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There
are many compelling reasons to conduct an intensive PM monitoring campaign
in Pittsburgh. These include:
- There are roughly
two million people living in the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical
Area. Elderly people represent a significant fraction of the population.
- The area is located
between the power plants of the Midwest and the large urban centers
of the East. Study of the pollution in Pittsburgh and the surrounding
area can provide valuable insights about the transport of PM and its
precursors from the Midwest to the Eastern US.
- Pittsburgh is an
area influenced by reasonably well-defined local, remote, and biogenic
sources (see Figure A.1 in Appendix 2). This will make source-receptor
relationships much easier to quantify compared to areas closer to the
eastern seaboard where the urban centers interact with each other strongly.
- The ongoing DOE/NETL
program provides a unique opportunity for leveraging EPA resources.
- There is a considerable
database of PM measurements in Pittsburgh and in the proposed Supersite
area. The CMU team is the main contributor to this database.
- Despite the available
database a number of important issues regarding PM composition, properties,
regional and local sources, etc., have yet to be elucidated.
- Pittsburgh is likely
to exceed the proposed PM2.5 standards (Falke, 1999).
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