Fact Sheet (revised )

Transcription

1 Fact Sheet (revised ) 1. National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS): Ozone (eight hour average): 75 parts per billion (ppb) Fine Particle - PM2.5: (24 hour average): 35 micrograms per cubic meter of air (ug/m 3 ) 2. March - April 2014 NAAQS exceedances related to burning of rangeland: KANSAS Date Monitor Site Metro Area PM2.5 ug/m 3 Ozone (8hr) ppb 4/5/14 Health Department Wichita 49.5* 4/5/14 Peck Sumner Co /5/14 K96 & Hydraulic Wichita /5/14 Glenn & Pawnee Wichita /11/14 Health Department Wichita 85 4/11/14 Peck Sumner Co. 79 4/11/14 Sedgwick Wichita 77 * Average of principal and co-located monitors NEBRASKA (source: EPA AQS or Nebraska Dept. of Environmental Quality) Date Monitor Site Metro Area PM2.5 ug/m 3 3/30/14 LLCHD - 3 monitors* Lincoln /6/14 LLCHD - BAM** Lincoln /12/14 Bellevue Omaha /18/14 LLCHD - BAM Lincoln 60.5 * This Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department site contains two federal reference monitors, one sampling every sixth day co-located with another sampling every 3rd day, plus a (beta attenuation) BAM continuous monitor. On March 30, the measured 24-hour values were 38.7, 32.1 and 38.7 ug/m3 respectively, for an average of 36.5 ug/m3. **The LLCHD operates a "beta attenuation" continuous monitor (BAM) for purpose of issuing health advisories. This data is reported to Air Now for the Air Quality Index but is not used for NAAQS compliance purposes. Bellevue is also a continuous BAM monitor that is used for compliance purposes. EPA AQS:

2 3. History of Acres Burned in the Flint Hills (Source, KDHE, May 29, 2014) 4. EPA Rules for locating air quality monitors. In general EPA rules dictate that PM2.5 air quality monitors be placed primarily in and around the largest population centers in a state and/or at locations that are believed to be relatively close to a violation (85%+ of the NAAQS design value"). 1 Since EPA and KDHE have apparently speculated that PM2.5 values in Flint Hills region do not lie within 85% of the standard, the region, and points downwind, would not qualify for a mandatory monitor under current rules. Of course one might ask, if there have never been any such monitors in this region, how would KDHE know what the design values are? In any event, EPA rules fail to anticipate that, in the month of April each year, intensive range burning, combined with the prevailing southerly winds and the north-south orientation of the Flint Hills physiographic region, send pulses of thick smoke streaming to the north, subjecting rural residents and residents of small towns and cities to a known health hazard. In the case of the 2014 event, the timely detection of PM 2.5 exceedances from the Flint Hills burning was possible only because Lincoln and Omaha are metropolitan areas

3 which, on account of their large populations, hosted continuous PM2.5 monitors. EPA considers continuous monitors crucial for informing the public during air pollution episodes via the Air Quality Index system and in support of emergency situations like wildfires. 1 EPA rules also say, however, that in connection with a state's annual monitoring plan, the EPA Regional Administrator is authorized to approve the placement of PM2.5 monitors in other settings where "there is reason to believe PM2.5 concentrations are of concern." In addition a state may place a monitor in any location of its choice without need for EPA approval Other Monitors in, or directly downwind of, the Flint Hills. KDHE operates an IMPROVE monitor on the premises of the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve near Strong City in the Flint Hills. It is part of a nationwide system designed to assess visibility and haze. EPA allows a state to count an IMPROVE monitor as satisfying its obligation to provide background and (long-range) transport monitoring for PM 2.5. While this filter-based monitor does measure PM2.5, it takes samples only every third day and data may not be available for several months. 2 Thus, it cannot be used, like a continuous monitor, to detect a health hazard on a near real-time basis. In their August 30, 2010 five-year monitoring plan KDHE said they planned to add an NCore monitor to the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve site in the Flint Hills. 3 It had been approved by EPA in October of Ncore is another national network of monitoring sites that is designed in part to assess rural air quality. 4 The Ncore network is specifically designed to provide timely reporting of data to the public through the AIRNow website ( for air quality forecasting, and to support scientific studies. Ncore sites include continuous monitoring of ozone and PM2.5 and would be capable of assessing air quality on a near real time basis in the Flint Hills. However, based on documents obtained from KDHE, the Department notified EPA Region 7 in 2011 that they were no longer interested developing the site due to funding and personnel shortages. 5 EPA responded by asking KDHE what they would need from EPA to proceed, and noted that KDHE had expressed interest in modifying the site to run only selected analyses. 6 KDHE provided no additional documents describing a response to EPA's request. Very recently EPA Region 7 confirmed that the proposed Ncore monitor had not been installed, and there is no timetable for if, or when, it will go ahead. 7 Topeka hosts both a continuous ozone monitor and a continuous PM10 monitor, but its filter-type PM2.5 monitor operates only every third day. There are three filter-type PM2.5 monitors in Wichita that operate every third day and a co-located filter-type that operates every sixth day. All of these operate on the same schedule rather than being

4 staggered to cover each day. In their latest annual monitoring plan KDHE says they are "considering" adding a combination, continuous PM10/PM2.5 monitor to their Topeka monitoring site Fine Particle Monitoring Coverage. During the burn seasons, Wichita and Topeka together experienced eleven ozone exceedances, but nearby filter-based PM2.5 monitors took samples during only three of those episodes. In 2014 the Topeka continuous ozone monitor, that is capable of detecting a bad air day on a near real-time basis, did not approach the ozone standard on the days when PM2.5 exceedances were experienced in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. That could be because the winds were veering to the northwest over the Flint Hills, or it may have been mostly cloudy which would have limited the formation of ozone from the precursors present in the smoke. The continuous PM10 monitor in Topeka is also not able to detect a dangerous elevation of PM2.5 fine particles. 7. Reduction in Downwind Ozone Monitoring. Not only is a continuous ozone monitor an inadequate surrogate for a continuous PM2.5 monitor but, in any event, the shut down of the Konza Prairie monitor last year 9 left no ozone monitor between Topeka and the Cedar Bluff Reservoir west of Hays, a distance of 230 miles. Starting in 2014 KDHE also moved both the ozone and continuous PM10/PM2.5 monitors from Mine Creek in Linn County to Chanute in Neosho County, much further south. 10 The ozone monitor at Mine Creek had exceeded the 75 ppb standard during the burn seasons of 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2011 (EPA AQS). Although this was never noted in the annual monitoring plans, the PM2.5 part of the continuous monitor at Chanute is no longer being operated. 8. KDHE Health Advisories related to Flint Hills rangeland burning. The Smoke Management Plan (SMP, page 25) ( states that KDHE will issue a general health advisory prior to the Flint Hills burning season. The SMP also states, "if conditions are favorable for significant rangeland burning, a specific health advisory for the following days is issued." In 2014 KDHE issued their general advisory on Feb. 28, but despite the exceedances related to five separate burn days in Kansas or southern Nebraska, we found no other advisories from KDHE during the burn season ( Nebraska authorities did issue advisories when their monitors detected the problem on April 11 & The lack of monitors in and around the Flint Hills during burn season will call into question the results of any health study conducted by state or federal agencies because they will be unable to accurately estimate the actual level of exposure suffered by downwind human receptors. 9. The KDHE Presentation at the Nov. 6, 2014 meeting may be access here:

5 10. Sierra Club Policy on rangeland burning in the Flint Hills. The Sierra Club does not object to rangeland burning, if it is conducted in a manner that avoids impacts to the public health and avoids significant damage to wildlife habitat. The problem in the Flint Hills is the wholesale burning of rangeland on just a few days in late March or April every year followed by a high density of cattle grazing. Research has demonstrated that better alternatives are available such as "patch burn" where a third of a ranch's land is burned each year in rotation. In addition, it is not necessary for ranchers to burn in the same narrow time-window in April of every year, though challenges to this conventional wisdom has generated a contentious debate. Latest example may be sourced at these links: References: 1. Fed. Register/Vol.71, No. 200/Tues, Oct 17, 2006/Rules and Regulations, P "Requirements for Operation of PM2.5 stations." KDHE, 5-Year Ambient Air Monitoring Network Assessment, August 30, 2010, available from search of KDHE website KDHE, Ambient Air Monitoring Network Plan, July from Robert Nichols, EPA R7 to Tom Gross and Douglas Watson, KDHE, March 09, from Lachala Kemp, EPA Region 7, to Craig Volland of the Kansas Sierra Club, August 21, KDHE, Ambient Air Monitoring Network Plan, KDHE, Ambient Air Monitoring Network Plan. 11. Nebraska Health Advisories