Contract # 582-14-40056
PGA and Notice to Commence #FY14-01
Task 1.4
QUALITY ASSURANCE PROJECT PLAN (QAPP)
QA Category: III
Repower/Replace Diesel Vehicles in Municipal
Fleets
Prepared for:
Heart of Texas Council of
Governments
1514 South New Road
Waco, TX, 76711
Prepared by:
ENVIRON International Corporation
773 San Marin Drive, Suite 2115
Novato, California, 94998
www.environcorp.com
P-415-899-0700
F-415-899-0707
July 2014
July 2014
CONTENTS
1.0 PROJECT DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVES ........................................................................ 5
1.1 Purpose of Study .............................................................................................................5
1.2 Project Objectives............................................................................................................5
2.0 PROJECT ORGANIZATION AND RESPONSIBILITIES ........................................................... 6
2.1 Responsibilities of Project Participants ...........................................................................6
2.2 Project Organization and Schedule .................................................................................6
3.0 SCIENTIFIC APPROACH ................................................................................................... 8
3.1 Data Collection and Generation Methods ......................................................................8
3.1.1 Vehicle and Engine Data .......................................................................................8
3.1.2 Vehicle Engine Replacement Data ........................................................................8
4.0 QUALITY METRICS .......................................................................................................... 9
4.1 Quality Requirements of Data .........................................................................................9
4.1.1 Vehicle and Engine Data .......................................................................................9
4.1.2 Engine Replacement Feasibility and Cost Data ....................................................9
4.2 Verification and Validation Methods of the Secondary Data .........................................9
5.0 DATA ANALYSIS, INTERPRETATION AND MANAGEMENT .............................................. 10
5.1 Data Reporting Requirements .......................................................................................10
5.2 Data Validation Procedures ...........................................................................................11
5.2.1 Audits of Data Quality .........................................................................................11
5.2.2 Reporting of QA Findings ....................................................................................11
5.3 Data Summary ...............................................................................................................11
5.4 Data Handling and Storage Methods ............................................................................11
6.0 REPORTING .................................................................................................................. 12
7.0 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................ 14
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TABLES
Table 1.
The ENVIRON project participants and their primary responsibilities. ..................6
Table 2.
Summary of project schedule and milestones. .......................................................7
Table 3.
Summary of QC procedures for data collected as part of this project. ..................9
FIGURES
Figure 1.
Project organization. ...............................................................................................7
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July 2014
APPROVAL PAGE
_______________________________________________________
Barry Exum
___________________
Date
Project Manager, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
_______________________________________________________
Quality Assurance Project Plan Officer,
___________________
Date
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
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July 2014
DISTRIBUTION LIST
Barry Exum, Project Manager, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
Quality Assurance Project Plan Officer, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
Heart of Texas Council of Governments Air Quality Advisory Committee
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July 2014
1.0 PROJECT DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVES
ENVIRON has prepared this Level III Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP) for the Texas
Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) following EPA guidelines. The nature of the
technical analysis and tasks to be conducted as part of this project are consistent with quality
assurance (QA) Category III: Data Evaluation or Use for Secondary Purpose. This project
involves data and information that we plan to use but that have not been newly generated by
the project and called “existing data.” The existing data may also be known as “secondary” data
or non-direct measurements.
1.1 Purpose of Study
The Heart of Texas Council of Government’s (HOTCOG’s) ozone modeling indicates that NOx
emissions from on-road vehicle engines in the 6-county HOTCOG area contribute to ozone at
the Waco Mazanec monitor. The purpose of this study is to perform engine repowers and/or
vehicle replacements of HOTCOG area municipal fleets of light-duty, medium- duty and heavyduty diesel vehicles, and to evaluate the resulting NOx emissions reductions in the 6-county
area.
1.2 Project Objectives
There are two principal objectives for this project:
(1) Compile information on HOTCOG area municipal vehicle fleets to identify candidate
engine(s) or vehicle(s), and
(2) Identify candidate vehicles through phone and email outreach to municipal fleet
managers. The objective is to identify individual light-duty, medium- duty and heavyduty diesel vehicles that upon engine or vehicle replacement would provide the most
cost effective NOx emission reductions. The candidate vehicles’ cost effectiveness
depends upon the age of the vehicle, technical feasibility of repowering/replacing, the
current usage of the vehicle, and the cost per vehicle repower or replacement.
(3) Obtain quotes for repower/placement,
(4) Repower or replace the identified vehicle(s)
(5) Document the NOx emissions benefits of the repower or replacement.
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July 2014
2.0 PROJECT ORGANIZATION AND RESPONSIBILITIES
2.1 Responsibilities of Project Participants
This study will be conducted by ENVIRON International Corp. (ENVIRON). The ENVIRON Project
Manager is Chris Lindhjem, who will be assisted by other ENVIRON project managers and staff
as described in Table 1 below.
Table 1.
The ENVIRON project participants and their primary responsibilities.
Participant
Dr. Greg Yarwood
Dr. Chris Lindhjem
Dr. Sue Kemball-Cook
Mr. Jim King
Project Responsibility
Overall review of all documentation, and quality assurance review
Project manager, conducting outreach to municipal fleet managers,
conducting research on engine replacement vendors, overseeing
contracts to install new engines, preparing technical report on the study
Support on outreach to fleet managers and interaction with HOTCOG
staff, oversight of engine replacement contracts, quality assurance
review of testing results, and quality assurance review of
documentation
Support on outreach to fleet managers, support on research of
candidate vehicles, support on vendor feasibility and cost estimates,
and support on preparing the technical report
Additional independent quality assurance reviews will be conducted by the HOTCOG Air Quality
Advisory Committee (AQAC) Technical Committee, who will review the selected engines,
candidate retrofit emission control systems, and findings of the emissions testing. Additionally,
the HOTCOG AQAC Technical Committee and TCEQ staff will participate in the review of the
technical report for the study.
2.2 Project Organization and Schedule
The project is divided into four major tasks: (1) perform project management and quality
assurance, (2) conduct outreach to municipal fleet managers, (3) conduct survey to identify
feasible engine replacement for each candidate vehicle and survey the cost of engine or whole
vehicle replacement, (4) provide a report and rank the most cost effective vehicles to conduct
an engine or vehicle replacement and follow up on engine/vehicle replacement projects funded
during the course of the study. The table below shows the overall schedule for completion of
this project including interim milestones.
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July 2014
Table 2.
Summary of project schedule and milestones.
Deliverable
Task 1: QAPP
Deliverable –QAPP
Task 2: Outreach to Municipal Fleet Managers
Completion Date
July 7, 2014
August 1, 2014
Task 3: Survey Vehicle Engine Replacement Vendors
September 1, 2014
Task 4: Reporting and Ranking of Eligible Vehicles
Deliverable – Draft Report
Deliverable – Final Report
November 30, 2014
June 1, 2015
Note: monthly progress reports will be supplied to the HOTCOG project manager and to the TCEQ project manager.
Figure 1 below shows the organization of the project, including the primary responsibilities for
each participant.
TCEQ
Project Manager
HOTCOG
AQAC
ENVIRON
Task Work & Technical Task Management
Data Quality Control, Data Storage and
Handling, Documentation of QA/QC
Procedures and Activities
TASK 1
TASK 2
TASK 3
TASK 4
Work plan and
QAPP
Outreach to
Municipal Fleet
Managers
Survey Engine
Replacement
Vendors
Reporting
Figure 1.
Project organization.
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July 2014
3.0 SCIENTIFIC APPROACH
This section addresses the secondary data needed to meet the project objectives, which can
include the type of data, the source of the data, and emissions modeling outputs.
3.1 Data Collection and Generation Methods
3.1.1 Vehicle and Engine Data
In Task 2, we will identify candidate vehicles for engine replacement or whole vehicle
replacement. Candidate vehicles will be identified through surveys of HOTCOG municipal fleet
managers.
Vehicle specification information will be requested from the municipal fleet managers and
include the following information:
1. Vehicle type, vocation, and gross vehicle weight rating
2. Engine make/model, model year, and horsepower;
3. Current activity in annual vehicle mileage accumulation.
This information will be gathered from municipal vehicle fleet managers. ENVIRON will provide
survey forms that can be filled out by the fleet managers or will use fleet manager records if
available.
ENVIRON will identify candidate vehicles for engine or vehicle replacement and rank them in
order of cost effectiveness and emission reduction potential.
3.1.2 Vehicle Engine Replacement Data
Once candidate vehicles have been identified and vehicle and engine characteristics and activity
data gathered, ENVIRON will contact engine vendors to determine the feasibility and cost of
engine replacement.
Specifications of the candidate vehicles will be provided to the engine
manufacturers/vendors/maintenance shops to determine if an engine replacement is feasible
for each vehicle. Estimated cost information for materials and labor will be gathered from the
vendors/manufacturers, and final quotes will be gathered for those vehicles selected for engine
replacement.
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July 2014
4.0 QUALITY METRICS
This section addresses the quality requirements of the data and QA activities that occur after
the data collection phase of the project is completed. Implementation of these elements
determines whether or not the data conform to the specified criteria, thus satisfying project
objectives.
4.1 Quality Requirements of Data
The quality requirements of data gathered for the study are presented below for vehicle and
engine data.
4.1.1 Vehicle and Engine Data
Vehicle and engine data specified in section 3.1.1 must be obtained directly from vehicle and
engine specification records and engine plates and the data reported must exactly match these
specifications. Vehicle activity estimates will be gathered from odometer records.
4.1.2 Engine Replacement Feasibility and Cost Data
Engine replacement feasibility and cost estimates will be gathered from vendors, and fixed
quotes will be gathered from the vendors.
4.2 Verification and Validation Methods of the Secondary Data
The process to be used for verifying and validating data is presented in Table 3 of this QAPP.
100% of engine data submitted by participating companies and data associated with the first
installation emissions performance will be reviewed, and at least 10% of the subsequent
installation engine testing data will be reviewed for QA/QC purposes.
Table 3.
Summary of QC procedures for data collected as part of this project.
QC Activity
Vehicle and Engine Data
Procedure
Verify that all required vehicle
and engine data has been
submitted.
Acceptance Criteria
90%
Vendor Installation Data
Verify engine replacement
feasibility and estimated cost.
Engine replacement quotes
100%
100%
Corrective Action
If less than 100%, then contact
managers for missing data.
Compare against list of
municipalities in the study area.
Check against TCEQ TERP and
other Texas regions projects.
Review contract quotes with
HOTCOG and TCEQ staff.
As described in the Work Plan, engine data collection will be conducted by ENVIRON through
data requests to municipal fleet managers. ENVIRON will verify the quality of the data
following the procedures in Table 3. Any deficiencies noted in the data that could be addressed
through additional information will result in ENVIRON contacting the fleet managers to request
additional data.
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July 2014
5.0 DATA ANALYSIS, INTERPRETATION AND MANAGEMENT
5.1 Data Reporting Requirements
As described in Sections 3 and 4, ENVIRON will gather vehicle and engine data from municipal
fleet managers and engine replacement feasibility and cost estimates from engine vendors.
ENVIRON will compile all data into spreadsheet tables logging the vehicle and engine data, the
annual activity, and other data necessary for estimating potential emission reductions. For
emissions estimates, the EPA MOVES model will be used to estimate emission factors (emission
per vehicle mile) by specific vehicle type and model year of original and replacement engine.
Emission factors EFi will be estimated using the EPA MOVES model with and without the new
engine, i.e. uncontrolled and controlled emission factors for the vehicle type and typical
operation (long trips on freeways, short local trips, or area-wide average trips). These will be
used to estimate an in-use control factor for the engine replacement as well as to compare
against the rated emission factor of the engine from the engine specification data.
The emission reduction potential of each retrofit control system installation will be estimated.
Emission reduction potential:
 EFi ,controlled )
 EF

Ei  VMTi   i ,uncontrolled

907185


Where:
Ei is the emission reduction potential of pollutant i [ton/yr]
EFi,uncontrolled is the uncontrolled (old engine) emissions factor of pollutant i [g/bhp-hr]
EFi,controlled is the controlled (new engine) emissions factor of pollutant i [g/bhp-hr]
VMT is the vehicle miles traveled per year [mi/yr]
Finally the cost-effectiveness of the retrofit control system will be estimated.
Cost-effectiveness:

 1  i n i  

C  
n



1

i

1


CEi  
Ei
Where:
CEi is the cost-effectiveness of reducing pollutant i [$/ton]
C is the capital cost of the retrofit control system [$]
i is the discount rate [3%]
n is the useful life of the retrofit control system [yr]
Ei is the emission reduction potential of pollutant i [ton/yr]
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These procedures for reducing the data will be followed for all vehicle/engine replacements
that may be addressed as part of the study, including any engine or vehicle replacements
accomplished. Data reduction will focus on developing the emission reduction potentials and
the cost-effectiveness values of the engine or vehicle replacement.
5.2 Data Validation Procedures
ENVIRON will perform technical systems audits (TSA), audits of data quality and reporting of QA
findings.
5.2.1 Audits of Data Quality
ENVIRON will audit the data quality of spreadsheets generated as part of this project. 10% of all
data will be audited. If problems are found, all data sets will be audited, including independent
verification of every spreadsheet or automated calculation once and 25% of manual
calculations. ENVIRON will follow standard QC practices for each data type. For example, data
entered into spreadsheets will be verified against the source data to ensure proper data entry.
Spreadsheet formulas and cell references will be reviewed for accuracy.
5.2.2 Reporting of QA Findings
ENVIRON will report all QA findings for all data gathered and estimations, including engine data,
first engine testing data, subsequent engine testing data, emissions reduction potential
estimates and cost-effectiveness value estimates in the final project report.
5.3 Data Summary
Following the data reduction procedures described above, ENVIRON will summarize all vehicle
and engine data, the emission reduction potential and cost-effectiveness values in a master
table.
The average cost-effectiveness and emission reduction potential will be estimated, as well as
the high and low cost-effectiveness and emission reduction potential. If sufficient data points
are gathered to justify the derivation of additional statistics – including standard deviation
and/or confidence interval – these statistics will be developed.
5.4 Data Handling and Storage Methods
ENVIRON will prepare and maintain an electronic database (e.g., Microsoft Excel or Access
format) with summaries of all data received from municipal fleet managers. The database will
contain lists of vehicles by type and size, engine specifications, and annual activity.
Original copies of all data obtained for this project will be preserved and stored in electronic
format. If data are provided on paper, the paper documents will be scanned to electronic PDF
files for storage. Project data will be housed on data protected hard drives (a level 5 redundant
array of independent disks – RAID5). Project data will be copied and archived to offsite storage
every week.
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July 2014
6.0 REPORTING
A Final Report will be delivered to the TCEQ Project Manager electronically (i.e., via file transfer
protocol (FTP) or e-mail) in Microsoft Word format no later than the deliverable due date
shown below. The final report will include the following components:
1. An executive summary or abstract.
2. A brief introduction that discusses background and objectives. Include relationships to
other studies if applicable.
3. A discussion of the pertinent accomplishments, shortfalls, and limitations of the work
completed under each Work Plan task.
4. Recommendations, if any, for what should be considered next as a new study.
The Final Report will provide a comprehensive overview of activities undertaken and data
collected and analyzed during the work. The Final Report will highlight major activities and key
findings, provide pertinent analysis, describe encountered problems and associated corrective
actions, and detail relevant statistics including data and parameter completeness, accuracy and
precision, as described in Section 5.2.3.
The draft final report will summarize the procedures used and data gathered, the data
reduction and analysis conducted on the data, and the resulting cost-effectiveness and
emission reduction potential of the engine or vehicle replacement program. Specifically, the
report will contain:




A description of the methodology used and data gathered to determine municipal
vehicle fleets and the outreach efforts to fleet managers (i.e. emails, telephone
outreach, etc.);
A list of all vehicle data gathered for the study;
Calculations of cost-effectiveness and emission reduction potential will be described in
detail including methodology and the data used, ranked lists of cost-effectiveness and
emission reduction potential by vehicle;
A discussion of the conclusions of the study and recommendations as to most feasible
vehicles for future engine replacement.
The procedure for review of the report is outlined below. The draft final report will be provided
to the HOTCOG AQAC for review and comment. Once comments are received the draft final
report will be revised in consultation with the HOTCOG AQAC Technical Committee and a draft
final report delivered to the TCEQ. Upon receipt of comments from the TCEQ, ENVIRON will
revise the draft report accordingly and submit the final report to the HOTCOG AQAC, who will
then submit it to the TCEQ.
Electronic copies of deliverable documents and other work products will be provided in
Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and PDF format. All electronic deliverables will meet State of
Texas Accessibility requirements in 1 TAC 213. Electronic copies of all text, graphic,
spreadsheet files and models used in the preparation of any documents related to the project
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July 2014
reports, to document results and conclusions (e.g. sampling data, work files, etc.) or developed
as work products under this Contract, shall be supplied the conclusion of the project (or earlier,
as requested by the TCEQ Project Manager).
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July 2014
7.0 REFERENCES
EPA 2014. “MOVES (Motor Vehicle Emission Simulator),” Available online at
http://www.epa.gov/otaq/models/moves/index.htm
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