Air Monitoring Program Adriaen’s Landing Project

The State of Connecticut, Office of Policy and Management selected GEI to finalize and implement the perimeter air monitoring program for the Adriaen’s Landing Project in Hartford, Connecticut.

The Adriaen’s Landing project is a major redevelopment project in downtown Hartford at the location of a former manufactured gas plant site. Abutting land use ranges from multi-family housing to high-rise office towers. Public concern about the potential impact of air emissions from the redevelopment activities led to the development of a full-scale perimeter air monitoring program to meet the following objectives.

• Protect surrounding community from potential air emissions
• Monitor emissions in real-time
• Implement appropriate and effective controls as necessary

Action levels were developed for key compounds, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and lead, that are protective of human health, conservative, and measurable in real-time. Three levels of air monitoring were implemented as part of the air monitoring program.

• Real-time monitoring
• Walk-around perimeter monitoring
• High-volume sampling

Real-time monitoring stations were established at four locations along the perimeter of the site to measure and record the concentration of the VOCs and dust (PM10) in real-time. Data from these stations are telemetered continuously to a central location. Meteorological conditions are continuously monitored at an on-site meteorological tower and telemetered to a central location. These data are used to initiate site controls and to evaluate the effectiveness of the controls to reduce emission levels. Walk-around perimeter monitoring for total VOCs, PM10, odor, and meteorological conditions is performed at ten locations. High volume sampling for VOCs and PM10 using EPA methods is used to verify the results of the real-time sampling. All monitoring data is stored electronically in spreadsheets and databases.

As part of this program, members of the Adriaen’s Landing project team, including the site owner, master developer, environmental oversight consultant, and construction manager can be notified and brought together in less than one-hour to evaluate current site conditions and evaluate the need for site controls. Once implemented, the effectiveness of the site control is immediately known as the real-time and perimeter monitoring continue.