waqa washington air quality advisory presented to the 2007 national air quality conference by sean...
TRANSCRIPT
WAQA Washington Air Quality Advisory
Presented to the 2007 National Air Quality Conferenceby Sean Lundblad
Washington State Department of EcologyAir Quality Program February 13, 2007
Orlando, FL
What is WAQA?
• The Washington Air Quality Advisory (WAQA) is Washington’s “AQI-like” public information tool
• WAQA is not AQI
• Our website will state WAQA is not AQI
• Why we wanted an alternative to the AQI
• What options we looked at
• How we came up with the options
• What the final choice was
• Implementation (fingers crossed)
What you will hear
Policy Implications• The Good
– New 24-hour standard of 35 ug/m3 is more protective– Ecology has an air quality goal of 20 ug/m3 – The public is familiar with AQI
• The Bad– New standard at the highest end of range of what
CASAC recommended– EPA did not revise the annual standard
• The Ugly – EPA has not updated the PM2.5 AQI– Current AQI is misleading in that it downplays health
risks– Washington State has winter PM problems
Policy Drivers
• Health concerns should drive our actions
• Providing accurate near-real-time information to the public is critical for the health of the citizens
The Policy Choice:
Washington wants a way to inform the public of PM2.5 health effects at lower
levels than EPA
How we got to WAQA
• Examined logic behind current AQI breakpoints
• Created new breakpoints based on CFR logic
• Factored in results of health studies
• Air Quality Program weighed policy issues and selected an option
Examined logic behind current PM2.5 AQI Breakpoints
AQI Category
Estimated mid-point 24-hour
concentration Breakpoints
AQI Score
Good 0 to 15.4 ug/m3 0 to 50
Moderate 15.5 to 40.4 ug/m3 51 to 100
Unhealthy for sensitive groups
40.5 to 65.4 ug/m3 101 to 150
Unhealthy 65.5 to 150.4 ug/m3 151 to 200
Very unhealthy 150.5 to 250.4 ug/m3 201 to 300
Hazardous > 250.4 301 - 500
Annual standard
Old 24-hr standard
Examined breakpoints
• As % of old standard• As % change between categories• Tried to deviate as little as possible
WAQA Options
• Option 1: “Classic” interpretation of CFRs that is more protective than AQI
• Options 2 & 3: Increasingly protective scenarios that reflect research indicating health effects; implement program goal
• Option 4: Very protective scenario
How did these options compare graphically?
Nephelometer/Correlated PM2.5 Monitoring Sites
Nephelometer Sites w/correlated PM2.5Nephelometer Sites
2005
Seattle
Lacey
Nephelometer/Correlated PM2.5 Monitoring Sites
Nephelometer Sites w/correlated PM2.5
Nephelometer Sites
2005
Nephelometer/Correlated PM2.5 Monitoring Sites
Nephelometer Sites w/correlated PM2.5
Nephelometer Sites
2005
Cheeka Peak
Lacey
Seattle
Twisp
Twisp (9/4/06 - 9/10/06) Wildfires - very "dirty" air
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500
11:00PM
2:00PM
5:00AM
8:00PM
11:00AM
2:00AM
5:00PM
8:00AM
11:00PM
2:00PM
5:00AM
8:00PM
Time
AQ
I
Current AQI
Option 1
Option 2
Option 3
Option 4
=3.5 ug/m3Estimated mid-point 24-hr concentration = 126.6 ug/m3
Lacey (10/21/06 - 10/24/06) "typical" impaired air
0
50
100
150
200
2:00PM
12:00AM
10:00AM
8:00PM
6:00AM
4:00PM
2:00AM
12:00PM
10:00PM
8:00AM
6:00PM
Time
AQ
I
Current AQI
Option 1
Option 2
Option 3
Option 4
Estimated mid-point 24-hr concentration = 24.2 ug/m3 = 11.6 ug/m3
Cheeka Peak (10/21/06 - 10/24/06) "clean" site
0
50
100
150
200
2:00PM
12:00AM
10:00AM
8:00PM
6:00AM
4:00PM
2:00AM
12:00PM
10:00PM
8:00AM
6:00PM
Time
AQ
I
Current AQI
Option 1
Option 2
Option 3
Option 4
Estimated mid-point 24-hour concentration = 6.5 ug/m3
=36.7 ug/m3
Would we ever be in the green (Good) with any of these
options?
YES!
# days per option for continuous PM2.5 monitors in 2005
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
14000
Good Moderate USG Unhealthy VeryUnhealthy
Hazardous
Category
Cou
nt o
f Day
s Current AQI
Option 1
Option 2
Option 3
Option 4
What Ecology elected to do
• Combination of Option 3 and Option 2
Why combine Options 3 & 2?
• Option 4 harder to defend scientifically
• Breakpoints of Option 3 more defensible except for Good/Mod breakpoint
• CASAC-recommended annual standard (13 ug/m3 ) of Option 2 as Good/Mod breakpoint protective and defensible
• Program goal of 20 ug/m3 for Mod/USG breakpoint
When will it happen? SOON!!!
• Decided to tie it to our new data acquisition system and website coming online very soon and– We have been letting our many partners know
of the change – Ironing out how we will present WAQA on
website
Thank you:
• Phyllis Baas – Ecology Air Quality Program Technical Services Section Manager
• Sarah Rees – Ecology Air Quality Program Program Development Section Manager
• Stan Rauh – SWRO & Air Quality Operations Unit Supervisor• Ecology Air Quality Program Leadership Team• Mike Dubois – Airshed Coordinator, Idaho Department of
Environmental Quality• Rachel Sakata - Air Quality Planner, Oregon Department of
Environmental Quality• 2007 National Air Quality Conference Planning Committee• Darby Veeck – Ecology GIS – Photos
