Assessment of impacts on emissions and air pollution reduction at the new port of entry in San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora

A new international commercial port (ICP) was proposed between the San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora, Mexico, and San Luis, AZ. The new port of entry (POE) will be located ≈ 5 mi east of the current location on the US-Mexico border. This new POE is designed to segregate commercial vehicles from non-commercial vehicles at the existing POE and divert the traffic to the new ICP. The current POE consists of six lanes for passenger vehicles and one lane for commercial vehicles. The current commercial vehicle lane will be deactivated once the new ICP is constructed. A multiple tasks analysis for assessing pollutant loadings to the atmosphere and air quality impacts from emissions from traffic congestion at the POE was conducted using EPA's developed MOBILE6.2 and AERMOD models. Emissions of PM_2.5, NO_x, CO, and VOC were estimated for years 2006, 2011, 2016, 2021, and 2026. Two scenarios for each future year were addressed, i.e., no construction of the ICP and the ICP constructed. Emissions were reduced by 30-40% if the ICP is constructed. For the year 2026, the CO concentration at the POE would be reduced > 30% and fine PM concentration would experience a 60% reduction. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 102nd AWMA Annual Conference and Exhibition 2009 (Detroit, MI 6/16-19/2009).