NCD980602163_20020801_Warren County PCB Landfill_SERB C_No. 111 - Air Monitoring Plan-OCR

WARREN COUNTY
PCB LANDFILL
PERIMETER AIR MONITORING SYSTEM
North Carolina Department of
Environment and Natural Resources
Division of Waste Management
August, 2002
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1.0 Introduction
Warren County PCB Landfill
Ambient Air Sampling Methods
Used At Warren County PCB Landfill
To Protect Citizens Health
Ambient air monitoring will be performed at the Warren County Landfill to evaluate the
air quality and document that harmful air pollutants aren't leaving the site during cleanup.
Monitoring of the ambient air involves three groups of pollutants. They are:
• Particulate matter (PM);
• Volatile organic compounds (VOCs); and
• PCBs/dioxins/furans.
Figure 1 illustrates the various samplers utilized to monitor for PM, VOCs, and
PCB/dioxin/furans at the Warren County PCB Landfill.
Figure 1. Ambient Air Monitoring Station At The Warren County PCB Landfill
(Samplers include portable 3-meter meteorological station, PM-10 particulate monitor
and PCB/dioxin/furan monitor.)
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2.0 Particulate Matter
Monitoring for particulate matter (PM) involves filtering ambient air containing particles
through a pre-weighted quartz fiber filter (where the particles are retained) maintained in
a aluminum housing. If the aluminum housing contains a size-select sampling head to
allow only PM-10 micron particles to enter the sampler to the filter, then the sampler is a
PM-IO sampler, as illustrated in Figure 2.
Figure 2. PM-10 Sampler For Sampling Particles at Warren County PCB Landfill.
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The sampler contains a high-volume pump and flow controller to control the flow of
ambient air pulled through the filter. The sampler also contains a timer so the motor can
be operated without someone present. The field technician installs the filter on the
sampler and sets the timer to operate ~ 24 hours. During the sampling period, particles in
the air are trapped and retained on the filter. The field technician collects the filter and
takes it back to the laboratory to be weighted. The difference in the weight of the filter
before sampling and after sampling ~ 24 hours is the amount of particles sampled from
the ambient air. The volume of gas sampled is divided into the weight gain of the filter to
give an ambient air concentration in micrograms per cubic meters.
As illustrated in Figure 3, the amount of particles retained on the filter is compared to the
United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) National Ambient Air Quality
Standard (NAAQS) to determine if a violation of the standard has occurred.
Figure 3. Picture of Quartz Fiber Filter Used to Monitor TSP in Ambient Air.
This monitoring technique is very similar to the hairs in your nose filtering out particles
from the air you breath.
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3.0 Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are those compounds which are very volatile and
are found in the gaseous state. Compounds in this group are similar to the "smell" of
VOCs from fingernail polish, the emissions from a magic marker, or the vapors from
floor cleaners. The sampling system for monitoring ambient air VOCs consist of an inlet
sampling rod, a pump, and a canister to trap the VOCs, as illustrated in Figure 4.
Figure 4. Volatile Organic Sampler at the Warren County PCB Landfill
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In operation, the ambient air enters the top part of the rod, then is pulled down through
the sampling pump and into a stainless-steel container (canister), where the VOCs are
retained. Figure 5 illustrates the design of a canister.
Figure 5. Canister Used To Contain Volatile Organic Compounds at the Warren County
PCB Landfill.
The canister is returned to the laboratory for analysis. The amount ofVOCs detected are
then compared to EPA's national database.
4.0 Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs)/Dioxins/Furans
The final category of pollutants we monitor at the Warren County PCB Landfill are
chlorinated biphenyl (PCBs), dioxins, and furans. These compounds are very toxic. The
sources of these compounds are combustion of coal at power plants and coolants used in
transformers. These compounds are not very volatile, so we must trap them from the
ambient air with some type of adsorbent. As with the other ambient air monitoring
methods, we will pull a large volume of air through a filter and an adsorbent [ a
polyurethane foam plug (PUF plug)] to trap out the PCBs/dioxin/furans from the air. The
PUF plug is the same material that is found in automobile seats and padding for chairs. It
is perfect for retaining ( extracting) the PCBs/dioxin/furans from the air. Figure 6
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illustrates the PUF plug used in sampling for PCBs/dioxins/furans from the ambient air at
the Warren County PCB Landfill.
Figure 6. PUF Plug Used In Sampling for PCBs/dioxins/furans From The Ambient Air At
the Warren County PCB Landfill.
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and retain the PCBs/diox:ins/furans in the ambient air. Sampling involves a ~ 24 hour
crnmnl;no-,•v0nt A_ ftpr c:'.'lmnlino-th0 fltpr fPT TF nlno-ic: n•tnrn0~ tn th,, hhnrntnrv f.0r _.,.,. •• Li::'"'"''o "'"' ......... "L••·--_,,.~···r ---··o> ...... -............. · ---"" r ·•.-~o ·---... _,_: .. ,-_....,. .,..,_,. .,_ ......... .---~-•-~..-----; .,_.
analysis and the results compared to EPA' s national database. Figure 7 illustrates the
sampler used for sampling PCBs/diox:ins/furans around the Warren County PCB Landfill.
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Figure 7. Sampler Used For Sampling PCBs/Dioxins/Furans Around the Warren County
PCB Landfill.
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PCBs/Dioxins/furans are standardized methods recommended by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA). The methods are:
• \1/illi::im T "Jprrv'' \Vin~rrv Jr f't Bl C'nmmmdi11m of A.1ethnd~· fnr T>eterminn!inn rd' --------------.. ------... ~-----··-;, --•··,1_--------···· -., ---···----.~--- -·--··········-·· ".J
Toxic Organic Compounds in Ambient Air-Second Edition, EPA-625/R-96/0l0b,
January 1999.
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• William T "'Jerry" Winberrv_, Jr. et a!, CompC'ndium of Ml'th(•d,·for the' ,\'ompling
and Analysis of Indoor Air, EPA-600/4-90-010, April 1990.
• \V,lli::m-i T "!Prrv'' W inh,-~rrv Ir pt f-11 ( 'nmnr>ntli11m nf ,\.,f,,tl11uh f'nr !hr> \'nmnlinu-• ..:..~-=-----.:....:.. .:;__ ----·.c:...:...; --.:...;...:....---..:..-=--,,,";;-_.,.._ ---•""";;-·-c··.·,1 ··--~-c .. :_ ·.i _-..:..-,.._,_: ·-· ·,;·· c •• c.._ •• ·-;.. =-~-' C1
and Analysis of Inorganic Compounds in Ambient Air, EPA-625/R-96/0lOa, June
199Q_
• William T. "Jerry" Winberry, Jr. et al, Stalement-of-Work (SOW) for the Analysis of
Ho7.t!rc!ous Air Pollutants-(HAPs) (!f Super_f!,:nd Sites. USEPA, Ot]ce of~olid Waste
and Emergency Response, Washington, DC, Final, January 1994.
• WiHb.m T. "Jerry" WLflberry, Jr. et ::ii; Design, lnstal!ation and Uti/f7.afion r_f Fixed-
Fence/ine Sample Collection and Monitoring System (FFMS), U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers, Center of Excellence, Omaha, NB, EM-200-1-5, September 1997.
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IO Parewood Drive, Bldg. VI, Suite 500, Greenville, South Carolina 29615 May 30, 2002 Ms. Patricia Backus, P.E. North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources Division of Waste Management 401 Oberlin Road, Suite 150 Raleigh, NC 27605 RE: Draft Perimeter Air Monitoring Plan Warren County PCB Landfill Dear Pat: Telephone Enclosed is the updated Air Monitoring Plan for your review and comment. If you have any 8 6 4 _ 2 3 4 _ 3 0 0 0 questions or need additional information, please feel free to contact me at [phone]. Sincerely, ~;),-Shelley Gibbons Attachment cc: Mr. Jim Cloonan, Earth Tech ( I copy) Mr. John Funk, Earth Tech (I copy) Mr. Dennis Jones, Earth Tech (l copy) EARTH©T EC H A tqca INTERNATIONAL LTD. COMPANY Facsimile 864.234.3069