Community Corner

University of Puget Sound Professor To Measure Train Emissions at Chambers Bay

Dan Burgard and a student will stand on the bridge over the railroad at Chambers Creek Properties over the next few weeks and measure emissions with an instrument he devised.

(Editor's note: Here's a great piece of news from the University of Puget Sound, where one of its instructors plans on conducting some unique environmental research at Chambers Creek Properties)

Chemistry Professor Dan Burgard at University of Puget Sound is researching train pollution — a significant contributor to air pollution, according to the EPA) — in a manner that we believe is not done elsewhere.

Over the next few weeks, he and a student will be standing on a bridge above a railroad track at Foss Waterway and Chambers Bay, and they will measure emissions from passing trains with a long instrument that he devised.

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Such a technique has not been used before, Burgard says, because the EPA largely asks for and uses “laboratory models,” not current, real-life measurements, to determine how bad emissions are.

Here's why it matters:

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New and rebuilt trains became subject to serious emission laws in 2008, which will be phased to really tough laws in 2015.

But knowing exactly how bad the problem is and whether any of new laws are making a difference is unknown because of a lack of real-life data.

Burgard says his work will hardly shake-up Capitol Hill, but it is contributing to evidence of the polluting effects of trains and helping to prove the need to stick to the 2015 tough laws, regardless of any renewed political opposition.

Burgard has done this roadside and bridge-top measuring in previous years for buses and ships, and collected useful data shared with Metro buses and other researchers.

-Shirley Skeel


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