Mobile laboratory measurements of air pollutants in Baltimore, MD elucidate issues of environmental justice.

The City of Baltimore, MD has a history of problems with environmental justice (EJ), air pollution, and the urban heat island (UHI) effect. Current chemical transport models lack the resolution to simulate concentrations on the scale needed, about 100 m, to identify the neighborhoods with anomalously high air pollution levels. In this paper we introduce the capabilities of a mobile laboratory and an initial survey of several pollutants in Baltimore to identify which communities are exposed to disproportionate concentrations of air pollution and to which species. High concentrations of black carbon (BC) stood out at some locations - near major highways, downtown, and in the Curtis Bay neighborhood of Baltimore. Results from the mobile lab are confirmed with longer-term, low-cost monitoring. In Curtis Bay, higher concentrations of BC were measured along Pennington Ave. (mean [5th to 95th percentiles] = 2.08 [2.0-10.9] µg m-3) than along Curtis Ave. just ~ 150 m away (0.67[0.1 - 1.8] µg m-3). Other species, including criteria pollutants ozone (O3), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and fine particulate matter (PM2.5), showed little gradient. Observations with high spatial and temporal resolution help isolate the mechanisms leading to locally high pollutant concentrations. The difference in BC appears to result not from heavier truck traffic or slower dispersion but from the interruptions in traffic flow. Pennington Ave. has three stoplights while Curtis Ave. has none. As heavy-duty diesel-powered vehicles accelerate, they experience turbo-lag and the resulting rich air-fuel mixture exacerbates BC emissions. Immediate mediation might be achieved through smoother traffic flow, and the long-term solution through replacing heavy-duty trucks with electric vehicles.Implications: We present results documenting the locations within Baltimore of high concentrations of Black Carbon pollution and identify the likely source - diesel exhaust emissions exacerbated by stop-and-go traffic and associated turbo-lag. This suggests solutions (smoother traffic, retrofit particulate filters, replacement of diesel with electric vehicles) that would enhance Environmental Justice (EJ) and could be applied to other cities with EJ problems.Synopsis: This paper presents observations of atmospheric black carbon aerosol showing impacts on environmental justice, then identifies causes and suggests solutions.

VOC and trace gas measurements and ozone chemistry over the Chesapeake Bay during OWLETS-2, 2018.

The Ozone Water-Land Environmental Transition Study, 2018 (OWLETS-2) measured total non-methane hydrocarbons (TNMHC) and EPA PAMS Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) on an island site in the northern Chesapeake Bay 2.1 and 3.4 times greater in concentration, respectively, than simultaneous measurements at a land site just 13 km away across the land-water interface. Many PAMS VOCs had larger concentrations at the island site despite lower NEI emissions over the water, but most of the difference comprised species generally consistent with gasoline vapor or exhaust. Sharp chemical differences were observed between the island and mainland and the immediate air ~300 m above the water surface observed by airplane. Ozone formation potential over land was driven by propene and isoprene but toluene and hexane were dominant over the water with little isoprene observed. VOC concentrations over the water were noted to increase diurnally with an inverse pattern to land resulting in increasing NOx sensitivity over the water. Total reactive nitrogen was lower over the water than the nearby land site, but reservoir compounds (NOz) were greater. Ozone production rates were generally slow (~5 ppb hr-1) both at the surface and aloft over the water, even during periods of high ozone (>70 ppbv) at the water surface. However, specific events showed rapid ozone production >40 ppb hr-1 at the water's surface during situations with high VOCs and sufficient NOx. VOC and photochemistry patterns at the island site were driven by marine sources south of the island, implicating marine traffic, and indicate ozone abatement strategies over land may not be similarly applicable to ozone over the water.Implications: Measured chemical properties and patterns driven primarily by marine traffic sources over water during ozone conducive conditions were starkly different to immediately adjacent land sites, implying ozone abatement strategies over land may not be similarly applicable to ozone over the water.

Observed ozone over the Chesapeake Bay land-water interface: The Hart-Miller Island Pilot Project.

Enhanced ozone concentrations at land-water interfaces create National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) compliance issues across the United States. The northern Chesapeake Bay experiences higher ozone at sites adjacent to the Bay, creating ozone compliance concerns for the state of Maryland. Accordingly, the Maryland Department of the Environment sited an ozone monitor at Hart-Miller Island (HMI) within the northern Chesapeake Bay (NCB) and gathered a continuous ozone and meteorological record over 278 days within the 2016 and 2017 ozone seasons. The representative water site was the highest ozone monitor in the state 28% of all days and 75% when any ozone monitor in the state experienced ozone above the 2015 ozone NAAQS (70 ppbv), known as an exceedance day. In total, 24 exceedance days were observed at HMI. Numerical ozone predictions produced by an operational version of the Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model forecast 52 such days with a high bias of 15.5% in daily maximum ozone concentration during the same period. Trajectory modeling indicated over 70% of exceedance days possessed northwesterly transport over the Baltimore area, with HYSPLIT trajectories descending at least 500 m in greater than 80% of cases toward the NCB surface. These trajectories possessed a button-hook pattern during descent to create southerly surface winds at HMI that may impact coastal sites, creating ozone events at Maryland monitors such as Edgewood. Consequently, the NCB was influenced by the residual layer and from both regional long-range transport and locally sourced ozone precursors. Changes in local meteorology and emissions had a significant impact on over-water ozone concentrations and forecasts. Results of the multi-season ozone pilot study over the Chesapeake Bay provided a conceptual model of high ozone development over water downwind of a large urban center and guidance for future study of the NCB area. Implications: Multi-seasonal observations of surface ozone and meteorology over the water of the northern Chesapeake Bay showed specific conditions leading to degraded air quality. The novel data set collected offers a deeper understanding of over-water ozone magnitude, occurrence, and transport across the land-water interface and comparison to air quality models not before possible.

Observations and impacts of transported Canadian wildfire smoke on ozone and aerosol air quality in the Maryland region on June 9-12, 2015.

UNLABELLED: Canadian wildfire smoke impacted air quality across the northern Mid-Atlantic (MA) of the United States during June 9-12, 2015. A multiday exceedance of the new 2015 70-ppb National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for ozone (O3) followed, resulting in Maryland being incompliant with the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) revised 2015 O3 NAAQS. Surface in situ, balloon-borne, and remote sensing observations monitored the impact of the wildfire smoke at Maryland air quality monitoring sites. At peak smoke concentrations in Maryland, wildfire-attributable volatile organic compounds (VOCs) more than doubled, while non-NOx oxides of nitrogen (NOz) tripled, suggesting long range transport of NOx within the smoke plume. Peak daily average PM2.5 was 32.5 µg m(-3) with large fractions coming from black carbon (BC) and organic carbon (OC), with a synonymous increase in carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations. Measurements indicate that smoke tracers at the surface were spatially and temporally correlated with maximum 8-hr O3 concentrations in the MA, all which peaked on June 11. Despite initial smoke arrival late on June 9, 2015, O3 production was inhibited due to ultraviolet (UV) light attenuation, lower temperatures, and nonoptimal surface layer composition. Comparison of Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model surface O3 forecasts to observations suggests 14 ppb additional O3 due to smoke influences in northern Maryland. Despite polluted conditions, observations of a nocturnal low-level jet (NLLJ) and Chesapeake Bay Breeze (BB) were associated with decreases in O3 in this case. While infrequent in the MA, wildfire smoke may be an increasing fractional contribution to high-O3 days, particularly in light of increased wildfire frequency in a changing climate, lower regional emissions, and tighter air quality standards. IMPLICATIONS: The presented event demonstrates how a single wildfire event associated with an ozone exceedance of the NAAQS can prevent the Baltimore region from complying with lower ozone standards. This relatively new problem in Maryland is due to regional reductions in NOx emissions that led to record low numbers of ozone NAAQS violations in the last 3 years. This case demonstrates the need for adequate means to quantify and justify ozone impacts from wildfires, which can only be done through the use of observationally based models. The data presented may also improve future air quality forecast models.