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THE SUPERSITES PROGRAM
Citation:
Scheffe, R. D., P A. Solomon, AND M. Pitchford. THE SUPERSITES PROGRAM. Presented at American Association for Aerosol Science, Tacoma, WA, October 11-15, 1999.
Description:
The PM2.5 monitoring program is dominated by gravimetric measurements (over 1000 mass samplers nationwide) specific for indicator mass, where the primary objective is comparisons with the PM2.5 National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). The other major component of the network is the speciation program, estimated to deploy as many as 300 samplers nationwide, and dominated largely by filter based technologies. The speciation program is designed to characterize the chemical composition of airsheds across the nation to support the development of State Implementation Plans (SIPs) and for ongoing air quality trends analyses. Modifications to both the mass and speciation components have been made in response to advice from the scientific community encouraging more frequent mass and speciation sampling to assist health effects and exposure research efforts. Regardless of the monitoring objective of concern, there is a general consensus and widespread support for advancing sampling and analysis methods that lead toward more resolved aerosol compositions in time, chemistry, phase, and size with attendant reduction in sampling artifacts. The Supersites program was conceived in recognition of this need to foster testing and eventual application of advanced methods as a complement to the more routine technologies envisioned at this stage of program deployment.
Based on a series of meetings and workshops with a wide spectrum of health and atmospheric scientists, the Supersites program has evolved to incorporate three principal objectives:
1) SIPs ....support development of State Implementation Plans (SIP's) through improved understanding of source-receptor relationships leading to improved design, implementation, and tracking of control strategy effectiveness in the overall PM program;
2) health effects and exposure....development of monitoring data and samples to support health and exposure studies to reduce uncertainty in National Ambient Air Quality Standards setting and to enable improved health risk assessments; and
3) methods testing .... comparison and evaluation of emerging sampling methods with routine techniques to enable a smooth transition to advanced methods.
Over the last decade several major field programs have been conducted by consortiums composed of private sector, government and academic scientists and sponsors. The Supersites program reflects a concerted effort by EPA to actively engage with its industrial and academic partners in major field programs that historically have produced valuable insights in measurement techniques and characterization of atmospheric processes. Moreover, the program seeks to provide a unifying vehicle that not only attempts to link efforts across diverse geographic and airshed domains, but fosters collaboration across health effects, exposure, atmospheric science and regulatory disciplines. These communication benefits across technical and organizational lines are expected to be as important as the direct technical findings emerging from the program.
This paper will provide an overview of the Supersites program, and report on the initial Atlanta, Georgia study conducted in August, 1999.
This work has been funded wholly or in part by the United States Environmental Protection Agency through internal funding. It has been subjected to Agency review and approved for publication. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use.