National Air Toxic Monitoring - Community Assessment for Spokane Washington
To better quantify toxic pollutants in Spokane's air, a team of state, local and university air quality specialists conducted a study of Spokane's air in 2005-2006. During the study, air quality samples will be collected at four monitoring sites in the Spokane area. The findings of the study are available now, click here. This is a 4MB report so unless you have a fast connection you may not want to download it. Click here for just the Executive Summary.
Toxic air pollutants are harmful substances in the air that come from natural and manmade sources. Spokane is impacted by a variety of activities that emit toxic pollutants, including gasoline storage, transfer and refueling; commercial and industrial operations, motor vehicles, outdoor burning, etc.
Breathing toxic air pollutants increases the risk of exper iencing health problems. For example, benzene fumes are given off when you pump gas into your car, and exposure to benzene is linked to an increased incidence of leukemia.
Up until now, our knowledge of air toxics in Spokane's air has been based on emissions data (actual and estimated) from a variety of sources and predictions of concentrations, based on complex computer modeling. With this recent study, data was collected on specific air toxics and their actual concentrations found in the ambient air. The study tracked occurrences and concentrations of several air toxics, including volatile organic compounds such as benzene, ethylene dibromide, and formaldehyde, and several toxic metals that cling to tiny particles in the air. The metals studied include arsenic, cadmium, lead and others.
For over 30 years, air quality monitoring in Spokane focused on a small group of pollutants prevalent in the ambient air, called criteria pollutants, such as particulate matter, carbon monoxide, and ozone. Monitoring of criteria pollutants in the Spokane area will continue.
Results of this study provide researchers with a better understanding of where and when toxic pollution is highest, where most of it comes from, and how toxic pollutants affect the health of citizens.
The four air toxics monitoring locations:
 |
| 1. Freya & Ferry - representative of areas that are closer to more industrial and commercial activities and traffic. |
|
2. Hillyard area -- representative of areas that are closer to more industrial and commercial activities and traffic.
|
|
| 3. Millwood area -- this location reflects air quality conditions in a neighborhood setting and in proximity to commercial activities |
|
4. Spokane Regional Health Building-- represents city-center conditions.
|
|
Washington State Department of Ecology manages the project in cooperation with the Spokane County Air Pollution Control Authority, WSU, UW, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. As you look at the following graphs here are a few abbreviations you might find helpful:
- PM10 = Particulate Matter 10 micron in diameter or less
- PM2.5 = Particulate Matter 2.5 micron in diameter or less
- µg/m3 or µg/m^3 = micrograms per cubic meter of air
- ng/m3 or ng/m^3 = nanograms per cubic meter of air
- ppbv = parts per billion by volume
- ppmv = parts per million by volume
The particulate mass concentrations from the air toxic sites will be available around the end of the following month. Below (Click on the graphs for a larger version) are the 2nd quarter data from the study. Samples are collected once every sixth day, except at the Ferry & Ferry (aka Crown Z) site, which is on a one in three schedule. Only the one in six samples will be analyzed for anything more that mass loading.
The PM10 filters collected at these sites will be sent out for metal analysis. That data has a longer turn-around time and will be posted later. We are also collecting PM2.5 data at all these site. The graph below is the 2nd quarter PM2.5 data for the air toxic sites.
Note that the scale on the PM2.5 is smaller than on the PM10, so while the bars look taller they are much smaller values. Look for more data to be filled in as the months progress. We will also show you more pictures of the monitoring equipment we are using in this study.
A device called an Aethalometer is used to measure black carbon in PM2.5 particulate matter. Black carbon is used as a surrogate for diesel particulate. This is not the total impact of diesel smoke on PM2.5, there are other components that don't show up as black carbon. Below are the first half results. PM2.5 is in the back and black carbon (BC) in front. The significance of these numbers will not be known until the study is complete.
Below is most of the first half year of the data from the analysis of the samples. This is preliminary and no conclusion should be drawn from this data. It is presented only to give you some idea of the levels we could see through the rest of the study.
By clicking on the compound or element listed you will get a graph of the first couple of months of data compared by site and in some cases with Seattle 2004 annual data. On each graph will be a value called an "ASIL" or Acceptable Source Impact Levels. ASILs are not ambient air quality standards, they are levels set in Washington State rules (WAC 173-460) for controls on new air toxic sources. The ASIL and Seattle data are there to give you an idea if the values for Spokane are high or low. The key on the graphs refer to the sites as follows: CZ = Freya & Ferry, OC = Millwood, HD = Health Building and SD = Hillyard.
Air Toxics Field Study
During the week of June 12-17, 2005 the first of at least two field studies were conducted in the Spokane area by Washington State University researchers using some of the latest equipment being developed to analyze air toxics in real time. Below is a picture of the van they used to drive around the areas near the stationary samplers. Data collected will be compared to that from the stationary sampler and to a database of known sources. This will give us a more complete picture of toxic air pollutants in the Spokane area.
Click on the image for a larger picture. The van contains a sonic anemometer for determining wind direction. (It only works when the van was parked for a period of time.) A global positioning system (GPS) that correlates the vans position with the data collected. An aerodynamic particle sizer. A pair of devices that measure real time total Particle Bound Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PPAH) concentrations and the total active surface area of the PPAH, they are labeled PAS200CE & PAS2000DC. And finally a device that measures a wide variety of chemicals called a Proton Transfer Reaction Mass Spectrometer (PTR-MS). The PTR-MS is capable of measuring air toxics on a real-time basis. It is especially suited for BTEX species and has demonstrated potential for other difficult to measure species such as acrolein.
For more information on Spokane's air toxics study, contact Ron Edgar at 477-4727, ext # 111. For information about Air Toxics, visit EPA's Air Toxics webpage or Ecology's Air Toxic webpage.
|
Print this Page
