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The WIAC will provide the analyses it collected to U.S. EPA for use in developing new AP -42 <br />values. Since it is recognized that this process will require time, it is recommended that the U.S. <br />EPA make the results contained in this report available on its Internet site as an interim reference. <br />Report Objectives <br />This report documents actual landfill gas concentrations for compounds of concern using a <br />national database derived from laboratory analyses employing U.S. EPA standard methods. <br />Herein we establish that differences between the data presented in this report and the current AP - <br />42 default values warrant their full-scale review by U.S. EPA. WIAC believes that the data <br />presented here far better represent current conditions for many compounds and that such a review <br />is well warranted. <br />Procedures and Results <br />AP -42 data management procedures were applied to the portion of the WIAC data set having AP - <br />42 default values. The data management procedures address, for example, data screening, air <br />dilution, and data averaging methods. The results of these procedures follow. <br />Data Collection and Screening <br />WIAC collected LFG analyses from 75 landfills in sixteen states. This information was processed <br />using U.S. EPA's AP -42 data management procedures. U.S. EPA uses a screening process to <br />remove analytically unacceptable, poorly documented or questionable results .4 A review of the <br />collected data indicated that the sample analyses would likely pass the AP -42 data screening <br />process. The reported samples were normal, untreated LFG derived from typical gas collection <br />systems. The analytical methodologies appeared to be consistent with those accepted by U.S. <br />EPA. <br />The analytical results were corrected for air dilution using fixed gas analyses (specifically, <br />methane and carbon dioxide). Several samples lacked either or both methane and carbon dioxide <br />and were excluded. Additionally, some results appeared to be default values (e.g., 50% methane <br />and 50% carbon dioxide) or were unusually high; these were excluded as well. In all, analyses <br />from 27 landfills were omitted from subsequent evaluations. <br />Data Rating <br />The data for compounds from the remaining 48 landfills were rated from "A" (strongest) to `B" <br />(weakest) using U.S. EPA's rating system. This process largely depends on the number of `good' <br />results (A for 20 and up, B for 10 to 19, C for 6 to 9, D for 3 to 5, E for 1 to 2). U.S. EPA also <br />adjusts the rating for a compound's variability. If the arithmetic standard deviation is twice or <br />greater than EPA's default value, then the rating is decreased by one letter. Table 1 summarizes <br />the WIAC rating results and compares these with U.S. EPA's AP -42 data set for 43 compounds. <br />4 "EMISSION FACTOR DOCUMENTATION FOR AP -42 SECTION 2.4 MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE <br />LANDFILLS REVISED" Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, Office of Air and Radiation, U.S. <br />Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27711, August 1997; see Table <br />4-1 <br />