Impact/Purpose:

Characterize the spatial and temporal variability of ambient air toxics in the Seattle area

Description:

Since January, 2000, the Washington Department of Ecology has been monitoring for air toxics at two sites in Seattle, Beacon Hill and Georgetown. The Beacon Hill site is in an area of high population density that reflects conditions in a "typical" urban residential neighborhood and it is impacted by a mix of urban source categories. The Georgetown site is located within Seattle's Duwamish industrial river valley and is sited to represent conditions in the Georgetown neighborhood. Georgetown is surrounded by industrial, commercial, and mobile sources and reflects potentially maximum air pollution concentrations in Seattle. In the spring of 2001 the City of Seattle was selected by the EPA National Air Toxics Monitoring Steering Committee as one of four major cities in the country to conduct a one-year air toxics monitoring pilot project. The Seattle Air Toxics Pilot Project, which began monitoring in February, 2001, includes a total of six monitoring sites, including the Beacon Hill and Georgetown sites, and is designed to better characterize the spatial and temporal variability of ambient air toxics in the Seattle area. These monitoring stations are located in distinctly different sub-regions within the urban area so that spatial variability of annual average concentrations will be more fully characterized. The six monitoring sites are also located in such a way as to measure air toxics concentrations associated with mobile, industrial, wood smoke, and area sources. Sampling at each of the six sites will include 24-hour integrated samples of volatile organics, carbonyls, and speciated metals on a 1 in 6 day frequency.

Record Details: