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<br />Daub & Associates, Inc. Page 3-14 2015 NS Mine Plan Modification <br />1/5/2016 Section 3 General Site Conditions <br />3.6.2. Regional Air Quality of the Piceance Creek Basin <br />The Piceance Creek Basin, an undeveloped region and is typical of large portions of <br />the western United States. Human activities in most parts of the Basin have been <br />limited to recreational, agricultural and, in more recent years, energy resource <br />development such as oil, natural gas development, oil shale production and oil shale <br />RD&D. As a result, the air quality of the Basin has been historically characterized by <br />ambient pollutant levels near or below the lower limit of detection of most monitoring <br />systems. Exceptions to this general pattern occur most frequently for total <br />suspended particulates (TSP), ozone (O3), and carbon monoxide (CO) in the vicinity <br />of local population centers, rather than in the surrounding rural areas. It should be <br />noted, however, that at some remote sites, elevated levels of ozone have been <br />encountered under certain meteorological conditions. <br />The ambient levels of sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and the above- <br />mentioned pollutants can be characterized as follows. <br />Sulfur Dioxide <br />The annual average for SO2 ranges from 0.3 to 3.0 μg/m3, while 24-hour averages <br />run from a low of 50 to a high of 130 μg/m3. These levels appear valid for both the <br />remote sites as well as the more urban areas within the Basin. As can be seen from <br />Table 3-2, these levels are well below both the federal and state air quality <br />standards.