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Air
Quality Monitors in Scotchtown
There are three air quality monitoring sites in the Town of Wallkill, all of which are technically located in Scotchtown. They are “source oriented monitoring sites,” and were specifically established to monitor lead in the vicinity of the Revere Smelting & Refining facility, a battery recycling plant on Ballard Road. One of these monitoring sites is located at 27 Industrial Drive and the other two are on Ballard Road. There is a monitor at 260 Ballard (the old Wakefern Food site) which borders the Revere property to the south and another on the Ball Corporation property at 95 Ballard, across the street from the RSR facility. According to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the two sites on Ballard Road are upwind and the Industrial Drive site is downwind of RSR. Samples are taken every six days by an independent laboratory contracted by the NYSDEC. These monitors are the only remaining lead monitoring sites in upstate New York. [1] The Clean Air Act requires the Environmental Protection Agency to set National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for lead and five other criteria pollutants. Up until very recently, both the New York State and Federal Ambient Air Quality Standard for lead required that quarterly averages are not to exceed 1.5 micrograms per cubic meter of air. The annual averages from the Scotchtown monitors are shown below. The readings from the Wakefern and Ball Corp. monitors are clearly higher that those taken from the monitor on Industrial Drive, which is significantly farther from the Revere site.
DEC
Station Site #. ..1990
. 1991 . 1992
. 1993 . 1994
. 1995 . 1996
. 1997
. 1998
. 1999 The annual averages provide some perspective, but as stated above, it is the quarterly averages that were used to determine whether or not there was a violation of the air quality standards. The three highest quarterly averages for 2006 and 2007 are shown below. The highest quarterly average recorded in the past two years for any of the monitors appears to be the 4th quarter of 2006 at the Wakefern monitor. This 0.08 reading was well below the 1.5 air quality standard for lead. The last time the readings from any of the RSR monitors resulted in a quarterly average over 1.5 micrograms per cubic meter of air was in 1987. [3] Quarterly
Averages (micrograms per cubic meter of air) 2006-2007
[4]
DEC
Station Site # . . 2006: 3
Highest Values [Quarter] ... 2007:
3 Highest Values [Quarter] This data comes from the NYSDEC annual Air Quality Report. Besides annual and quarterly averages, these reports also list the three highest lead concentrations that were recorded in a 24-hour period. For example, the highest 24-hour concentration recorded in 2006 at the Wakefern site was on April 5th when the concentration was 0.33 micrograms per cubic meter of air. In 2007, the two highest readings were also in April and were both recorded at 0.22 micrograms per cubic meter of air. As summarized in a recent NYSDEC fact sheet, “As might be expected – since April is in the 2nd quarter – the highest value quarterly average, 0.06 micrograms per cubic meter of air, occurred in the second quarter of 2007. To comply with State and Federal Ambient Air Quality Standards, the maximum quarterly average cannot exceed 1.5 micrograms per cubic meter. Therefore, the maximum quarterly reading for airborne lead emissions coming from the property (0.06 micrograms per cubic meter of air) was twenty five times less severe than the EPA National Ambient Air Quality Standard of 1.5 micrograms per cubic meter.” [5] However, on May 1, 2008 the United States Environmental Protection Agency announced it was taking steps toward adopting a stronger air quality standard for lead for the first time in 30 years. The agency proposed revising the existing standard of 1.5 micrograms per cubic meter of air to a level within the range of 0.10 to 0.30 micrograms per cubic meter. On July 17, 2008 the EPA extended the deadline for public comment on the proposal and announced that final standards will be issued by October 15, 2008. According the EPA, the change has been proposed “to dramatically strengthen the standards to reflect the latest science on lead and health.” Lead that is emitted into the air can be inhaled or, after it settles out of the air, can be ingested. Ingestion is the main route of human exposure. Once in the body, lead is rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream and can affect many organ systems. More than 6,000 studies since 1990 have examined the effects of lead on health and the environment. Evidence from health studies indicates that lead in the blood can cause harm at much lower levels than previously understood. [6] On October 15, 2008 the EPA announced the new limit would be lowered to .15 micrograms per cubic meter – a reduction of 90 percent. Environmentalists generally hailed the ruling but some organizations, such as the Natural Resources Defense Council, were concerned that the EPA had not adopted a monthly average to determine compliance. The agency did announced they would no longer use a quarterly average but instead of adopting a shorter time period, the EPA said they would now use the highest three-month average evaluated over a three-year period. In other words, the highest average could be any three consecutive months, even if they include months from different quarters or different years. According to Gina Solomon, a health expert at the NRDC, “That means that large but brief ‘spikes’ of lead emissions from smelters and other polluters could contaminate the soil of playgrounds and backyards even in some areas that are in attainment of the new standard.” [7] Since leaded gasoline was phased out, the highest levels of lead in the air today are generally found near lead smelters. Lead particles emitted into the air from these and other sources can end up in water, soil and dust, and over time can re-enter the air. This cycling of lead in the environment means people can be exposed to lead that was emitted just yesterday or years ago. For general information
on lead in the air and a fact sheet on the new lead standard,
please visit: For documents related
to the RSR site, please visit: Copyright © 2008 ScotchtownHighlander.com [1] New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, 2008 Annual Monitoring Network Plan (May 6, 2008), 94-95. Retrieved September 9 2008 from http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/air_pdf/08networkplan6.pdf [2] New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, 2006 Region 3 Air Quality Data. Retrieved September 9 2008 from http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/29311.html; and New York State Ambient Air Quality Report for 2007. Retrieved September 9 2008 from http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/8536.html. [3] See New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, 2000 Data Tables and Graphs, page 9. Retrieved from http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/air_pdf/2000aqdata.pdf [4] New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, 2006 Region 3 Air Quality Data. Retrieved September 9 2008 from http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/29311.html; and New York State Ambient Air Quality Report for 2007. Retrieved September 9 2008 from http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/8536.html. [5] New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, FACT SHEET October 2008: Revere Smelting & Refining (RSR) Site, Town of Wallkill, Orange County, NY. Retrieved October 16 2008 from http://www.townofwallkill.com/rsr/pdf/DEC_RSR_FactSheet_10_08.pdf [6] United States Environmental Protection Agency, EPA Proposes Stronger Air Quality Standards for Lead, May 1, 2008 Press Release [7] msnbc.com, “EPA sets rule to get the lead out of our air.” Retrieved October 16 2008 from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27216428/. To read more about Dr. Solomon's concerns, read her blog at http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/gsolomon/new_standard_for_lead_in_air.html.
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