MONITORING INTERSTATE POLLUTANT TRANSPORT FROM THE WESTERN MARYLAND PINEY RUN SITE: OBJECTIVES, DESIGN, AND DEMONSTRATION

The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) Air Quality Monitoring and Planning Program deployed a new air monitoring site in 2004 to track the impact of interstate pollutant transport on air quality in Maryland. Currently Maryland does not meet the EPA National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for annual PM2.5, 8-hour ozone, and 1-hour ozone. Consequently, the monitoring focus will be on PM2.5, ozone, and their respective precursors and constituent species. Column monitoring of meteorology and air quality will also take place via remote sensing by a wind profiling radar system and via in-situ measurements by aircraft and balloons. The new site, called "Piney Run", will provide a continuous time series of highly time resolved data. The location is unique for measuring regional background pollutant loads because it is a high elevation, western boundary location in rural Maryland. Piney Run will also focus on haze-related measurements as part of the Rural Aerosol Intensive Network (RAIN) deployed in Spring 2004 by state agencies in the Mid-Atlantic/Northeast Visibility Union (MANE-VU) regional planning organization. In addition, the site is part of several national monitoring networks including the Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE), the National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP), the National Trends Network (NTN), and the Mercury Deposition Network (MDN). While recently proposed regulations from EPA, including the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) formerly known as the IAQR (Interstate Air Quality Rule), acknowledge the presence of interstate transport, equal implementation of emission control strategies across state boundaries remains an ambitious goal. Results from Piney Run will be used to address interstate transport and to develop future Maryland State Implementation Plans for ozone, PM2.5, and regional haze.