JATAP Joint Air Toxics Assessment Project A Successful MultiJurisdictional Research Partnership

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JATAPJoint Air Toxics Assessment Project A
Successful Multi-Jurisdictional Research
Partnership

• National Congress of American Indians
• Mid-Year Convention
• Policy Research Center
• Tribal Leader/Scholar Forum
• June 16, 2009
• Niagara Falls, NY

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Presented by

• Ondrea Barber, Manager
• Environmental Protection Natural Resources
• Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community
• Margaret Cook, Executive Director
• Department of Environmental Quality
• Gila River Indian Community
• Patricia Mariella, Ph.D., Director
• American Indian Policy Institute
• Arizona State University

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Joint Air Toxics Assessment Project (JATAP)

• Collaboration
• tribal, state, county and federal governments
• -determine the types, distribution and
• sources of air toxics in central Arizona
• airshed
• -reduce the health risks from air toxics

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Air Pollution Does Not Recognize Political
Boundaries

• Tribes need data from off
• and on tribal lands
• Tribes have interests in air quality
• off their lands
• Tribes have participated in
  regional
• air quality efforts
• for over two decades

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Understanding Air Toxics

• Are air toxics coming onto tribal lands from
  neighboring urban areas?
• What air toxics are
• being emitted from
• freeways on tribal lands?

Loop 101-202 SRPMIC
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JATAP GOALS

• ?partnerships among participating agencies and
  governments
• ?obtain an area-wide (airshed) understanding of
  exposures and risks
• ?develop a collaborative research model that
  could be useful for other communities

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JATAP is a Multi-jurisdictional Project

• Multi-jurisdictional Steering Committee
• consensus decision-making
• Coordination and Technical Support
• ASU American Indian Policy Institute
• (ITEP for the first phase)
• Funding
• EPA Grants EPA scientist on special detail

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ADEQ Tribal Governments Policyestablished in 1995

• ADEQ recognizes the sovereignty of Tribal
  governments and their jurisdiction over lands
  within Indian Country as defined by federal law
  18 U.S.C.A. 1151. ADEQ will not assert
  authority over Indian Country.
• ADEQ recognizes that the federal government has
  the primary responsibility for assisting Tribes
  to regulate and manage the environment within
  Indian Country.
• ADEQ supports the strengthening of Tribal
  capacity for environmental management and
  regulation. ADEQ support to Tribes will be
  provided in the interest of the State and will
  not be used as the basis for assertion of State
  authority within Indian Country.
• ADEQ is committed to developing cooperative
  relationships with Tribes, and will respect the
  environmental concerns of Tribes. ADEQ requests
  that Tribes show similar respect for the
  environmental concerns of the State of Arizona.
• Without Tribal consent, ADEQ will not solicit and
  asserts no claim to EPA resources that would
  otherwise be provided directly to Tribes.

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JATAP Participants

• Agencies with Monitoring Sites
• Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community EPNR
• Gila River Indian Community DEQ
• Arizona DEQ
• Other participants
• Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation
• Maricopa County Air Quality
• Pinal County Air Quality Control District
• EPA Region 9 and OAQPS
• City of Phoenix
• Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals
• ASU American Indian Policy Institute

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JATAP Monitored for Solvents (VOCs) and Metals
(PM2.5)

• FROM
• mobile sources (cars, trucks)
• e.g., formaldehyde, benzene,
• 1,3-butadiene,
• stationary sources (businesses)
• e.g., chloroform, trichloroethylene, styrene
• background (found throughout U.S.)
• carbon tetrachloride
• toxic metals e.g., arsenic

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Arizona
ARIZONA
JATAP Study Area
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Monitoring Sites
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TRANSITIONS
FROM MONITORING TO RISK ASSESSMENT

• Preliminary Results
• Greatest air toxics risk from freeways
• Increased risk of cancer
• DIFFERENT IMPLICATIONS FOR EACH JURISDICTION

FROM DATA TO POLICY AND ACTION
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WHAT ACTIONS REDUCE RISKS FROM AIR TOXICS ?

• Freeways
• -roadway design
• -trees and vegetation
• -buffer zones California case study
• -filters in buildings near roads
• -targeted reduction in outdoor activities
• ?national/federal fuel and engine standards
• -reduce school bus idling and retrofit school
  bus
• diesel engines

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Tribal Policy Implications

• Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community
• Existing Freeways
• -commercial land use
• Gila River
  Indian Community
• Potential
  Freeway
• -costs
  and benefits

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Reasons for JATAP Success

• Long-standing tribal state environmental agency
  relationships
• Multi jurisdictional collaboration with
  overarching goals
• EPA funding to each jurisdiction
• Coordination through universities
• High quality data (pilot project) (technical
  staff)

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Challenges Common to all Partners

• no national standards for air toxics
  understanding health risks requires risk
  assessments and modeling ()
• EPA funds monitoring
• risk assessment? outreach?
• Communicating effectively with policy-makers and
  public

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• THANK YOU!
• For More Information
• Ondrea Barber [phone]
• ondrea.barber_at_SRPMIC-nsn.gov
• Margaret Cook [phone]
• Margaret.cook_at_gric.nsn.us
• Patricia Mariella, Ph.D. [phone]
• pat.mariella_at_asu.edu

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Monitoring VOCs

• Air Toxics sampled for 1 year at all 7 sites
• 24 hour average samples taken every 6th day
• 17 air toxics (AT) sampled
• 10 are identified as carcinogens
• 5 mobile source AT benzene, 1,3-butadiene,
  acetaldehyde, formaldehyde, ethylbenzene
• 5 industrial source AT dichloromethane,
  hexachlorobutadiene, tetrachloroethylene,
  trichloroethylene, vinyl chloride
• 6 are non-carcinogens (nervous system birth
  defects
• 5 industrial source AT chloroform,
  m,o,p-xylene, styrene
• 1 mobile source AT toluene
• 1 background source carcinogen (carbon
  tetrachloride)

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Monitoring Particulates (metals)

• PM2.5 samples also collected at 4 sites
• Salt River Indian Community
• Gila River Indian Community
• West Phoenix monitor
• Supersite monitor
• Samples have been speciated
• Need risk assessments
• -metals of potential concern arsenic, cadmium,
• chromium, nickel, cobalt, manganese

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Monitoring Results
average concentrations (ug/m3)
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Monitoring Results
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Risk Assessment Scope of Work

• To be implemented in 3 steps
• Stationary source dispersion and exposure
  modeling using HEM-AERMOD model
• Developed emissions inventory for Maricopa County
  containing over 4000 emission point entries
• Urban area-wide mobile source modeling using CAMx
  model
• Develop emissions inventory for Maricopa county
• Will include diesel PM
• Mobile source dispersion modeling to identify
  near-roadway concentrations and exposures
• Highest mobile source concentrations are known to
  occur within 250m of major highway and drop off
  after about 500m

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Gila River Indian CommunityJATAP Message for
Policy Makers

• The Gila River Indian Communitys air quality is
  good (particularly from a regional perspective)
• Data indicates essentially no health risk near
  monitor of air toxics from industries
• There is a low level increase in air toxics
  (benzene) from vehicles benzene is distributed
  though the whole Valley at Gila River the
  levels are lower than at Salt River and only
  slightly higher than at Queen Valley (a remote
  site)

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Gila River Indian CommunityJATAP Message for
Policy Makers (continued)

• The primary health risk from air toxics is an
  increased risk of cancer (leukemia) urban areas
  in the U.S. have levels of air toxics that pose
  some increased cancer risk
• Freeways increase near-by air pollution air
  pollution declines 60 at 320 feet from the
  roadway and drops to background levels at 650
  feet
• GRIC DEQ is working in the Community to reduce
  air toxics, particularly at schools

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What are the national trends for air toxics?

• Benzene is in all urban areas trend is down
• Reductions in freeway pollution from new federal
  diesel fuel and engine rules

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California Case StudyUnintended Consequences

• South Coast, CA
• Air Toxics Study (Multiple Air Toxics Study
  1999)
• Ban on new schools or expansion of schools near
  freeways
• School over-crowding