Community-Scale Monitoring of Particle-Bound Metals in Two Environmental Justice (EJ) Communities in the South Coast Air Basin: I. Mobile Monitoring Results

MOHAMMAD SOWLAT, Christopher Lim, Steven Boddeker, Julia Montoya-Aguilera, Faraz Ahangar, Sina Hasheminassab, Payam Pakbin, Andrea Polidori, Jason Low, South Coast Air Quality Management District

     Abstract Number: 412
     Working Group: Urban Aerosols

Abstract
Ambient particulate metals are an important category of Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPs) with known detrimental impacts on human health. Given the large spatio-temporal variability in ambient concentrations of particulate metals, information from sparsely distributed fixed air monitoring networks may not adequately reflect their levels and trends at the local level, especially in disproportionately impacted (i.e., Environmental Justice (EJ)) communities. The East and Southeast Los Angeles communities are two EJ communities in the South Coast Air Basin (SCAB) designated by California Air Resources Board (CARB) to be part of Assembly Bill (AB) 617, a state-wide program established to reduce the impact of air pollution in EJ communities. In these communities, several known sources of particulate metals are in close proximity to residential areas and sensitive receptors, increasing the level of exposure to these pollutants. Aiming to characterize levels and sources of ambient particle-bound metals in these communities, a year-long air monitoring campaign was conducted, comprising stationary and hyperlocal mobile monitoring of multi-metals. The mobile monitoring surveys provide granular data on the community-scale variation in the concentrations of metals, whereas the stationary monitoring data provide information on their temporal trends and longer-term variations in their concentrations. This presentation focuses on the hyperlocal mobile monitoring component of this campaign, using a recently developed multi-metals mobile platform (MMMP). The presentation provides an overview of the multi-step monitoring strategy employed in this campaign and the preliminary results from the surveys conducted. This discussion explains how the data has been used to elucidate potential sources of trace metals and indicate how the results are being used in support of further actions to reduce emissions and exposure to ambient particle-bound metals in these communities. In an accompanying presentation, results on the temporal trends of particulate metals measured at two monitoring stations in these communities will be discussed.