Monitoring Hazardous Air Pollutants with Community Partners at a Landfill Site in Bristol, Virginia

AMIRA HANSCH, Gabriel Isaacman-VanWertz, Virginia Tech

     Abstract Number: 441
     Working Group: Chemicals of Emerging Concern in Indoor and Outdoor Aerosol: Sources, Vectors, Reactivity, and Impacts

Abstract
Landfills emit a wide array of organic and inorganic gases that may be a nuisance or a hazard to nearby communities. Community members living near a landfill in Bristol VA expressed concern regarding emissions, with particular concerns about a number of regulated hazardous air pollutants. In this project, we use passive sorbent tube sampling to collect time-integrated samples at two points in the community – one nearby the site of concern and one farther downtown. Samples are collected quarterly for two weeks at a time following EPA Method 325b, in which sorbent tubes are placed outdoors in a protected area and compounds of concern diffuse into the sample tubes. Tubes are analyzed using thermal desorption gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (TD-GC/MS) with a focus on BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene). Concentrations of these specific hazardous air pollutants are not found to be elevated or of substantial concern; we consequently focus as well on more comprehensively identifying the composition of the samples to provide community members with answers about what they may be smelling. We will proceed with an overview of the sampling strategy and relevant quantification approach as well as an analysis of the gases present.