Characterization of Residential Woodsmoke PM2.5 in the Adirondacks of New York

George Allen; Lisa Rector

doi:10.4209/aaqr.2020.01.0005

Characterization of Residential Woodsmoke PM2.5 in the Adirondacks of New York

George Allen This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Lisa Rector

Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management, Boston MA 02111, USA

Received: January 29, 2020
Revised: April 29, 2020
Accepted: June 13, 2020

Copyright The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are cited.

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Allen, G. and Rector, L. (2020). Characterization of Residential Woodsmoke PM_2.5 in the Adirondacks of New York. Aerosol Air Qual. Res. 20: 2419–2432. https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.2020.01.0005

HIGHLIGHTS

Woodsmoke from residential wood heating can be a dominant source of winter PM_2.5.
A paired site design identified local PM sources relative to larger spatial scales.
Hourly PM_2.5 measurements between paired sites were not well correlated.
PM_2.5 peaked overnight at all sites, with minimums observed during daytime hours.
One site was repeatedly influenced by 2-cycle snowmobile exhaust in the early evening.

ABSTRACT

Although woodsmoke from residential wood heating can be the dominant source of winter PM_2.5 in rural areas, routine monitoring is done primarily in urban or suburban areas. To obtain data on elevated woodsmoke concentrations from nearby sources, the PM_2.5, black carbon at 880 and 370 nm, particle-bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and wind speed and direction were measured during winter at three residential locations in Saranac Lake, New York. A paired-site design enabled the identification of local sources relative to larger spatial scales. With the exception of occasional regional PM events, the hourly measurements of this pollutant between the paired sites exhibited poor correlations, suggesting that local woodsmoke was responsible for the observed increases in PM values. One location that was adjacent to a residence with a wood stove, which was 40 meters from the monitoring site, experienced repeated episodes of elevated PM_2.5 concentrations, with a maximum 3-hour average of 150 µg m^–3, a maximum 24-hour rolling average of 64 µg m^–3, and a maximum midnight-to-midnight average of 46 µg m^–3. Despite these PM events, the data indicated that this location was likely in compliance with the current U.S. EPA National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for PM_2.5. The daily PM_2.5 concentration peaked and troughed during the nighttime and the daytime, respectively, at all of the sites, which is consistent with local ground-level pollution sources, such as woodsmoke; this diel pattern was also confirmed by Aaethalometer Delta-C (DC) data, a woodsmoke PM indicator. The particle-bound PAH data was less specific than the DC data to the PM in the woodsmoke, partly because the instrument for the former also responds to traffic pollution. One site repeatedly displayed the influence of 2-cycle engine snowmobile exhaust during the early evening hours, with very high PAH concentrations but only modestly elevated DC concentrations. Subsequent tests showed that fresh 2-cycle small engine exhaust produces a somewhat weaker response than woodsmoke in the DC in terms of the concentration per unit of PM.

Keywords: Biomass burning; Black carbon; Carbonaceous aerosols; Optical properties; Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon.

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Aerosol Air Qual. Res. 20 :2419 -2432 . https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.2020.01.0005

HIGHLIGHTS

ABSTRACT

REFERENCES

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