For more information about our Air Quality Data Management services & solutions, please contact:

Robin Caputo
VP, Marketing

State Air Quality Management programs have a critical mission—ensure compliance with federal regulations, manage relationships with the regulated community, collect and report data to meet the growing requirements mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency, and support statewide air quality initiatives.

To achieve these goals, states traditionally rely on paper-based, labor-intensive, and time-consuming processes to collect data and meet the disparate needs of their stakeholders: industry facilities, state administrators, policymakers, the EPA, and other air quality organizations and networks. Unfortunately, such systems are slow, expensive, and inflexible, and they hinder the organization’s ability to ensure the integrity of air quality data.

CIBER Streamlines Agency Air Quality Processes

Over the past ten years, CIBER has worked with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Air Quality (PA DEP) to develop various air quality data management solutions. We have developed a strong reputation for designing, developing and implementing software applications of the highest quality and reliability. We also provide application support and maintenance, training and outreach services. Our team members are well respected for their critical subject matter expertise in collecting, reporting and managing air quality data.

The enterprise solutions CIBER has implemented in Pennsylvania fully support a continuum of interrelated business processes and a variety of stakeholders. CIBER’s Environmental Data Management Solutions team has developed a business process framework for air quality data management. We bring this framework, our expertise in IT solutions, and our understanding of the unique needs of air quality programs to each engagement. Our solutions leverage the best technology while focusing on the special requirements of air quality programs.

Our Web-based solution offers 8 tightly integrated solutions to help State Air Quality Programs manage:

CIBER’s work with PA DEP has set the standard for the best approach to implementing air quality data management solutions. The solution can be implemented in whole or in part, and is customizable to each state’s particular needs. An overview of the 8 integrated solutions follows.

Air Quality Permitting Solution

Air quality data management begins with permitting, a process in which regulated entities apply to the state for preconstruction permits and operating permits (such as Title V). The state reviews the applications, generates and issues permits (if applicable), and tracks emissions.

The permitting process can be complex, requiring specific functions and separate business processes for the different types of permits. Often these processes are managed manually, rely on vast amounts of paperwork, and necessitate continual communication to avoid costly misinterpretation of regulations.

CIBER’s Air Quality Permitting Solution simplifies this process. It meets the needs of private industry, while satisfying all state and federal environmental requirements. Our solution supports these tasks:

By streamlining and automating air permitting processes, agencies can realize time and cost savings.

Emissions Fees Solution

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mandates that states levy fees on facilities whose emissions surpass Clean Air Act and Title V program acceptable levels.

CIBER’s Emissions Fees Solution automates the fee calculation and invoicing tasks for:

The program uses a one-rate basis formulated on the consumer price index averaged over the past 3 years. This single per-ton rate is applied to the emissions amount for all pollutants, resulting in two fee amounts: a fee due per pollutant and a total facility fee. Electronic invoices can be sent to the fees processing module of the agency’s ERP system or environmental enterprise system.

Emissions Inventory Solution

State Air Quality Program Managers have a challenging task—they must define and maintain data specifications for the regulated community, manage the data collection process, assess the data, and prepare reports for the EPA and other regional air networks. These tasks place a large administrative burden on the state and, to some extent, on the regulated facilities.

CIBER’s Emissions Inventory Solution offers an efficient way to collect and review emissions inventory data, communicate and remediate data quality issues, and report data to the EPA’s National Emissions Inventory (NEI).

Our web-based solution is 100% compliant with the Cross-Media Electronic Reporting Rule (CROMERR), offers secure registration, login, and application processes, provides on-line and XML data submission capabilities, offers notes and e-mail correspondence capabilities, and features various levels of data validation and quality assurance.

Agencies that implement our Emissions Inventory Solution can realize these benefits:

Quality Assurance/Management Reporting Solution

Air Quality Program Managers regularly assess the quality of emissions data reported by industry, and provide specialized information in support of management activities, federal requirements, and public needs.

CIBER’s Quality Assurance/Management Reporting Solution automatically generates comparison reports when a facility user submits the Emissions Data Report. The reports compare the submitted data against the same data reported for previous years. Anomalies in the data are highlighted, so the Program Manager can easily identify and address data integrity issues, improving data quality and accelerating the data review process.

Our solution also provides a suite of standard management reports and ad hoc query capabilities. These can assist Air Quality Program staff with analysis of the air emissions data as it is stored in its “raw” state in the production database; these features also track potential data trends across reporting years.

Air Quality Compliance and Enforcement Solution

Air Quality staff are also responsible for reviewing compliance data, such as inspections, violations, and enforcement actions, and submitting this information monthly to the EPA’s Aerometric Information Retrieval System (AIRS). Managing inspections and preparing reports adds another element of administration that state agencies can barely afford given tight budgets.

CIBER’s Air Quality Compliance and Enforcement Solution works with the compliance tracking and reporting components of an environmental enterprise system to simplify the management of inspections and enforcement. The solution supports full compliance inspections, routine and partial inspections, visible emission observations, complaint inspections, and permit inspections.

CIBER’s solution offers numerous features to help your agency manage its resources while meeting state and federal requirements. Users can:

Air Quality Network Data Exchange Solution

Emissions data is critical to decision-support and policy-making activities. Getting data in a timely fashion to the numerous stakeholders—government entities, regional air quality partnerships, universities, scientific organizations, management consortiums, consulting firms, and the general public—is a challenge.

CIBER’s Air Quality Network Data Exchange Solution enables state agencies to easily and quickly generate emissions data files that can be submitted to stakeholders and partner organizations in the standard NEI input format (i.e., NIF), or in a custom format to meet an organization’s specific needs.

Continuous Emissions Monitoring Solution

CIBER offers a web-based Continuous Emissions Monitoring Solution. This solution enables industry facilities and state agencies to efficiently manage these processes:

EPA / NEI Reporting Solution

CIBER’s EPA/NEI Reporting Solution supports the preparation of National Input Format (NIF)-compliant data. The solution provides Air Quality Program staff with a web application to compile, QA, and electronically report point source emissions data to the EPA. The inventory data can be generated in either the NEI Input Format (NIF) flat file format or the NEI XML schema. Data submission is also flexible, using either the State Exchange Network Node or other ad hoc data transport mechanisms (e-mail, physical media, Internet upload, etc.).

CIBER’s vision enables the successful management of Air Quality Programs with information technology solutions. This is what sets us apart from other IT solution vendors and environmental engineering firms. Other vendors have ‘retrofitted’ technical solutions to meet EPA requirements or focused on environmental science, but those software solutions offer little functionality to the state or facility user.