ANNISTON ARMY DEPOT, Ala. -- Smoke emitted from a stationary source's stack is known as visible emissions.
Have you ever wondered how the Directorate of Risk Management and boiler operators know when a stack is emitting too much smoke? They attend Smoke School.
Smoke School is comprised of a classroom session every three years and visible emission observations in the field every six months.
Also known as Opacity Certification, this school is the formal training necessary to report visible emissions, such as smoke, as required by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Method 9.
Opacity is the ability of an emission to obscure, expressed as a percentage.
Opacity, literally, is the reduction in visibility of an object or background as viewed through the diameter of a plume.
Accuracy, repeatability of the training and possible bias of an individual observer are all concerns in reporting a plume's opacity.
The accuracy of the method, with proper training, has been proven in repeated empirical studies and tested legally.
If you see smoke from a stationary source, please report it to DRK at Ext. 4857 and they will check it out to ensure we are not in violation.
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