Released July 3, 2008

The national series of air quality webcasts from U. S. land-grant universities continues Friday, July 18. Purdue University professor Albert Heber and Sally Shaver from the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation will lead the session beginning at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.

The hour-long webcast will feature an update on animal feeding operations reporting requirements, application of the Clean Air Act for animal operations, and recent developments about greenhouse gases and national ambient air quality standards and other topics. Speakers will discuss the National Air Emissions Monitoring Study (NAEMS), a project monitoring air emissions from roughly 20 livestock and poultry facilities as part of the Air Quality Compliance Agreement for Animal Feeding Operations (commonly known as the 'Consent Agreement').

Heber directs Purdue’s Agricultural Air Quality Laboratory. His primary research is the assessment and mitigation of particulate matter, odor and gas emissions from livestock barns and waste storage and treatment facilities. He has conducted other research on science-based separation distance guidelines for U.S. pork and dairy production, testing of odor measurement protocols, pathogen emission and dispersion from swine houses and odor emission from industrial composting operations.

Shaver is the associate counselor for agricultural policy in EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation. She has a master’s in environmental engineering. She was responsible for setting and implementing the national ambient air quality standards for several years before spending eight years in charge of the air toxics program. She has led the U.S. delegation on two international task forces and been a member of the USDA’s Agricultural Air Quality Task Force since its inception.

The virtual meeting room opens 15 minutes before the start time. Go to http://www.extension.org/pages/Live_Webcast_Information to view.

Articles about animal manure management are on the national eXtension Web resource at http://www.extension.org/animal+manure+management.

LPE Learning Center

The seminar is hosted by the Livestock and Poultry Environmental (LPE) Learning Center, part of eXtension. The center advocates that individuals involved in public policy issues, animal production and delivery of technical services for animal producers should have on-demand access to the nation's best science-based resources.

The center has a monthly newsletter. You may subscribe online. All information including twenty archived Webcasts is on http://www.eXtension.org under the resource area animal manure management.

eXtension is an educational partnership helping Americans improve their lives with access to timely, objective, research-based information and educational opportunities. eXtension’s interactive Web site, http://www.extension.org, is customized with links to local Cooperative Extension Web sites. Land-grant colleges were founded on the ideals that higher education should be accessible to all, that colleges should teach liberal and practical subjects and share knowledge with people throughout their states.

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Contacts: Jill Heemstra, University of Nebraska, (402) 748-3909, jheemstra@unl.edu

Lynette Spicer, Iowa State University, (515) 294-1327, lspicer@iastate.edu