Evolution of Ozone Precursor Measuring and the PAMs Project from 1992 to Present

Oral Presentation

Prepared by L. Marotta, H. Grecsek, A. Tipler
PerkinElmer, 710 Bridgeport Avenue, Shelton, CT, 06484

Contact Information: lee.marotta@perkinelmer.com; 201-864-0852

ABSTRACT

One of the regulations of the US Clean Air Act of 1992 mandated that States in non-attainment (exceed the allowable level) of ozone precursors monitor these analytes hourly during four months in the summer. The target analyte list contains 55 non-polar compounds in the boiling point range C2 to C11. There were detailed planned points of sampling mostly from city centers or points of emission; for instance, refineries.

In 1998, most of the areas affected were the northeast corridor, the gulf coast, Illinois and Wisconsin. Some sampling sites needed to be at remote locations which required unattended operation.

This presentation will discuss the following:
• Intro to Thermal Desorption
• The initial challenges of this project and how these challenges were successfully overcome from a technical;
• The improvements made in sampling and technology;
• What states have done to make this program more successful;
• How to handle the overwhelming amount of data;
• What has been learnt from this data, and what changes have been implemented to improve the environment;
• Suggestions for the future.

The PAMS program has been beneficial and successful. All aspects including technical, data (information) and logistic, will be covered.