Background

Excessive levels of particulate matter in the air adversely affect human health and welfare. Particulate matter smaller than 10 micrometers is regulated as a human health hazard with both 24-hour and average annual limits. Primary particulates in fugitive dust originating from agricultural burning, wind erosion, agricultural operations, agricultural industry, and biological sources are high priority national problems.

Even before open field burning became a traditional agricultural practice, it was practiced by Native Americans. Centuries ago, Indians living on the tall-grass prairie set fires near their villages. They knew that after a fire, nutritious shoots of new grass would appear, and bison would come to graze. Ranchers today still set fire to their grazing lands in the spring. Fire prevents unwanted weeds, shrubs, and trees from crowding out grasses that nourish livestock. Farmers also use fire effectively to remove excess crop residues and control weeds and diseases. However, in some cases, agricultural burning has deleterious effects. Smoke from agricultural burning can cause various visibility and health problems, and loss of organic matter can degrade soil resources.

Wind erosion continues as a national problem. It physically removes from the field the most fertile portion of the soil. Some soil from damaged land enters suspension and becomes part of the atmospheric dust load. Dust obscures visibility and can cause automobile accidents, pollutes the air, fouls machinery, and imperils animal and human health. Blowing soil also fills road and irrigation ditches, buries fences, reduces seedling survival and growth, lowers marketability of vegetable crops, increases susceptibility of plants to diseases, and contributes to transmission of some plant pathogens. Deposition of wind-blown sediments in drainage pathways and on water bodies significantly deteriorates water quality. Wind erosion continues as a threat to environmental quality and agricultural sustainability.

Accomplishing the mission of the Particulate Emissions component of the Air Quality National Program by addressing the goals under the five problem areas will provide a reliable scientific basis for improving fugitive dust prediction, developing site-specific control practices, and assessing damage and environmental impact both on-and off-site. This research will foster sustainable agricultural systems that prevent emission of particulates that harm human health and the environment.

Beneficiaries from this technology include land managers and their consultants, environmental health rule makers and regulators, environmental and global change policy makers, conservation planners, and all who wear clothes, eat food, drink water, and breathe air.

Vision

Sustainable agricultural systems that prevent emission of particulates harmful to human health and the environment

Mission

Develop agricultural technologies and practices that minimize contamination of the air by particulates generated during production and processing of food and fiber and provide science-based technology for sound policy and regulatory decisions.

Table 2. ARS Research Locations Contributing to Component I of the Air Quality National Program-- Particulate Emissions

Component Problem Areas
State	Locations	Agricultural Burning Alternatives	Particulate Emissions from Wind Erosion	Agricultural Operations	Particulate Emissions from Agricultural Industry	Emission & Transport of Airborne Pathogens
CA	Riverside					X
CO	Akron		X
GA	Athens					X
IA	Ames					X
KS	Manhattan	X	X	X
MD	Beltsville					X
ND	Mandan		X
NE	Lincoln					X
NM	Mesilla Park				X
TX	Lubbock		X	X	X	X
TX	Bushland		X		X	X
WA	Pullman	X	X	X		X