BACKGROUND

AB 617 was signed into law by Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. in 2017 to address air pollution impacts in communities with high cumulative exposure burdens. AB 617 requires CARB to develop a Statewide Strategy to reduce emissions of toxic air contaminants and criteria air pollutants in communities most impacted by air pollution. Community air monitoring is only one of many components of AB 617 (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Components of AB 617

The Blueprint serves as CARB’s Statewide Strategy, translating foundational legislative directives into implementation guidance. The first Community Air Protection Blueprint was adopted by the CARB Board in September 2018 (2018 Program Blueprint) and is replaced in 2023 by Blueprint 2.0. Monitoring information for communities selected for AB 617 is provided in part two of Blueprint 2.0, including recommendations for community air monitoring plan (CAMP) and community emissions reduction plan (CERP) development, general CAMP criteria, and promising practices for CAMP development. The community air monitoring planning guidance presented here has been adapted from Appendix E in the 2018 Program Blueprint to reflect the experience and lessons learned from the first years of program development and implementation.

To date, 19 communities have been selected for the program, 15 of which include the development of CAMPs. There is much to learn from these selected communities that can be applied broadly to benefit more communities. For more on the Community Air Protection Program established in response to AB 617, please visit the Community Air Protection Program homepage.

INTRODUCTION

Community air monitoring can augment other community-led and government-led air monitoring programs to enhance our understanding of pollution impacts within communities and collect data to support taking actions to reduce emissions. A community air monitoring plan (CAMP) guides the process of planning and conducting action-focused air monitoring. A well-developed CAMP should document how the planning team works together to identify objectives, goals, and approaches for air monitoring, and establish a roadmap for how monitoring will be conducted.Having a defined plan before any monitoring starts is the first step toward ensuring air monitoring will be effective and the resulting data can be used to drive action and influence change.

A variety of air monitoring approaches may be utilized for community air monitoring, and theobjectives,tools,andstakeholdersinvolvedmaydifferfromcommunitytocommunity. For example, general air monitoring objectives may include using more granular, local-scale monitoring methods to communicate air quality conditions within a community, identify contributing sources, determine where and when emissions are occurring, and support the development of mitigation strategies. Community air monitoring may not necessarily require U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA)-designated methods and equipment, which provides the opportunity to utilize advanced air monitoring methods and big data solutions capable of providing greater spatial coverage and faster access to the resulting air quality data as they become available.

Community organizations, air districts, and CARB have conducted successful community air monitoring programs that provide valuable best practices and learnings. CARB staff have defined 14 elements to include in community-specific air monitoring plans that build upon these existing programs. The 14 elements are flexible enough to apply to a variety of monitoring needs yet robust enough to support actions to reduce emissions in communities with high cumulative exposure burdens.

CAMP Elements

CARB staff have defined criteria that air districts, prospective community air grantee recipients, and others should include in community-specific air monitoring plans. The elements are based on scientific principles and successful practices that build from knowledge gained through existing community air monitoring programs and accommodate the diversity of community air monitoring objectives.

Community air monitoring may be employed to meet a number of objectives, including communicating current air quality conditions, identifying the contribution of emission sources to community exposure, evaluating air quality concerns within a community, supporting public health research, and/or tracking progress toward community emissions reductions. Following the 14 elements helps CARB and the public understand the nature of the data generated and how it can be used. The elements are meant to ensure that monitoring has been designed at a level of scientific rigor to meet air quality goals and support actions for each community.

Although the 14 community air monitoring elements are presented sequentially, air monitoring planning is often an iterative process that can occur in phases. An example of this is air monitoring that begins with an initial screening of the community to identify the most appropriate placement of more robust instrumentation. Establishing community partnerships at the onset of plan development is the first step to foster strong community participation throughout plan development and lay the groundwork for ongoing involvement during implementation. Community participation is essential to develop action-focused air monitoring objectives specific to the community. Other elements may be addressed outside of the suggested sequence presented here, depending on the information and resources available and the specific concerns within a community. Broadly speaking, the 14 elements are used to define the scope of work and understand:

• What is the reason for conducting community air monitoring?  (Elements 1-5)
• How will monitoring be conducted?  (Elements 6-11)
• How will data be used to take action?  (Elements 12-14)

Figure 2: CAMP Elements

There may be instances where specific criteria are not applicable to an air monitoring plan, and the level of detail contained in each element may differ from community to community. If criteria are not applicable, plans should indicate why the criteria are not relevant.

CAMPs may undergo revisions and be resubmitted for review if air monitoring will occur in phases (e.g., screening for problems and then focusing in on problem areas or sources) or if new information becomes available so long as the community air monitoring planning process is followed. This allows air monitoring plans to accommodate changes and adapt as new information becomes available.

Each element is discussed in detail in the next sections.

What is the Reason for Conducting Community Air Monitoring?

Elements 1 through 5 establish the reason for conducting community air monitoring and play a pivotal role in guiding the direction for air monitoring planning activities to follow. Working through these first five elements will help determine which air monitoring approaches are most appropriate to address the community needs and objectives, and it is important to have these elements discussed and agreed upon before the selection of monitoring approaches commences.

Element 1: Form Community Partnerships

Community members have first-hand knowledge and experience vital in understanding and addressing local air quality challenges in their community. Fostering strong community partnerships at the onset of CAMP development lays the groundwork for ongoing involvement throughout planning activities. A continued collaborative partnership with the community throughout the air monitoring development and implementation process is essential to support effective community-focused monitoring.

For communities selected for CAMP development under AB 617, air districts must work with their community to convene a community steering committee. The community steering committee has a fundamental role in designing and carrying out air monitoring goals and objectives, disseminating results to the community, and supporting effective local actions. Development of CAMPs should be a collaborative process with the community steering committee.

The purpose of preparing a CAMP with a community steering committee and/or direct community participation is to bring all parties to a common understanding of what air monitoring will achieve, what tools will be utilized to collect, review, and interpret data, potential limitations of air monitoring tools and data, and how results will ultimately drive action. Some communities may desire to participate only in the planning process, whereas some may play a leading role throughout implementation, for example, by securing sites for air monitoring, conducting measurements, or analyzing data. Community participation is important throughout the planning process to increase participants’ technical capacity. The full approach for community involvement should be documented in this step to verify that the community has and will continue to contribute to decision-making processes. For more guidance on community engagement practices, see CARB’s Draft Community Engagement Model.

Element 2: State the Community-Specific Purpose for Air Monitoring

The concern that will be addressed by air monitoring (a.k.a. the purpose for air monitoring), along with information used to identify that concern, should be detailed in this element of the plan.  The planning team should begin by asking a set of questions that will help establish and refine a community-specific purpose for air monitoring. These questions include:

• What is the air quality concern and is air monitoring data required to help solve that problem?
• Is there existing data available to act on the air quality concern? What do previous relevant air monitoring studies indicate (if available)? How will collecting new air quality data build on existing data if existing data were not sufficient?
• What data is missing? How will new air monitoring data help address the concern?
• What alternative approaches are available to investigate and address the air quality concern beyond monitoring? These approaches may not rely on direct air quality measurements. Example types of data include: modeling, emissions inventory, health, enforcement, ancillary studies like truck counts and pesticide use data.

The community-specific purpose for air monitoring may be a combination of complex air monitoring concerns. As such, all information and assumptions used to identify the community-specific purpose should be included in this step.

Element 3: Identify Scope of Actions

The plan must identify the desired scope of actions that may potentially be supported by air monitoring data. Differing levels of action may require substantially different monitoring approaches. Identifying the desired action(s) that air monitoring data are intended to support will guide the process of defining the level of data quality needed and further set the context and focus for planning activities that follow. Note that some of these desired actions may require cooperation from other entities.

Example actions include:

• Providing real-time data to public air quality notification systems;
• Identifying areas in the community that may be more heavily burdened by a certain air pollutant;
• Developing and/or modifying rules to reduce specific emissions from specific sources;
• Enforce compliance with rules through more frequent inspections. Increase surveillance to alert enforcement agencies of violations;
• Supporting specific emissions reduction strategies identified in a community emissions reduction plan;
• Requiring use of cleaner technologies, lowering emission limits, restricting idling times, restricting usage of chemicals, increase requirements for permits;
• Developing new zoning and land use requirements (barriers or setback distances, restricting types of vehicles on certain roads, restricting activities near sensitive receptors);
• Adopting cleaner technologies through grants and incentives;
• Reducing exposure to indoor air pollution (installing air filtration, restricting window and door opening times, building code modifications, requiring usage of range hoods, restricting usage of old wood burning appliances).

Note that while it is important to establish an action-oriented aim for air monitoring data, final data may not end up aligning with the original hypothesis and supporting the desired outcome. As with any scientific data collection process, data interpretation should be objective.

Element 4: Define Air Monitoring Objectives

The planning team should define monitoring objectives that seek to address the concerns from Element 2 and support actions laid out in Element 3. This element of the plan should thoroughly describe the community’s air monitoring objectives, discuss how meeting these objectives will address the purpose for monitoring, and establish benchmarks for determining when objectives have been met. These benchmarks will inform resource allocation in the “Specify Process for Evaluating Effectiveness” element to come. Not all monitoring objectives need to directly support action but should in some way help inform actions. While it is possible that air monitoring data may be used to address more than one objective, prioritizing objectives will help to ensure that air monitoring resources can be directed to address the most important objective.

Examples of broad objectives for community air monitoring include:

• Providing real-time air quality information to inform community members of current conditions within the community.
• Identifying and characterizing areas experiencing disproportionate air pollution impacts.
• Identifying emissions sources and assessing their impact on air quality, including fence-line monitoring.
• Determining effectiveness of emission controls in reducing air pollution and assessing progress in improving community air quality.

Monitoring objectives should be specified in detail to effectively guide data collection that addresses concerns and supports action. Along with the air monitoring objective(s), plans should include other relevant information such as: background concentrations of the pollutant of interest, specific time periods of interest, threshold or action levels, and known sources. Supporting measurements needed to address the objective, which may include meteorological data or measurements of pollutants other than criteria air pollutants or toxic air contaminants, should be identified in this step. The planning team should begin to bound the frequency and duration of air monitoring required to address the concern. The plan should include or reference existing information and materials such as maps, diagrams, tables, and previous studies that can augment community air monitoring. If existing community air monitoring data are available, the plan should document the scope of the monitoring and explain how additional monitoring will expand or complement these existing programs.

Establishing monitoring objectives that are linked to direct actions helps inform the duration of monitoring, which can guide resource allocation and reallocation when objectives have been met. It is essential for the planning team to provide clear monitoring goals before beginning data collection.

Element 5: Establish Roles and Responsibilities

Defining roles and responsibilities as part of the community partnership process will help to ensure expectations are understood and clarified as needed prior to beginning air monitoring. The layout of roles and responsibilities may differ from community to community based on the community-specific purpose for monitoring and existing capacity and partnerships, but constructive community engagement is encouraged throughout to foster trust in the decision-making process. For example, in some communities residents may take an active role in leading or conducting air monitoring while in other communities residents may be involved in selecting monitoring locations with air monitoring conducted by air district staff or subcontractors.

All parties responsible for major aspects of community air monitoring need to be identified in the plan and their roles and responsibilities be described. Air monitoring teams are typically composed of a project manager, technical staff, and stakeholders that are directly affected by air monitoring. Community members may also lead community air monitoring or be direct participants and partners in air monitoring. Specific tasks, duties, and training that all parties involved with air monitoring are expected to complete as a function of their role should be documented in this element. An organizational chart can be provided to clarify group roles and interactions. Contact information for key members should be made available.

Recommended practices that can be applied to assist in establishing roles and responsibilities during CAMP development can be found on page 76 of Blueprint 2.0.

How will Monitoring be Conducted?

Documenting how air monitoring will be conducted (Elements 6-11) is the next step in the planning process. Defining the quality of data that is needed for the proposed actions guides the selection of methods and equipment that can produce data of appropriate quality. For example, more rigorous methods are required to support regulatory action compared to methods that may be used to produce data for an air quality awareness program. Identifying areas where monitoring is needed may also be important to selecting appropriate methods and equipment. For example, mobile monitoring may be effective at covering a broad area and determining where fixed sites should be established to observe trends. Once the methods and equipment are selected, defining quality control procedures and data management steps help ensure the resulting data serves the community-specific purpose for air monitoring and it is clear how the data was generated. After making these decisions, documenting the work plan provides clarity on how the field measurements will be made.

Element 6: Define Data Quality Objectives

Plans must describe the level of data quality required to support community air monitoring objectives and list the data quality indicators that will be used to assure data quality objectives are met. Identifying data quality objectives early in the planning process is key to informing subsequent choice of methods and equipment capable of collecting data that meets community needs. Data quality objectives are qualitative and quantitative statements designed to:

1. build upon the established monitoring objectives;
2. define the most suitable type of data to collect;
3. determine the most appropriate conditions from which data should be collected; and
4. specify tolerable levels of potential errors which will be used as the basis for establishing the quantity and quality of data needed to support action.

Table 1 lists the recommended data quality indicators that should be defined in community air monitoring plans, where appropriate. Data quality indicators are attributes of the data related to minimizing measurement uncertainty that can be used to determine whether the data quality objectives are being met.

Table 1: Data Quality Indicators for Air Monitoring

Element 7: Select Monitoring Methods and Equipment

Selecting appropriate methods and equipment is crucial to the success of community air monitoring because the resulting data needs to support effective action. Air monitoring methods include the air monitoring equipment itself and how it is operated and applied, whereas equipment solely describes the specific technology used for air monitoring. Methods and equipment must be capable of meeting the data quality objectives defined in Element 6: “Define Data Quality Objectives”.

There are a wide variety of air monitoring methods and equipment. The plan must identify the selected method(s) and include a full description of the equipment that will be used (e.g., make, model, characteristics) and how it will be applied. The plan should justify the suitability of the method and equipment to meet the level of action required and include a description of how the selected method will achieve the data quality objectives. The limitations and constraints of selected air monitoring methods and equipment should be made clear to stakeholders and documented in the CAMP. Other method requirements or needs considered in the selection process should also be documented (e.g., budgetary constraints, logistics to set up and procure equipment, maintenance requirements, operating costs, specific features). The plan should also identify and describe any additional equipment needed to meet air monitoring objectives, such as meteorological monitoring equipment.

Information regarding applicability, performance, and example uses of air monitoring methods and equipment can be found in this resource center on the “Outline of Measurement Technologies” page. Further information on outdoor air pollution monitoring approaches can be found in Section 2.3 of EPA’s Enhanced Air Sensor Guidebook.

Element 8: Determine Monitoring Areas

The plan should indicate where monitoring will be conducted within the community, describe the rationale for selecting specific locations, and document each site’s purpose and characteristics. The process for identifying suitable monitoring areas that will achieve the monitoring objective should be based on factors such as:  public input from community members, review of existing air monitoring data, locations of source emissions, locations of sensitive populations, and results from air quality modeling. Selecting carefully designed locations with known characteristics will assist analysts in understanding what the data represents and how it can be used to support actions to reduce emissions and exposure in impacted communities. The exact monitoring location will be a balance of a number of factors, often depending on the logistics of the specific area chosen for monitoring, such as site access, communications systems, security, and power availability.

It may be necessary to select alternative locations when determining specific monitoring areas due to factors such as site availability and accessibility, site safety, source activity, etc. The reasons for selecting alternative locations should be documented in this element of the plan.

Element 9: Develop Quality Control Procedures

Quality control is a set of routine procedures implemented during air monitoring to ensure that data quality objectives are being met and the resulting data will be scientifically defensible. These technical activities should be routinely performed to measure or estimate the effect of any errors and determine when corrective action should be taken.Quality control is therefore both proactive and corrective.

The community air monitoring plan should specify the quality control procedures and the frequency at which they will be performed for each monitoring method. Examples of quality control procedures include describing field and laboratory calibration practices, periodic precision and accuracy checks, and routine audit functions. Specific quality control procedures will depend upon the method used for air monitoring. Examples of quality control procedures for different air monitoring methods are available in Section 10 of EPA’s Quality Assurance Handbook for Air Pollution Measurement Systems.

Element 10: Describe Data Management

The plan must describe how data will be collected, managed, and stored. This is often done by providing data descriptors, data storage attributes, and data review and flagging procedures. The first phase of data management begins with the collection of analytical results. Besides capturing the value of interest, it is essential to capture additional descriptors, including instrument identifiers, date stamps, measured units, and other parameters that identify important attributes of the data.

Data storage is the second phase of data management. Generally, this takes place in some form of database. In addition to the data descriptors established in the first phase, the stored data must also maintain data storage attributes, which are specific to how the data is stored and processed. These additional attributes include data quality indicators, data qualifiers, ingest dates, and chain of custody.

The attributes and values collected in the data acquisition and data storage phases must provide ample tools for an operator or system to conduct detailed and thorough reviews of the data in the data review phase. Data review and flagging procedures should be documented in this element of the plan. Examples include confirming that calibrations are excluded from data aggregation, confirming that incompletely sampled time periods are not included, and confirming that temperature controls required for proper instrument functioning were maintained.

Element 11: Provide Work Plan for Conducting Field Measurements

The plan must describe field procedures to be followed by those conducting measurements and provide the timeline for community air monitoring. Field procedures spell out individual tasks with enough detail so that field personnel with the necessary training can complete the tasks. Examples of specific field procedures include documenting actions in logbooks, completing chain of custody forms, and conducting specific quality control procedures. The timeline needs to establish the duration of field measurements and denote milestones for completing key tasks. The plan will also describe communication and coordination steps to ensure field personnel know whom to contact for questions and how work products are delivered. Relevant safety considerations should also be documented.

How will Data be Used to Take Action?

Defining how the data will be evaluated and applied to the stated community-specific purpose and objectives is the final step towards ensuring that the results will meet the needs of the community and support actions to improve air quality. Plans need to include a process for evaluating effectiveness, for example monthly or quarterly meetings to review results and determine if adjustments are needed. Determining in advance how data will be analyzed and interpreted, for example trends analysis or identification of source impacts, or providing real-time information for health alerts, provides another opportunity to confirm that air monitoring methods and equipment will achieve the desired objectives. Finally, planning how and when the air monitoring results will be communicated, for example in real-time on a webpage or in written reports on a periodic basis, helps communities and stakeholders understand where and when they will be able to access the information.
 

Element 12: Specify Process for Evaluating Effectiveness

The planning team should designate a procedure that will serve as a check to ensure that the air monitoring objectives are being met in a timely fashion. The process to revise the monitoring plan or make corrections if not meeting air monitoring objectives or timeline must be described in this element. If issues arise during air monitoring, and data quality objectives should be adjusted, describe the process that will be utilized to make alterations and how they will be documented. A contingency plan should be discussed to prepare for various potential changes that may occur during implantation (e.g. equipment failure, personnel departure, security issues).

The plan should address the planned duration of the monitoring, whether it is intended to be a long-term sustainable program or a shorter-term investigation, and the timeframe for demobilization of air monitoring and reallocation of resources when objectives are met. This should also include recommendations for any necessary ongoing actions to track progress and ensure air quality improvements continue.

Element 13: Analyze and Interpret Data

There are many approaches to data analysis and interpretation that vary in scope and complexity. Approaches such as conducting fence-line monitoring may require both real-time analysis and interpretation to screen for fugitive emissions and subsequent analysis of long-term data to track emissions reductions over time. This element of the plan must describe how data analysis will be conducted, including data preparation procedures utilized throughout the process, and how air monitoring results may be translated into actions.

The significance of results depends on the quality of the data, so data preparation is a critical component in data analysis. Data preparation procedures to be utilized (e.g., formatting and quality assurance of data) must be documented. The protocol for providing data handling algorithms for the raw data should be documented to ensure transparency. Procedures used must document how data are handled and processed so that all changes to data are annotated and provide a clear, transparent data path that can be followed from initial data production to a final, quality-checked end point.

Ultimately, results from data analysis should be responsive to the established community air monitoring objectives. The types of analyses will depend on the specific community’s goals, and each community is likely to require a unique analysis. Some analysis examples include, but are not limited to:

• Comparing trends in community air monitoring data to trends in data from nearby regulatory air monitors.
• Performing analysis to determine which source(s) may be primarily responsible for elevated concentrations in order to develop appropriate control strategies.
• Tracking progress over time to determine if strategies put in place by community emissions reduction programs yield ambient air quality improvements.

The plan should describe the anticipated data analyses along with a process for interpreting results based on the community-specific monitoring objective(s). This includes reviewing the scope of actions that the specific type of data analysis will support, since results produced through this element will be the direct link to action in a community. Thoroughly documenting data preparation procedures and types of analyses that will be conducted with the data is pivotal to ensuring that conclusions drawn from data analyses are defensible.

Element 14: Communicate Results to Support Action

Communicating results is critical for ensuring that the air monitoring leads to effective action. The planning team must establish a transparent process for systematic information sharing and communication. The monitoring plan must indicate how results will be delivered and discussed with community members, decision makers and organizations that have influence to take actions for a specific community. The plan should detail what information will be provided and where it will be housed (e.g., webpage, web portals, factsheets, notices, timeline, meeting agendas, deliverables) and the frequency at which material will be provided and updated.

The plan should also lay out the general content and frequency of reports and progress updates. The final report should include, at a minimum:

• A summary and timeline of air monitoring with background on the reasons for air monitoring.
• A discussion of how data were collected, validated, analyzed, and disseminated to address the stated community-specific purpose for air monitoring.
• Recommendations and next steps, which may include recommendations for tracking progress or verifying results achieved by community emissions reduction programs.
• A dissemination plan describing how the data will be disseminated and discussed with appropriate decision makers so that it may lead to the intended action.

AB 617 requires air districts report community air monitoring data to CARB for those communities that have been formally selected under the program. Air quality data generated under the program are available on CARB’s AQview data portal.