BREDL Air Monitoring Program Update Mar 1, 2024News

BREDL’s air monitoring trailer is scheduled to be collecting data in a Southeast community in early Spring.

STATE OF THE ART: BREDL’s BEAST trailer will collect data for NO, NO 2 , NO X , PM2.5, PM10, total VOCs, and weather, once every minute using state of the art equipment.

Our contract partner Wilbur Technical Services (Wilbur) is in the process of purchasing the equipment that they will install in the BEAST (BREDL Environmental Air Sampling Trailer). Wilbur expects to have all the equipment in their possession by the end of February.

CARE-4-AIR staff are working on the Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP), one of the last remaining EPA preliminary requirements. Our QAPP must be completed and approved by EPA prior to data collection. We have just completed our final draft. We will be sending it to Research Triangle Institute, EPA’s QAPP contractor, and Wilbur for their review. After that, we will make recommended revisions then submit to EPA for approval.

Once the trailer has been purchased, BREDL will complete DMV registration and acquire insurance. Wilbur will also outfit the trailer with a security camera system.

During the first week of December, staff held conference calls with participating chapter representatives to update them on our progress.

Soon we will be finalizing the first couple of sites that will collect data. The exact locations will not be made public out of privacy and security concerns.

The trailer is being constructed to run off one regular residential AC outlet.

Data for NO, NO 2 , NO X , PM2.5, PM10, total VOCs, and weather will be collected once every minute using state of the art equipment. Data will be captured on a central computer and sent via cellular service. Our Envidas software will use the minute data to calculate the one-hour averages for each parameter. A daily report with those one-hour averages will be emailed daily.

With the announcement of EPA funding for air monitoring in December, 2021, BREDL’s Grant Writer, Ann Rogers, initiated a process of researching various protocols available for measuring air pollution at strategic locations in the southeastern U.S. where BREDL chapters have confirmed a need for air pollution monitoring. Our research uncovered the fact that the EPA and a number of state agencies are using Teledyne equipment for this type of monitoring, and that the findings generated by this equipment is of high enough quality to be accepted as substantive by local, state, or federal government agencies.

BREDL’s CARE-4-AIR monitoring system will feature the Teledyne API Model T640 PM Mass Monitor, an EPA-approved Federal Equivalent Method (FEM) air monitoring instrument; and the Teledyne API Model T200 nitrogen oxides analyzer, an EPA-approved Federal Reference Method (FRM) instrument. These two units meet the EPA stringent requirements for National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) regulations. Wilbur will also add the Aeroqual AQS-1 Volatile Organic Compound air monitor. Several units will work in conjunction with the pollutant analyzers. These include: Teledyne units T700U Gas Dilution Calibrator and T701H Zero Air Generator, Vaisala WXT 530 meteorological station, and DR DAS Envidas Ultimate Data Acquisitions System.

BREDL has chosen to procure the CARE-4-AIR system through the Raleigh, North Carolina office of the J. J. Wilbur Co. This firm was founded in 1985 by John Wilbur, who has a background as an engineer and manager in environmental monitoring systems with the EPA, environmental consulting companies, and a large worldwide manufacturer of air quality instrumentation.

We hope that all BREDL chapters dealing with air quality problems will consider jumping on board with us in the CARE-4-AIR project to take advantage of this remarkable opportunity.