U.S Environmental Protection Agency: Region 6 Pathways Intern

July 2021 - September 2021

Working at the US Environmental Protection Agency was influential in solidifying my decision to pursue a career in water because, although it was focused around upholding the clean air act, it showed me firsthand how being environmentally responsible can impact people directly. I spent most of my time at the EPA working with the New Mexico state coordinator to prepare for a rule change regarding the state’s standards for ambient air quality. New Mexico’s environmental regulators looked to develop new state rules to limit air pollution emissions from the oil and gas industry in the Permian basin because the laws were essentially enabling ground level ozone to exceed EPA standards. I assisted my coworkers by organizing and summarizing hundreds of documents so that they could be prepared at these legislative hearings. There are over two million people that live in the Permian Basin and since the hearing New Mexico and the EPA have proceeded to investigate whether this area should be deemed non-attainment. Ultimately, my assistance on this project may help millions of people breathe cleaner air!

• Assisted in one or more projects with a focus on permitting, such as the evaluation of minor source permitting in New Mexico and assisted other staff in data organization and trends analysis to respond to a petition.

• Provided timely and reliable assistance in completing assigned work related to regulatory and technical permitting program evaluation for the state of New Mexico, and other assigned research based for other region 6 states, as directed by change work priorities under section chief leadership.

• Historical EPA National Air Quality Training Project – Professional Training Guide

  • Knowledge and skills gained from the training:

    • Air pollution control, pollution control foundations, ambient monitoring, QA/QC, & data analysis, emissions estimation and inventory development, modelling, forecasting, planning/regulation development, permitting, inspection and enforcement, air toxics/HAPS, stationary sources, source sampling and monitoring, mobile sources, and climate change.

      • Finished the following classes:

        • Intro to NAAQS (SI-BASC110)

        • Air Toxics / Hazardous Air Pollutants

        • Air Pollution Control Orientation Course (SI 422)

        • Introduction to Air Quality Management (SI 105)

        • Into to Air Permitting (SI-460)

        • Setting Enforceable PTE Limits in NSR Permits (SI-NSR201)

        • Intro to NAAQS Implementation (SI-BASC11a)

        • Risk Based Air Toxics (SI-401)

        • Air Modeling, Use and Fundamentals for Permitting

• Assisted the Texas State Coordinator in noting public concerns on various permits regarding air permits.

• Negotiated the region 6 Air permitting team's license acquisition of the software BREEZE TankESP Pro

• Organized information from various permit documents related to a hearing where the EPA state oversight coordinator was forced to re-evaluate New Mexico’s minor source permit program. Counties in the Permian basin are exceeding NAAQS for ozone due to the surge of oil and gas facilities in the region. The minor NSR program does not require modelling for ozone, despite their being an exceedance federally acceptable ozone level. Therefore, their permitting program is not protective of the NAAQS and the EPA must intervene. I supported the NM State Coordinator with the creation of a database (in Microsoft Lists) for various hearing documents, summarized information, and provided meta comments for minor NSR related documents.