Airborne Particulate Matter Research Projects
Date entered: 05/10/2000 03:40 PM
Document last updated: 06/02/2000 09:28:58 AM

Project Title: | Ambient PM2.5 Sampling and Speciation - The Upper Ohio River Valley Project
Grant/Contract #: | DE-AC26-99FT40456
Principal Investigator(s): | Khosah Robinson
Principal Investigator(s) E-Mail: | [email-masked]
Research Organization: | Advanced Technology Systems Inc
City: | Pittsburgh
State: | PA
Country: | USA

Sponsoring Organization: | DOE/NETL
Sponsoring Org. Contact Person: | William W. Aljoe
Contact Person E-mail: | [email-masked]

Year Began: | 1999
Year Ending : | 2002
Funding Per Year: | $1,000,000
Total (Multiyear) Funding: | $4,000,000

Status: | ongoing
NRC Priority Number(s): | 3, 4
Research Category: | Monitoring methods, Particle characterization
Location of Study: | Pittsburgh PA; Waynesburg PA; Athens OH; Morgantown WV
Keyword(s): |

Abstract:

The overall goal of the Upper Ohio River Valley Project (UORVP), is to investigate the nature and composition of fine particulate (PM2.5) and its precursor gases in the Upper Ohio River valley and provide a better understanding of the relationship between coal-based power system emissions and ambient air quality in the upper Ohio River Valley region. Two urban and two rural monitoring sites are included in the UORVP. The four sites selected were all part of existing local and/or state air quality programs. One urban site is located in the Lawrenceville section of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This site is an air quality monitoring station operated by the Allegheny County Health Department, and includes continuous measurements of meteorological conditions and a wide range of gaseous copollutants in addition to FRM and sequential filter samples of PM2.5 and PM10. One rural site is collocated with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) at a former NARSTO-Northeast site near Holbrook, Greene County, Pennsylvania, and is equipped similarly to the Lawrenceville site. A second urban site is collocated at a West Virginia Division of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) monitoring station at the Morgantown, West Virginia, airport, and consists only of an FRM sampler. The other rural site, also consisting of an FRM, is collocated at a site operated by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OHEPA) and managed by the Ohio State Forestry Division in Gifford State Forest near Athens, Ohio. The UORVP is arranged to obtain a base level of intermittent samples every sixth day at all four sites. In addition, month-long summer and winter intensive sampling events will take place, with samples being obtained once every six hours at Lawrenceville and daily at Holbrook. Sampling for particulate (ammonium) nitrate and gaseous nitrogen species, as well as ammonia, will provide data to investigate the apparent low nitrate levels found in eastern PM2.5 catches.

The monitoring program will provide data that will allow the following objectives to be addressed: (1) Provide improved chemical, size distribution, and time resolution of urban and rural ambient fine particulates (both particles and gas-phase components) in the Upper Ohio River Valley region. (2) Evaluate and compare different methods of sampling aerosol particles, both filter based and continuous, over size ranges less than 10 micrometer, but with primary focus on sub-2.5 micrometer particles, using complementary instrumentation. (3) Conduct sufficient sampling and chemical analysis of ambient PM2.5 to estimate using various source attribution/apportionment tools the impact of local and regional sources on ambient air quality related to both particle concentrations, composition and regional visibility relationships. (4) Support related exposure and health-risk assessments in the region by advancing the understanding of the chemical and physical nature of PM2.5 and directly supplying ambient measures for future exposure, epidemiological and clinical field studies.