January Air Quality Report

  2013-JANUARY-Air-Quality-Report

Some of the higher readings from the three community ambient air monitors.

 Ventura Drive: Sulfur dioxide (SO2) acute exposure levels of 10 parts per billion (ppb) SO2 or higher were experienced on three days, with high readings of 30 ppb SO2.   All 31 days in January had a daily exposure level to hydrogen sulfide (H2S) of 1 ppb or higher.  The EPA recommended daily exposure level to H2S is 1.4 ppb.  Air toxin sample results are available here .  

 Meraux site:  Sulfur dioxide acute exposure levels of 10 ppb SO2 or higher were experienced on three days, with high readings of 30 ppb SO2.  Ozone levels did not require any Ozone Action Day alerts.  On four days in January the daily exposure level to hydrogen sulfide was 1 ppb or higher.  Air toxin results are available by  public records request.

 Chalmette Vista :  Sulfur dioxide concentrations violated the one-hour health standard of 75 ppb  SO2 on two days, with high readings of 181, 173 and 162 ppb SO2.  On 29 days in January the daily exposure level to hydrogen sulfide was 1 ppb or higher. Hydrogen sulfide levels at Chalmette Vista had high readings of 45, 29, and 23 ppb H2S.   The State of California has a H2S health limit of 30 ppb; Louisiana does not have such a standard.  Particulate matter pollution PM2.5 levels reached 48 and 42 micrograms per cubic foot.  PM10 levels reached 151 ug/m3.  PM2.5 and PM10 standards are 35 ug/m3 and 150 ug/m3.  http://www.epa.gov/air/criteria.html    Data excludes fireworks during the New Year’s Eve timeline, suspected of creating PM2.5 levels has high as 91.0 and 53. 6 ug/m3 and sulfur dioxide levels has high as 95.6 ppb SO2.  Air toxin sample results are available by public records request.

 

 

 

Initial Community Survey

Good Corporate Citizenship goes beyond the sponsorships and donations: A good industrial neighbor makes a commitment to the community when it demonstrates in their daily processing a respect for the residents who live on the other side of the fence.

These facilities need to do more than the industry norm, more than the plants that are appropriated buffered and equipped with better technology. Our lives, health, and future depend upon it.

Environmental regulations should be coupled with appropriate control mechanisms so that new regulatory requirements on the industry or a new industrial expansion do not cost the air quality of the community. 

Our community's goal is for economic development with safe, productive neighborhoods as a primary goal.

  

comments on behalf on CCAM in an initial community survey for Rain CII Carbon.  (the more things change, the more they stay the same)

.2009 Community Interview  http://www.docstoc.com/docs/143149693/Rain-CII-Carbon-2009--Initial-Interview-Checklist_Rain_CII_Carbon 

 

Land Use Plan for L L T properties

"Every effort should be made to avoid continuing or perpetuating the underlying problems noted..."

Report to St Bernard Parish - Disposition Strategy for LLT Lots.

Prepared by czb in collaboration with MIG/W, and Donald Poland Consulting.  A February 2013 Public Hearing will be scheduled at the St Bernard Parish Planning Commissioners Meeting, TBA.  The  Executive Committee of the Planning Commissioners expect to make a recommendation at the public hearing.

PROPOSAL to redistribute State owned vacant lots in St Bernard Parish, Louisiana and incorporate in part in the future Master Land Use Plan for the Parish, now in progress. 

"St. Bernard Parish sustained heavier damages and loss than any other Parish, and so recovery and resettlement naturally is more involved and time-consuming." 

czb is a Virginia-based planning firm specializing in revitalization strategy development and implementation.  czb has been retained by Winston Associates to be a member of the consultant team working to develop a Comprehensive Plan for St Bernard Parish, Louisiana, a project now underway (November, 2012).  As part of the Comprehensive Master Land Use Plan, this specific proposal is for the land sold to the State of Louisiana using federal funds as part of the Road Home Program after Hurricane Katrina.  These parcels of land were transferred to the Louisiana Land Trust (L L T) prior to redistribution sales, such as the Lot Next Door Program (L N D) and the Housing Opportunity Program (H O P).  The L N D and H O P programs are both administered by the St Bernard Parish Housing, Redevelopment, and Quality of Life Commission (HRQL) through Global Risk Solutions (GRS).   http://www.lalandtrust.us/

COPY OF PROPOSAL HERE:

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/142290650/SBPG_2013_LLT_Lot_Strategy_per_czb_llc_for_Winston_Group

 

DEQ air testing

http://www.wwltv.com/video?id=186547541&sec=554637&ref=rcvidmod

Louisiana DEQ testing neighborhoods for sulfuric acid, sulfur dioxide, and other chemicals.

http://www.wwltv.com/news/local/DEQ-Responds-to-Strong-Chemical-Odor-In-Chalmette-186547541.html

wwltv.com

Posted on January 11, 2013 at 5:24 PM

Updated today at 5:41 PM

Paul Murphy / Eyewitness News
Email: pmurphy@wwltv.com | Twitter: @pmurphywwl
CHALMETTE, La. -- Louisiana environmental monitors are in place in St. Bernard Parish, trying to identify the source of a strong chemical odor. Thursday night, there was a flood of complaints about the smell in the air.
Neighbors say it was similar to the odor that shut down the Chalmette Ferry for a time in late December.
"Rotten, funky eggs," said Chalmette neighbor Julie Huy. "It's nasty smelling. Like a nasty oil smell. I don't know what they burning over there."
Huy and her husband Anthony live just across St. Bernard highway from the plants they blame for the strong odor.
"Some days you come out here and it really stinks," said Anthony Huy. "You hate to breath the air."
Neighbors in Chalmette and across the Mississippi River in Terrytown complained about burning eyes and breathing problems.
The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality is now responding to those concerns.
"Right now, we're trying to determine the source of the odors through multiple levels of monitoring," said LDEQ Inspection administrator.
Friday, the department sent its mobile air monitoring lab and a team of hand held monitors to Chalmette. They focused on an area near the Rain CII plant and Chalmette Refinery, looking for traces of sulfuric acid, sulfur dioxide, and methane.
"Depending on which one is picked up we can compare with the permitted values at a facility or the processes at a particular facility," said Killeen.
While DEQ is concerned about the strong odor, scientists don't believe it presents an immediate health hazard.
"What we're seeing right now is an odor detection, an odor threshold," said Killeen. "An odor threshold tends to be very, very much lower than a health or regulatory threshold for these parameters."
"A lot of people are getting respiratory problems, breathing problems from that smell," said Julie Huy.
Killeen says the heavy, humid and dense air in recent days may be to blame for the strong odor.
"A lot of time it's just a combination of weather events. It may take a small amount of a material and make it seem like a lot more if you're in the path of it."
DEQ has instructed the Rain CII plant, the Chalmette Refinery and the Valero Refinery to submit plans to increase air monitoring in the areas where neighbors are complaining about the strong odor.

Air Quality Report for 2012

  2012 Air Quality Report for St Bernard Parish

St. Bernard Parish air quality failed to meet pollution standards in 2012 for sulfur dioxide on 29 days, for PM2.5 on 34 days, for PM10 on six days, and for hydrogen sulfide on eight days. 

Based on air samples at three community air monitors , there were 170 days or 45% of the year when residents had to suffer acute exposure level of sulfur dioxide at 10 parts per billion (ppb) or higher. Sulfur dioxide levels failed to meet EPA's 75 ppb  one-hour health standard on 29 days. 
 
All too often the hydrogen sulfide levels failed to meet the EPA recommended daily exposure level of 1.4 ppb.  On eight days, the hydrogen sulfide levels failed to meet a health standard of 30 ppb -- this is the health standard in the State of California; the State of Louisiana has no such limit.  On 17 days, hydrogen sulfide levels reached 20 ppb or higher.

Particulate matter PM2.5 failed to meet the EPA daily standard of 35 micrograms per cubic meter of air (ug/m3) on 34 days; PM10 failed to meet the EPA daily standard of 150 ug/m3 on six days.

Ozone readings were higher than EPA's standard of 75 ppb on eight days.  The only air quality alerts from DEQ in 2012 were for "Ozone Action Days" and during a persistent marsh fire in January 2012. 

Data excludes the month of January and the fireworks timeline for July Fourth and New Year's Eve.

2012 Monthly Air Quality Readings

2012-RECAP- Air-Quality-in-St-Bernard-Parish

DEQ's 'Meraux' site air monitor at Joe Davies Elementary School


Report copy Here:  Air Quality in 2012 in St Bernard Parish, LA

The air in St. Bernard Parish failed to meet PM_2.5 pollution limits on at least 34 days, with high readings of 69 ug/m³, 67 ug/m³, and 61 ug/m³ at DEQ’s ‘Ch_Vista’ site, well above the 35 ug/m³ standard.

PM10  readings failed to meet pollution limits on at least two days in Chalmette Vista with high readings of 167 ug/m3 and 150 ug/m3; and, on four days at Valero Energy’s Ventura Drive site with high readings of 238 ug/m3, 187 ug/m3, 183 ug/m3, 166 ug/m3, and 153 ug/m3,, well above the 150 ug/m3 standard .

Air quality in St. Bernard Parish failed to meet the one-hour sulfur health standard of 75 ppb on 29 days, with some of the highest readings at DEQ’s ‘Ch_Vista’site of 241 ppb, 229 ppb, 216 ppb, 211 ppb, 184 ppb, 174 ppb, 164 ppb, and 148 ppb. 

The sulfur levels at Valero Energy’s Ventura Drive site failed to meet the health standard on one day with 120 ppb, and had 34 days of acute exposure level of 10 ppb or higher, with five days of sulfur readings at 30 ppb or higher. Some of the higher sulfur readings at Valero Energy’s Ventura Drive site were 120 ppb, 48 ppb, 45 ppb and 41 ppb. The DEQ ‘Meraux’ site at Joe Davies Elementary school had 47 days of acute exposure level of 10 ppb or higher and three days of 30 ppb or higher, with some of its highest readings at 59 ppb, 43 ppb, and 33 ppb.

In 2012 the highest hydrogen sulfide reading was 78 ppb at the Valero Energy's Ventura Drive site, which also had four additional days that failed to meet the 30 ppb health limit.  Some of the higher readings at Valero Energy's Ventura Drive site were 78 ppb, 62 ppb, 44 ppb and 35 ppb. 

DEQ's 'Ch_Vista' site had twelve days of hydrogen sulfide readings above 20 ppb, with four days that failed to meet the 30 ppb health limit.  Some of the higher Chalmette Vista readings were 53 ppb, 49 ppb, 46 ppb, and 43 ppb. DEQ’s ‘Meraux’ site at Joe Davies Elementary school had high hydrogen sulfide readings of 27 ppb and 20 ppb.

Data excludes the month of January and the fireworks timelines of July Fourth and New Year's Eve.