News Release 479

DEPARTMENT AWARDS ALMOST $18,000 FOR OVERSIGHT OF
AIR TOXICS MONITORING IN THE ST. LOUIS AREA

Volume 36-479

Contact: Renee Bungart

(For immediate release)

573-751-4465

JEFFERSON CITY, MO, AUG. 13, 2008 -- The Missouri Department of Natural Resources has awarded the St. Louis City Air Pollution Control Program a subgrant to fund continued oversight of the Blair Street monitoring site in the St. Louis area.

St. Louis City staff will use the $17,740 award to oversee the sampling of toxic metals, volatile organics and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons at Blair Street for fiscal year 2009.  This continued monitoring will allow for the collection of more robust data in an attempt to understand the behavior and variability of toxic air pollutants.

This site is one of 23 sites nationwide where this type of data is collected. Measurements of key toxic air pollutants in representative areas of the nation will provide a basic measure of air quality differences across cities and regions over time. Trends measurements provide one basis for measuring progress in reducing air toxics. Ambient emission measurements may also provide information to estimate actual human exposure, which in turn can be used to develop effective emission control strategies.

"The monitoring will help the state gather additional information about the behavior of air toxics," said Leanne Tippett Mosby, deputy director for the Division of Environmental Quality. "The more we learn about pollutant transport and behavior, the better equipped we will be to minimize and reduce its harmful effects on air quality and public health."

The project is a continuation of the Community Air Project in St. Louis. The sampling will be conducted every sixth day on the national sampling schedule. Overall project planning, field measurement and data analysis will be conducted by the department with St. Louis City staff overseeing the monitoring station.

For news releases on the Web, visit www.dnr.mo.gov/newsrel. For a complete listing of the department's upcoming meetings, hearings and events, visit the department's online calendar at www.dnr.mo.gov/calendar/search.do.

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