• Address:
  705 Spear Street
  South Burlington, Vermont 05403
  United States of America
  
  Phone: (802) 391-4135
  Email: femc@uvm.edu
  Website: www.uvm.edu/femc

The Vermont Air Quality and Climate Division (AQCD) operates three monitoring sites for ambient air toxics. These are located in Burlington, Rutland and Underhill. Samplers at the sites are operated on a 1-in-12 day (Burlington, Rutland) or 1-in-6 day sample schedule (Underhill). The Underhill site is part of the EPA National Air Toxics Trend Station (NATTS) network. The Burlington and Rutland air toxics monitoring sites are part of the VT AQCD air toxics network. The air toxic sample collection and analysis program includes volatile organic compounds (VOC) and carbonyl compounds at all sites. The NATTS - Underhill site includes sampling and analysis for PM10 metals and polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) compounds.

• Sampling HAPs
  • Started: 1993-01-01
    
  • Method Description: Currently, the VT AQCD measures ambient concentrations down to parts per trillion by volume (pptv) and nanogram/M3 (depending on the particular method) of 96 separate HAPs. These include volatile organic compounds (VOC) such as benzene, 1,3 butadiene; carbonyl compounds such as formaldehyde, acetaldehyde; metal compounds such as arsenic, lead; and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) such naphthalene, benzo-a-pyrene. (For the complete list of Air Toxics) The VOC samples are collected using 6-liter Silco-treated stainless steel canisters which are analyzed at the VT DEC/AG lab by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The carbonyl samples are collected using a special cartridge which contains silca gel coated with dinitrophenylhydrazine (DNPH) which is extracted at the VT DEC/AG lab and analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The metals samples are collected on 47 mm Teflon filters which are extracted at the VT DEC/AG lab and analyzed by inductively coupled plasma/mass spectrometry (ICP/MS). The PAH samples are collected on a 104mm quartz fiber filter combined with a polyurethane foam plug (PUF) containing XAD resin both of which are extracted at an EPA contract lab and analyzed by GC/MS.
  Instrumentation: 6-liter Silco-treated stainless steel canisters andgas chromatographs/mass spectrometers; other specialized spectrometers

• HAP sampling
• Started: 1993-01-01
  
• Sampling Description: The permanent monitoring sites are located in Burlington, Rutland and Underhill. VOC and carbonyl samples at the Rutland and Burlington urban sites are collected every 12 days on a US EPA schedule. The Burlington site has separate collocated samplers to provide method quality assurance. At the Underhill rural site, VOC, carbonyl, metals and PAH samples are collected every 6 days on a US EPA schedule. Since 2004, the Underhill site has participated in US EPA’s National Air Toxics Trends Stations (NATTS) network designated as a rural background site.
• Frequency: Burlington and Rutland every 1 in12 days; Underhill every 1 in 6 days