Missouri Department of Natural Resources Air Pollution Control Program Proposed 2020 Monitoring Network Plan Revisions

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources (“DNR”) issued a July 15th notice asking for comments on revisions to the:

Missouri Department of Natural Resources

Air Pollution Control Program

2020 Monitoring Network Plan (“Plan”)

The issuance of the Plan is intended to fulfil the requirement in 40 C.F.R. 58.10 for the state to make the annual Monitoring Network Plan available for public inspection at least 30 days before submitting it to the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

The Plan outlines the establishment and maintenance of DNR’s air quality surveillance system. The system consists of a network of air monitoring stations at strategic points throughout Missouri.

Various methods and techniques are used to determine the quantity of a given pollutant in the ambient air and/or the amount of emissions generated by its source. Sampling air conditions is an important part of the process for determining whether an area is and/or will remain in compliance with the relevant Clean Air Act National Ambient Air Quality Standards. DNR operates a number of sampling stations to monitor the various Air Quality Control Regions’ compliance with the National Ambient Air Quality Standards.

DNR characterizes revisions to the Plan as minor. These are stated to include:

• Elevating the West Alton monitoring site above the 2019 high water level (to minimize outages related to flooding in the future)
• Update on the Photochemical Assessment Monitoring Station Implementation Plan to begin monitoring at the Blair Street site by June 2021
• Initiation of obtaining retrofits of the 1405-DF instruments at PM2.5 monitoring sites to 1405-Fs
• Combining Doe Run monitoring activities (currently designated as three separate primary quality assurance organizations) into a single PQAO
• Changes by Doe Run in the Herculaneum monitoring network

A link to the Plan can be found here.