group of scientists to subject the August 2021 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) draft laying hen facility emission models for ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and dust to a series of “stress tests” to gauge how inputs would impact estimated annual emission factors at 12 different locations nationwide.
“It is gratifying to know that EPA is soliciting additional scientific input and is willing to listen to our concerns as they seek scientifically robust solutions,” said Richard S. Gates, director of the Egg Industry Center.
EIC has provided a technical summary of the report for the industry’s ease of understanding. The EIC report suggests taking a simpler approach to modeling emissions by developing emission factors from the underlying dataset EPA used to create the models.
Armed with the technical summary and the report itself, the industry can use this information to develop scientifically solid comments on EPA’s process of emission model development.
“EIC’s goal is to add value to the egg industry by providing a scientific voice on issues when necessary. The comment opportunity provided by EPA for these draft emission models offered a good example for us to do just that,” Gates said.
The egg industry scientists have submitted a manuscript with their findings to the Journal of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers. When reviewed and published in the upcoming months, this will ensure their work is peer-reviewed and guarantees a level of scientific rigor for the process they used to evaluate the draft models.
EIC will convene industry experts to talk about egg industry-related air emissions and other pertinent topics related to sustainability at its annual Egg Industry Issues Forum on November 8-9, 2022.
The Egg Industry Center is located at Iowa State University and conducts and funds research throughout North America. The center has infused 14 universities with several million dollars to help provide scientific information and solutions to the egg industry. For more information about EIC, or the Egg Forum, go to www.eggindustrycenter.org.