Stationary and Area Sources of Air Pollution

The Philippine Clean Air Act (CAA) defines stationary sources as “any building or immobile structure, facility, or installation which emits or may emit any air pollutant.” Stationary sources of air pollution include facilities such as power plants, smelters, industrial and commercial boilers, wood and pulp processors, paper mills, industrial surface coating facilities, refinery and chemical processing operations, and petroleum storage tanks.

The Environmental Management Bureau defines these as sources that are relatively large areas of specific activities that generate significant amounts of air pollutants. These include the busy road and hubs, construction sites, aircraft operation, forest fires or the burning of wastes, residential sites, and similar dispersed sources. Area sources may emit relatively small amounts of pollutants when taken individually, but their combined emissions add significantly to the air pollution in the area. Examples of these area sources of air pollution include: 

·         Open burning of solid wastes widely practiced in most urban centers; 

·         Continuous destruction of forests by fire through kaingin natural causes;

·         Burning of agricultural biomass after harvest, including rice, corn and sugarcane stalks;

·         Aerial spraying of pesticides;

·         Cigarette smoking inside enclosed public buildings and vehicles; and

·         Waste disposal in the form of landfills and wastewater treatment.

Mobile Sources of Air Pollution

Mobile Sources 

According to the Environmental Management Bureau (DENR), these are vehicles/ machines propelled by or through oxidation or reduction reactions including combustions of carbon-based or other fuel, constructed and operated principally for the conveyance of persons or the transportation of property or goods that emits air pollutant as a reaction product. These engines are powered either by gasoline, diesel, compressed natural gas (CNG), liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) or other alternative fuel, each contributing a set of pollutants into the air. Mobile sources may be further categorized as to type of vehicles - cars, utility vehicles (UVs), trucks, buses, motorcycle/ tricycle (MC/TC), trailer, aircraft, marine vessels, etc. 

Table 1. National Annual Motor Vehicle Registration by Vehicle Type, 2007-2009

Source: Land Transportation Office, 2010

Table 1 indicates that from 2007 to 2008, there is an increase of 6.13% of the total vehicles in the Philippines, and an increase of 5.29% from 2008 to 2009. This means that there is already a large increase in the emission of reaction products into the air, therefore also increasing the pollution in the air.

Table 2. Regional Annual Motor Vehicle Registration, 2007-2009 

(Source: Land Transportation Office, 2010)

Table 2 shows that NCR has a total of 1,592,036 vehicles which comprises 28.79%, Region III with 13.26% and Region IV-A with 13.07% of the total population of vehicles in 2007. In 2008, vehicles in NCR increased by 4.68 %, Region III by 8.79% and Region IV-A by 7.11%. In 2009, NCR had an increase of 5.54%, Region III by 4.28% and Region IV-A by 4.75%. This data shows that in NCR, there is an average increase of 5.11%, Region III by an average of 6.535% and Region IV-A by an average of 5.925%. Table 2 also shows that NCR contributes most of the pollution in the air which is brought about by the number of vehicles that run in this region.