Monitoring Air Quality Impacts on Wilderness

Monitoring Air Why Monitor Air Quality? Quality Impacts on

Wilderness  Clean Air Act of 1977 gives Federal land managers “…an affirmative responsibility to CSS 496 protect the air quality related values (including visibility)… within a class I area.” Prof. Ed Krumpe  AQRVs – air quality related values  PSD – preventing significant deterioration

Three Functional Groups of Air Pollutants

 Acidifying pollutants

 gaseous emissions of SO2 & Nox  foliar injury, acidification of surface water  Particulate Matter  trace elements & heavy metals (e.g. lead)  Photochemical Oxidants  product of atmospheric reactions of gaseous emissions

(e.g. SO2 & Nox) & oxygen & sunlight to produce ozone

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Wilderness Attributes Impacted by Wilderness Attributes Impacted by Anthropogenic Air Pollution Anthropogenic Air Pollution Flora & Fauna Water  Growth  Visible Injury  pH  Productivity  Mortality  Total alkalinity  Reproduction  Succession  Metal concentrations  Diversity  Anion & cation concentrations

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1 Wilderness Attributes Impacted by Wilderness Attributes Impacted by Anthropogenic Air Pollution Anthropogenic Air Pollution Soil Visibility  Cation exchange capacity  Contrast  Base saturation  Visual Range  pH  Coloration  Structure  Viewshed  Metals concentration

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AIR QUALITY MONITORING Wilderness Attributes Impacted by NETWORKS Anthropogenic Air Pollution

 GPMN - http://12.45.109.6/ Odor  Gaseous Pollutant Monitoring Network  Noticeable odors  Ozone and meteorological monitoring – 40 NPS sites  NADP/MDN - http://nadp.sws.uiuc.edu/  National Atmospheric Deposition Program  Wet acid deposition – 37 NPS sites Cultural, Archeological, Geologic  Mercury deposition – 8 sites nationwide  CASTNet - http://www.epa.gov/castnet/  Decomposition rate  Clean Air Status and Trends Network  Patina deposition/erosion  Dry acid deposition – 70 sites nationwide  Rural ozone and meteorology  IMPROVE - http://vista.cira.colostate.edu/improve/  Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments

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Indicators to Monitor Air Indicators to Monitor Air Quality Quality

 Lichens  Visible foliar injury (vascular plants)  More sensitive--absorb water & air directly from atmosphere rather than through roots  Leaf spotting, reduced flowering  Long lived, no deciduous parts--accumulate pollutants  Difficult for field staff to distinguish foliar injury  Abundant and widely distributed from pollutants from frost, drought, insects  “Shrubby” fruticose forms hanging from trees most  Must be observed in the field at proper time sensitive. “leafy” foliose & “encrusting” crustose forms  Sensitive vegetation must be widely distributed  Mosses  Absorb pollutants directly from atmosphere & accumulate in tissue (particularly mercury pollution)

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2 Indicators to Monitor Air Indicators to Monitor Air Quality Quality

 Fauna -- air pollution can affect bird, insect, Visibility mammal & fish populations  Contrast – photos w/ control  Salamanders & amphibians   are sensitive in reproduction & growth Visual Range – photos of landmarks  Accumulation & concentration  Coloration – loss of visible color  Pollutants concentrate in certain tissue  Viewshed – areas seen from key corridors  Fatty tissue in fish & wildlife and destinations  Arsenic in wildlife hair in Mt. Rainier. Park  Honeybees used to map fluoride & heavy metals & identify point sources

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View Monitoring (% of maximum)

Visible landscape features Fixed photo point in Park Visible landscape features Visible landscape features

(background)

(mid-ground) (foreground)

5 mi

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3 IMPROVE Monitoring Equipment

Every IMPROVE site deploys an aerosol sampler to measure speciated fine aerosols and PM10 mass. Select sites also deploy Transmissometer and Nephelometers to measure light extinction and scattering respectively, as well as automatic camera systems to measure the “scene”.

Webcam

The IMPROVE Modular Aerosol Sampler The receiver for an Optec LPV-2 The Optec NGN-2 integrating which, measure fine and total aerosol transmissometer, which measures the nephelometer, which estimates the mass. The sampler was developed and light extinction coefficient by atm. scattering coefficient by directly refined by the IMPROVE program, and measuring the attenuation of light measuring light scattered by aerosols has been in operation since 1987. from a light source. and gases in a sampled air volume. 19 20

San Juan Islands Visibilty Monitoring

Overall Scene Conditions Haze Conditions  No clouds  Ground based  Scattered clouds  Elevated  Overcast  Multiple  Haze concealing  Weather concealing  Weather concealing  Cannot determine  Cannot determine  No haze

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