Skip to main content

Advertisement

Springer Nature Link
Log in

What Forces Dictate the Design of Pollution Monitoring Networks?

  • Published:
Environmental Modeling & Assessment Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The US Environmental Protection Agency maintains networks of pollution monitors for two basic purposes: to check and enforce the attainment of national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) and to provide useful data for studying pollution and its effects. These purposes imply conflicting criteria for the locations of a limited number of monitors. To check the attainment of standards, monitors are placed where pollution levels are highest. Monitors are not required where standards have always been met and there are no new pollution sources. To provide useful data for studying pollution and its effects, monitors would be placed to observe outcomes under a variety of pollution levels. This study asks the following questions. What factors affect when a monitor is retired from the network? What drives the decision to add a new site? What causes year-to-year changes in the number of monitors? We tackle these questions with a particular focus on the role of regulatory compliance and pollution levels in the context of monitors for tropospheric ozone (O3). Using a panel dataset of monitors in the contiguous US spanning the years 1993 to 2011, we find that the peak O3 readings in the prior period are significantly associated with the regulator’s decision of whether to add or to drop a monitor in the following period. While compliance with the NAAQS for O3 is not consistently associated with network composition, compliance with the PM2.5 NAAQS does appear to affect changes to the network.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+
from $39.99 /Month
  • Starting from 10 chapters or articles per month
  • Access and download chapters and articles from more than 300k books and 2,500 journals
  • Cancel anytime
View plans

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Explore related subjects

Discover the latest articles, books and news in related subjects, suggested using machine learning.

Notes

  1. See http://www.epa.gov/ttn/airs/airsaqs/detaildata/downloadaqsdata.htm.

  2. See http://www.epa.gov/ttnnaaqs/standards/o3/s_o3_history.html.

  3. In its recent Integrated Science Assessment for Ozone and Related Photochemical Oxidants [22], the USEPA investigated the correlation among monitors in the networks of 20 cities (CITE). This investigation, however, sought high correlations in support of health studies based upon aggregate pollution measures.

  4. This process, and guideline for it, is described by the USEPA at http://www.epa.gov/ttn/scram/guidance/guide/final-03-pm-rh-guidance.pdf

  5. Baldauf et al. [4] note that the primary objective of the NAAQS is the protection of human health. Hence, a methodology focusing on, effectively, a ranking of sites by health risks is still motivated by regulatory concerns, rather than purely measurement.

  6. See http://www.epa.gov/ttn/airs/airsaqs/manuals/codedescs.htm.

  7. We computed goodness-of-fit tests for these parametric models using the approach described in Andrews [2]. Despite fitting the data reasonably well, these tests reject the parametric models because the sample sizes are quite large. Given the qualitative agreement among our parametric models, we remain confident that the parameter estimates give an accurate representation of the patterns in the data.

  8. This is how attainment status is coded by the USEPA (see: http://www.epa.gov/oaqps001/greenbk/data_download.html)

References

  1. Adams, R. M., Glyer, J. D., Johnson, S. L., & McCarl, B. A. (1989). A reassessment of the economic effects of ozone on United States agriculture. Journal of the Air Pollution Control Association, 39, 960–968.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Andrews, D. W. K. (1988). Chi-square diagnostic tests for econometric models: theory. Econometrica, 56(6), 1419–1453.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Baldauf, R. W., Lane, D. D., & Marote, G. A. (2001). Ambient air quality monitoring network design for assessing human health impacts from exposures to airborne contaminants. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 66, 63–76.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Baldauf, R. W., Lane, D. D., Marotz, G. A., Barkman, H. W., & Pierce, T. (2002). Application of a risk assessment based approach to designing ambient air quality monitoring networks for evaluating non-cancer health impacts. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 78, 213–227.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Bell, M. L., McDermott, A., Zeger, S. L., Samet, J. M., & Domenici, F. (2004). Ozone and short-term mortality in 95 US urban communities, 1987–2000. Journal of the American Medical Association, 17, 2372–2378.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Chang, N. B., & Tseng, C. C. (1997). Optimal design of a multipollutant air quality monitoring network in a metropolitan region using Kaoshung, Taiwan as an example. Environmental Modeling and Assessment, 57, 121–148.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Hoel, M. (1997). Environmental policy with endogenous plant locations. Scandanavian Journal of Economics, 99(2), 241–259.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Jerrett, M., Burnett, R. T., Pope, C. A., Ito, K., Thurston, G., Krewski, D., Shi, Y., Calle, E., & Thun, M. (2009). Long-term ozone exposure and mortality. The New England Journal of Medicine., 360, 1085–1095.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Kainuma, Y., Shiozawa, K., & Okamoto, S. (1990). Study of the optimal allocation of ambient air monitoring stations. Atmospheric Environment, 24B(3), 395–406.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Lesser, V. M., Rawlings, J. O., Spruill, S. E., & Somerville, M. C. (1990). Ozone effects on agricultural crops: statistical methodologies and estimated dose-response relationships. Crop Science., 30, 148–155.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Liu, M. K., Avrin, J., Pollack, R. I., Behar, J. V., & McElroy, J. L. (1986). Methodology for designing air quality monitoring networks. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 6, 1–11.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Markusen, J. R., Morey, E. R., & Olewiler, N. (1995). Competition in regional environmental policies when plant locations are endogenous. Journal of Public Economics, 5, 55–77.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Modak, P. M., & Lohani, B. N. (1985). Optimization of ambient air quality monitoring networks. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 5, 1–19.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Muller, N. Z., Mendelsohn, R., & Nordhaus, W. D. (2011). Environmental accounting for pollution in the United States economy. American Economic Review, 101, 1649–1675.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Oates, W., R. Schwab. 1996. “The theory of regulatory federalism: the case of environmental management,” in W. Oates, the economics of environmental regulation (Aldershot, U.K.: Edward Elgar. 1996), pp. 319–331.

  16. United States. Federal register. 76 FR 48207.

  17. United States. United States code, 42 USC § 7410.

  18. United States. Code of federal regulations, 40 C.F.R. § 58.

  19. United States Environmental Protection Agency. (1999). The benefits and costs of the clean air act: 1990–2010. USEPA Report to Congress. USEPA 410-R-99-001, office of air and radiation, office of policy, Washington, D.C.

  20. United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2010a). The benefits and costs of the clean air act: 1990–2020. USEPA report to congress. Office of Air and Radiation, Office of Policy, Washington, D.C. http://www.epa.gov/air/sect812/aug10/fullreport.pdf.

  21. United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). 2012. http://aqsdr1.epa.gov/aqsweb/aqstmp/airdata/download_files.html.

  22. United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2013). Final report: integrated science assessment of ozone and related photochemical oxidants. http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/isa/recordisplay.cfm?deid=247492.

  23. United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2016). http://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/our-mission-and-what-we-do.

  24. Venegas, L. E., & Mazzeo, N. A. (2003). Design methodology for background air pollution monitoring site selection in an urban area. International Journal of Environment and Pollution, 20(1–2), 185–195.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. World Health Organization (WHO). (1977). “Air monitoring programme design for urban and industrial areas.” Global Environmental Monitoring System. WHO Offset Publication No., 38.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Middlebury College and the National Bureau of Economic Research, Middlebury, VT, USA

    Nicholas Z. Muller

  2. Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, USA

    Paul A. Ruud

Authors
  1. Nicholas Z. Muller
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Paul A. Ruud
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nicholas Z. Muller.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Muller, N.Z., Ruud, P.A. What Forces Dictate the Design of Pollution Monitoring Networks?. Environ Model Assess 23, 1–14 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10666-017-9553-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10666-017-9553-7

Keywords

JEL Classification