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Wednesday, April 09, 2003

By Jan Adam

The county Health Department has been relying on the bucket brigade to monitor for benzene and acrylonitrile because of the way the Clean Air Act breaks down responsibility for identifying chemicals in the air.

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According to Roger Westman, who heads the Allegheny County Health Department's air quality program, the federal Clean Air Act can be viewed in two parts.

The 1970 Federal Clean Air Act provides an Air Quality Index based on ongoing monitoring of six criteria pollutants. It mandates that the enforcing agency monitor these in the open air, and plan and enforce necessary reductions of these in order to maintain air quality that complies with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards.

The six criteria pollutants are particulate matter, ozone, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxides, nitrogen dioxide and lead. For reporting purposes, these are generally measured as averages over time.

Westman said Allegheny County is in compliance with the act now, and has been in the past.

New tighter limits have recently been established for particulates and for ozone, he said. The health department is working to bring the county into compliance with the tighter limits, which Westerman said could take several years.

Then there's the 1990 Amendments to the Federal Clean Air Act. These additions provided for control of 188 chemicals known to be carcinogenic or toxic. The act requires the enforcing agency to control these by setting and enforcing standards for the maximum emission amounts at the source of emission.

There is no provision for ongoing monitoring of these in the open air. That's where the bucket brigade comes in.

The act also provides that after seven years, the federal government will examine the residual risk from these chemicals. This step is under way now in Allegheny County, Westman said.