Evaluating vehicle re-entrained road dust and its potential to deposit to Lake Tahoe: A bottom-up inventory approach

Identifying hotspot areas impacted by emissions of dust from roadways is an essential step for mitigation. This paper develops a detailed road dust PM10 emission inventory using a bottom-up approach and evaluates the potential for the dust to deposit to Lake Tahoe where it can affect water clarity. Previous studies of estimates of quantities of atmospheric deposition of fine sediment particles (“FSP”, < 16 μm in diameter) to the lake were questioned due to low confidence in the results and insufficient data. A bottom-up approach that integrates measured road dust emission factors, five years of meteorological data, a traffic demand model and GIS analysis was used to estimate the near field deposition of airborne particulate matter < 16 μm, and assess the relationship between trip location and the potential magnitude of this source of atmospheric deposition to the lake. Approximately ~ 20 Mg year− 1 of PM10 and ~ 36 Mg year− 1 Total Suspended Particulate (TSP) from roadway emissions of dust are estimated to reach the lake. We estimate that the atmospheric dry deposition of particles to the lake attributable to vehicle travel on paved roads is approximately 0.6% of the Total Maximum Daily Loadings (TMDL) of FSP that the lake can receive and still meet water quality standards.