Ambient sulfate concentrations near Grand Canyon as a function of fluctuating loads at the Mohave Power Project: An exploratory analysis of an atmospheric experiment

TheMohave Power Project is an isolated coal-fired electric generating plant approximately 100 km from the nearest end of Grand Canyon National Park. There occurred unscheduled shutdowns of one or both of the plantʹs generating units during a 1985–1987 ambient sulfate monitoring study at sites near the Grand Canyon. This paper exploits the resulting variability of plant emissions during the summers of 1985–1987 for an empirical study of the ambient particle sulfur response at the downwind Meadview monitoring site near the western end of the Park. The frequency distribution of levels of particle sulfur at the monitoring site did not change discernibly during periods of partial or complete plant shutdowns even when corrections are made for regional background variations.