She checked the receptors. She had placed discrete points at every school, clinic, and home. AERMOD didn't lie; it just did the math the wind demanded. At 2:00 AM during winter inversions, the terrain trapped the plume against the valley floor. The 24-hour SO₂ standard would be violated six times per year. The annual standard? Breached by 140 percent.
Her job was to draw the invisible line. The line between "acceptable" and "carcinogenic."
In the final save dialog, she clicked . The model did not judge. It only calculated. But for the first time all week, the silence after the run sounded like peace.