Tidewater Air Monitoring Evaluation (TAME): Difference between revisions
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Initially, the VA DEQ proposed to install five [[Particulate matter and coal dust|PM<sub>10</sub>]] samplers and one Teledyne T640X in both Southeast Newport News and Lambert’s Point. However, the most recent public communication from VA DEQ indicated a downscaling in the scope of their monitoring plans.<ref>cite</ref> | Initially, the VA DEQ proposed to install five [[Particulate matter and coal dust|PM<sub>10</sub>]] samplers and one Teledyne T640X in both Southeast Newport News and Lambert’s Point. However, the most recent public communication from VA DEQ indicated a downscaling in the scope of their monitoring plans.<ref>cite</ref> | ||
=== ''' | === '''Community Engagement''' === | ||
The VA DEQ is required to “meaningfully involve” Southeast Community and Lambert’s Point residents in TAME by the 2020 Virginia Environmental Justice Act. The VA DEQ has done this in two ways. First, the agency has held multiple community outreach workshops in the project’s early stages. Initially, these meetings were more interactive, with TAME representatives responding to audience questions and soliciting feedback. There is also evidence that engagement was largely perfunctory. For example, during the April 2022 TAME community meeting, attendees were prompted to identify where [[Particulate matter and coal dust|PM<sub>2.5</sub> and PM<sub>10</sub>]] air monitoring should focus in Southeast Newport News. While participants emphasized the need for monitoring very near the terminals, the VA DEQ developed a plan that was more regional in focus, with most monitors sited away from the terminals.<ref>cite</ref> In the July 2022 community workshop recording, TAME project lead Chuck Turner noted April meeting attendees’ preferences for monitoring “heavily concentrated in south and western portion of the community,” but said, “we did wind up going out in other parts of the community to look for additional sites that may not have been proposed in our original April meeting.” More recent meetings have been less interactive, with the limited information largely flowing from TAME representatives to residents and other attendees. | The VA DEQ is required to “meaningfully involve” Southeast Community and Lambert’s Point residents in TAME by the 2020 Virginia Environmental Justice Act. The VA DEQ has done this in two ways. First, the agency has held multiple community outreach workshops in the project’s early stages. Initially, these meetings were more interactive, with TAME representatives responding to audience questions and soliciting feedback. There is also evidence that engagement was largely perfunctory. For example, during the April 2022 TAME community meeting, attendees were prompted to identify where [[Particulate matter and coal dust|PM<sub>2.5</sub> and PM<sub>10</sub>]] air monitoring should focus in Southeast Newport News. While participants emphasized the need for monitoring very near the terminals, the VA DEQ developed a plan that was more regional in focus, with most monitors sited away from the terminals.<ref>cite</ref> In the July 2022 community workshop recording, TAME project lead Chuck Turner noted April meeting attendees’ preferences for monitoring “heavily concentrated in south and western portion of the community,” but said, “we did wind up going out in other parts of the community to look for additional sites that may not have been proposed in our original April meeting.” More recent meetings have been less interactive, with the limited information largely flowing from TAME representatives to residents and other attendees. | ||
Revision as of 19:36, 15 April 2025
Overview
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (VA DEQ) has never done regulatory air monitoring for particulate matter in neighborhoods near the coal terminals in Newport News or Norfolk citing “resource and funding constraints.”[1] According to the VA DEQ, the agency proposed the Tidewater Air Monitoring Evaluation (TAME) study in response to long-standing community concerns about coal dust pollution and calls for dust mitigation.[2] The TAME study was funded by the U.S. EPA in 2020 for $526,603.[3] After multiple years of delays, data collection and analysis are yet to start with no timeline publicly available.
Goals
TAME research goals are:
- To measure PM2.5 and PM10 mass concentrations relevant for regulatory compliance with the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). Do PM2.5 and PM10 exceed the NAAQS? If yes, this would lead to continued regulatory air quality monitoring and other NAAQS compliance requirements.
- To characterize airborne PM10 for heavy metals that are associated with coal dust. Breathing PM2.5 and PM10 that contain high levels of these metals will have different, and likely more severe, health impacts than exposure to PM2.5 and PM10 that don’t have heavy metals and are from other sources.
- To conduct a health risk assessment in partnership with the Virginia Department of Health (VDH). According to the VA DEQ, this assessment will answer: What are the health concerns of exposure to coal dust? Is there an exposure? Is there a health impact? What are the appropriate actions? The health risk assessment requires regulatory PM2.5 and PM10 measurements spanning a minimum of 18 months in neighborhoods in the vicinity of the coal terminals.
Broadly, the VA DEQ aims through TAME to determine whether there is a need for ongoing regulatory air monitoring, inform future VA DEQ Strategic Plan objectives around improving air quality, and engage with “communities designated as underserved.”[4]
Research Methods
The VA DEQ will quantify atmospheric PM10 mass concentrations using their existing inventory of high-volume samplers, collecting 24-hour integrated filter samples every sixth day. These filter samples will then be analyzed off-line in the agency’s laboratory to determine PM10 heavy metal content, with data likely publicly available in the subsequent months. This technique is a Federal Reference Method,[5] meaning these PM10 data can be used to evaluate NAAQS compliance.
The VA DEQ will purchase two Teledyne T640X[6] to measure PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations in real-time, producing data that are temporally continuous and more frequent (as fast as once per ten seconds).[7]
Initially, the VA DEQ proposed to install five PM10 samplers and one Teledyne T640X in both Southeast Newport News and Lambert’s Point. However, the most recent public communication from VA DEQ indicated a downscaling in the scope of their monitoring plans.[8]
Community Engagement
The VA DEQ is required to “meaningfully involve” Southeast Community and Lambert’s Point residents in TAME by the 2020 Virginia Environmental Justice Act. The VA DEQ has done this in two ways. First, the agency has held multiple community outreach workshops in the project’s early stages. Initially, these meetings were more interactive, with TAME representatives responding to audience questions and soliciting feedback. There is also evidence that engagement was largely perfunctory. For example, during the April 2022 TAME community meeting, attendees were prompted to identify where PM2.5 and PM10 air monitoring should focus in Southeast Newport News. While participants emphasized the need for monitoring very near the terminals, the VA DEQ developed a plan that was more regional in focus, with most monitors sited away from the terminals.[9] In the July 2022 community workshop recording, TAME project lead Chuck Turner noted April meeting attendees’ preferences for monitoring “heavily concentrated in south and western portion of the community,” but said, “we did wind up going out in other parts of the community to look for additional sites that may not have been proposed in our original April meeting.” More recent meetings have been less interactive, with the limited information largely flowing from TAME representatives to residents and other attendees.
In their second major community engagement activity, the VA DEQ has an initiative to install low-cost sensors manufactured by PurpleAir to community residences and other buildings, with volunteers bearing associated electricity and internet costs. PurpleAir sensors are a brand of low-cost nephelometer, sensors that directly detect smaller particles, especially PM1, and then estimate larger particles like PM10. This works best when PM1 and PM10 have the same sources. This does not work for coal dust, which is emitted by physical processes that produce large particles and not small particles.[10] The VA DEQ is distributing PurpleAir sensors to residents with dust-related concerns; however, the devices do not measure PM10 and generate air quality data on issues expressly other than coal dust. TAME representatives have presented PurpleAir data in community meetings without accurately explaining their limitations, focusing on how the sensors are not approved for regulatory air monitoring when the most relevant issue is that they do not measure PM10.