Grantee Research Project Results
Final Report: Providing Timely Public Access to Daily Air Quality Information about Birmingham, AL and Its Regional Environment
EPA Grant Number: R828583Title: Providing Timely Public Access to Daily Air Quality Information about Birmingham, AL and Its Regional Environment
Investigators: Bell, Sam , Norris, W. B. , Gillani, Noor V. , Howard, Christopher , McHenry, John , Dillard, Randy
Institution: Jefferson County Department of Health , North Carolina Supercomputing Center , The University of Alabama in Huntsville
EPA Project Officer: Packard, Benjamin H
Project Period: January 1, 2001 through December 31, 2002 (Extended to December 31, 2003)
Project Amount: $299,989
RFA: Environmental Monitoring for Public Access and Community Tracking (EMPACT) (2000) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Water , Air , Ecological Indicators/Assessment/Restoration
Objective:
The goals of the research project were to extend the Birmingham local program of air quality monitoring and assessment within a multi-scale, multi-pollutant outlook, using a broader range of pertinent public domain data products and state-of-the-art modeling tools, with a view to creating a sustainable and transferable national model program; and to raise public awareness and participation in local air quality management through a program of effective and timely public access to relevant user-friendly information and education. The specific objectives of the project were to: (1) continue the existing program of air quality monitoring, assessment, and public outreach; (2) create a working partnership of state and local air quality management agencies with expertise at the state university; (3) extend program focus from mainly ozone to ozone and PM2.5; (4) extend program focus from local only to local and regional, utilizing both observation-based and state-of-the-art model-based information;. (5) extend forecast modeling capability for both meteorology and chemistry, utilizing both statistical modeling and state-of-the-art real-time 3D Eulerian grid modeling; (6) extend timely and effective public outreach via internet, the news media, and other means; (7) develop a centralized database management system; and (8) provide for local program sustainability and national program transferability.
Summary/Accomplishments (Outputs/Outcomes):
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Monitoring for Public Access and Community Tracking (EMPACT) program was aimed at promoting local community-based response to the following two requirements in large metropolitan areas for local control measures to meet air quality standards: (1) monitoring and assessment of the ambient levels and emissions of criteria pollutants; and (2) public awareness and timely action aimed at controlling the emissions. Our project addressed these for the Birmingham ozone non-attainment area (BONA), comprised of Jefferson and Shelby Counties (see Figure 1). The BONA has a population exceeding 800 000, of which about 82 percent is in Jefferson County. In 2001, at the commencement of this project, it was in marginal violation of both the 1-hour and 8-hour ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). As of April 2004, soon after the end of this project, it has been in attainment of the 1-hour standard. The local emissions of NOx are dominated by major point sources (more than 2/3) and emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOC) by biogenic sources (about 3/4). The BONA is in a region dominated by biogenic VOC emissions, and the regional chemistry of ozone is decidedly NOx-limited. The responsibility of air quality management belongs to the Jefferson County Department of Health (JCDH) for Jefferson County, and to the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) for Shelby County.
With respect to the key objectives of expanding local air quality monitoring/assessment and public outreach, our project took an innovative approach in two particular respects: expansion of focus from ozone only to ozone and PM2.5, and an expansion of local outlook to a regional perspective. Such expanded focus and outlook are evident in the products we produced and brought to the public in graphical and easily-accessible form in near real time. We also used this project as an opportunity to include in our previous partnership between JCDH and ADEM, the participation of Dr. Noor Gillani’s group from our State’s flagship Atmospheric Science Program at the University of Alabama (UAH). This partnership has solidified during the project to the distinct benefit of all partners and the State in air quality management. This has been a major contribution of this project. Dr. Gillani also brought into our program the participation of the air quality modeling group of MCNC, Inc.,of RTP, North Carolina. This team made possible a program that has been broad and sophisticated in scope and quality, and productive in generating useful products to meet our objectives. UAH has served as our science advisor and has developed our new information management system and the new EMPACT-Birmingham Web Site, which has become the flagship of our project, and a major part of our overall public outreach effort. MCNC performed ozone forecasting based on 3D photochemical grid modeling, while ADEM continued the statistical ozone forecasting, as well as serving as the focal point for issuing the daily ozone forecasts based on all inputs including the statistical and photochemical modeling. JCDH performed the local monitoring and public outreach, as well as coordination with EPA. The new partnership is in place for new joint ventures in the future.
Figure 1 shows a map of the BONA and surrounding local environment in Alabama, along with the 11 routine air quality monitoring stations and the three largest local NOx point sources.
Four sites are core urban sites (Tarrant, North Birmingham, Wylam, and Fairfield), two are suburban (Hoover and Helena), and the remaining five are rural (Pinson, Leeds, McAdory, Providence, and Corner). The three power plants emit between 28,000 and 44,000 tons of NOx as NO2. Prior to the project, 9 of the 11 sites monitored ozone continuously (all except Leeds and Wylam) and only 1 site (North Birmingham) measured PM2.5 continuously. During the project, ozone monitoring was added to Leeds, and continuous monitoring capability for PM2.5 was added to seven sites (Wylam, Hoover, and the five rural sites). The continuous monitoring programs of ozone and PM2.5 have been brought to parity (10 ozone sites, 8 PM2.5 sites), with urban, suburban, and rural coverage of both. Both now are monitored at all five rural sites that surround the metro area on all sides. This makes it possible for us to characterize both the upwind inflow of regional secondary pollution from any direction and the downwind outflow, thus making it possible to delineate local and regional impacts to local air quality of ozone and PM2.5. At all eight continuous PM2.5 sites, we collected 24-hour average batch-mode filter samples (FRM) at 1- to 6-day intervals for gravimetric analysis (total mass concentration), and at three of these sites (North Birmingham, Wylam, and Providence), we collected 24-average
Figure 1. Map of Jefferson and Shelby Counties Showing the 11 Routine AQ Monitoring Sites (yellow circles) and the 3 Largest NOx Point Sources (coal-fired power plants, green triangles).
samples at 3- to 6-day intervals for detailed speciation (major ions and elements). Furthermore, PM10 also is measured continuously at two sites and in batch mode at eight sites; SO2 (2 sites), NOx (1 site) and CO (1 site) are continuously monitored more sparingly. Our expanded monitoring program now is one of the best in the nation for mid-size cities like Birmingham, and possibly the best for secondary ozone and PM2.5.
Our substantial urban-rural coverage of continuous monitoring also makes it possible for us to weigh the relative importance of local versus regional impact on the local air quality of the regional pollutants (ozone and PM2.5). The locations of the three large power plants at distances of 40-50 km from downtown have a substantial impact on urban air quality of ozone and PM2.5, and our local monitoring program now is adequate for us to discern the specific impact of these power plants on the BONA. In addition, we now have a process in place to generate daily peak ozone contour maps for the Eastern United States (like the ones available in near real time from EPA-AIRNOW) based on data of approximately 1,430 sites. We are generating similar maps for PM2.5 (see Figure 2) using new in-house capability we have developed, and we augment such regional mapping of ozone and PM2.5 with satellite (GOES) visible imagery of regional haze and cloudiness. Furthermore, we examine on a daily basis such maps and images for the past 4 days to maintain ongoing awareness not only of the regional pollution picture, but also of its dynamics and potential to impact us in the coming days.
Figure 2. An Example of Our New Capability to Generate Regional Contour Maps of PM2.5 in Near Real Time, Using EPA-AIRNOW Continuous Data of 462 Sites.
Another major innovation of EMPACT-Birmingham has been in the area of ozone forecasting. Our previous practice for forecasting next day peak ozone, as is common in most cities, was based on statistical modeling using only local data of meteorological variables (forecast) and peak local measured ozone from the day before. A major drawback of this method is the unrealistic assumption that local ozone levels remain correlated in time for 48 hours. It ignores the roles of transport and chemistry of the next day’s impacting airmass over the past 2-day period. We now have included twice daily, regional, 3D photochemical grid modeling in forecast mode (48 hours) in our program. The meteorology is forecast based on the MM5 Modeling System, the emissions based on the SMOKE Modeling System, and the transport-chemistry based on the near-real-time forecast model MAQSIP-RTOFS, which is a sister model of EPA’s Model-3/CMAQ. Our experience in this area during the 2001 ozone season was that the local ozone forecasts tended to be consistently excessive. The cause was attributed to possible errors in emissions and the regional photolysis rates, the latter the result of errors in the forecast cloud fields. During 2002, improvements in the photolysis calculations improved the forecasts significantly, but although a useful additional input, such photochemical modeling in forecast mode is still in its infancy.
We also have developed a sophisticated new information management system (IMS) and a highly successful new EMPACT-Birmingham Web Site, both at UAH. The IMS receives numerical data and graphical images in near-real-time from a variety of sources: continuous local monitoring data from JCDH and ADEM; hourly AIRNOW data of both ozone and PM2.5 from EPA; satellite data from National Air and Space Administration (NASA), and photochemical modeling results from MCNC. These data are used not only by UAH in preparing the Web products, but also by other partners. The IMS facilitates all these functions and also maintains appropriate archives on the EMPACT server at UAH. In addition, a variety of software products have been custom-developed to perform the various data processing and management functions, as well as to develop the graphical Web products.
A major objective of our project was expanding public outreach. The new Web site is one of several vehicles for public outreach. The other vehicles include the local media (which have been very cooperative), educational programs with local educational institutions, and collaboration with other stakeholders in the form of the Alabama Partners for Clean Air. JCDH determines the daily air quality index and the daily PM2.5 forecasts, and ADEM develops the daily ozone forecasts. Both of these are displayed on the EMPACT Web site as well as communicated to the other stakeholders and to the public via the media. In partnership with the Southern Environment Center of Birmingham Southern College and the Macwane Science Center of Birmingham (through the Globe Program), JCDH has developed an ozone-monitoring program in all 11 BONA school districts, which provides opportunities to the students to participate in ozone monitoring as well as various levels of research.
The most successful product of this project is probably the new EMPACT-Birmingham Web Site. The Web site resides on the UAH Web server (VORTEX), but can be accessed through links from both the JCDH and ADEM Web sites. It provides user-friendly near-real-time access to graphical information based on the local monitoring data and as regional information about ozone and PM2.5 from EPA-AIRNOW, NASA satellite imagery , and ozone forecast products based both on the statistical modeling of ADEM and the photochemical modeling of MCNC. It also provides links to the JCDH and ADEM sites, and to EPA-AIRNOW and other useful sites.
Figure 3 shows the home page of the EMPACT-Birmingham Web Site. It is graphical and attractive, and clearly highlights the local-regional emphasis of the coverage. It also provides easy passage to a variety of information: the air quality index (at the JCDH site), the ozone forecast (at the ADEM sites), local data, regional data, project reports, and links to other Web sites, etc. Such easy navigation is facilitated from any Web page to any other Web page. The local data to be viewed can be selected easily by monitoring site (individual or all), monitored species (ozone, PM2.5, PM10, SO2, etc.), temporal resolution (1-hour, 8-hour, 24-hour averages, etc.), in Air Quality Index or engineering units, the data can be viewed as color-coded temporal plots (time series of hourly data or more averaged data updated every hour) or spatial distribution plots. The regional data can be of peak daily ozone (observed or forecast) or peak daily PM2.5 (observed) in the form of Eastern United States contour maps (Figure 2), or of daily satellite imagery at noon. The observed information is presented for the past 4 days (four plots) so that the multi-day regional dynamics of the displayed information also can be inferred.
We are open to providing assistance to other state and local agencies wanting to replicate a similar program in their states.
We have two recommendations addressing the use of the rich database and products being generated by the project. One pertains to enhancing the statistical forecasting approach by including the role of 48-hour transport through the use of measured ozone in the impacting airmass at originating upwind locations rather than using local values. The other recommendation pertains to using the local monitoring data (urban and rural) in conjunction with Lagrangian reactive plume modeling and forecast meteorology to predict and characterize the next-day ozone impact of the nearby power plants on the urban area.
Figure 3. The Home Page of the EMPACT-Birmingham Web Site
Journal Articles:
No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 2 publications for this projectSupplemental Keywords:
ambient air quality, ozone, PM2.5, NOx, AQI, air quality index; AIRNOW, meteorology, chemistry, monitoring, modeling, Birmingham, Southeast, Alabama, AL,, RFA, Scientific Discipline, Air, Geographic Area, Ecosystem Protection/Environmental Exposure & Risk, air toxics, Health Risk Assessment, State, Monitoring/Modeling, Environmental Monitoring, tropospheric ozone, Atmospheric Sciences, Ecology and Ecosystems, EMPACT, ambient air quality, monitoring, particulate matter, meteorology, ozone , particulate, regional monitoring program , stratospheric ozone, Alabama (AL), air quality models, ozone, public reporting, modeling, predictive model, community outreach, ecosystem health, public access, airmass trajectory maps, statistical forecast model, air qualityRelevant Websites:
http://vortex.nsstc.uah.edu/empact_bhm/ Exit
Progress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.