I. Fernandez appointed chair of the Secondary NAAQS Review Panel for Oxides of Nitrogen and Sulfur, a panel of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee
Ivan Fernandez, a professor of soil science who studies the biogeochemistry of ecosystems, has been appointed chair of the Secondary NAAQS Review Panel for Oxides of Nitrogen and Sulfur, a panel of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC). He was appointed to CASAC earlier this year. Under the Clean Air Act, EPA is required to carry out a periodic review and revision, as appropriate, of air quality criteria for primary and secondary standards for the six criteria air pollutants, which include sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, ozone, carbon monoxide, lead and particulate pollution. Secondary standards set limits to protect public welfare, including protection against decreased visibility, damage to animals, crops, forests, other vegetation and buildings. An early step in EPA’s new process for revising the secondary NAAQS is to develop a plan for reviewing the science associated with the secondary NAAQS. EPA has requested that CASAC provide advice on EPA’s upcoming Integrated Review Plan for Secondary (welfare-based) NAAQS for Nitrogen Dioxide and Sulfur Dioxide, a process that begins later this fall. Fernandez is in the School of Forest Resources, Climate Change Institute, and the School of Food and Agriculture at the University of Maine.