Ambient Air Monitoring Former MGP Site

Owner/Client

Ameren Services Company

Location

Canton, IL

CEC Services

  • Ambient Air Monitoring

Owner Objective

Ameren Services Company operates a storage facility located on a property that contained a Manufactured Gas Plant (MGP). The site is located in a residential neighborhood in Canton, Illinois along Big Creek and the site soils and sediments are impacted with coal tar residuals. Ameren retained CEC to conduct perimeter ambient air monitoring during the site remediation. 

CEC Approach

CEC developed a comprehensive Ambient Air Monitoring Plan (AAMP) and a Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP) for this project. During the development of the AAMP, CEC developed site-specific, risk-based ambient air quality standards based on the project’s expected duration and human health risks from specific contaminants of potential concern (CPCs). The plan included the determination of airborne concentrations of CPCs using real-time and time-integrated air monitoring techniques. CEC was responsible for the design, installation, operation, calibration, and maintenance of the air monitoring equipment.

The real-time air monitoring included monitoring for volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including benzene-specific analysis using on-site gas chromatography (GC) and a portable dust monitor to measure concentrations of particulate matter less than 10 micron in aerodynamic size (PM10). CEC established four time-integrated air monitoring stations along the perimeter of the project site designed to collect integrated ambient air samples for VOCs and polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) over a 72-hour sampling period. The use of 72-hour sampling periods dramatically reduced the total number of samples analyzed, thus reducing the overall cost of the ambient air-monitoring program.

CEC was responsible for providing daily air monitoring reports to the remediation contractor and weekly briefings during project meetings. In addition, they were responsible for preparing and submitting the results of the air monitoring activities in a final project air monitoring report.