OFFICIAL SITE OF THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY
Camden Waterfront South Air Toxics Pilot Project - Bucket Brigade Results
BUCKET BRIGADE RESULTS
The Bucket Brigade for the Camden Waterfront South Air Toxics Pilot Project was a community-based project in which members of the community, the NJDEP and the Camden County Health Department staff, intermittently collected short-term air samples at different locations in and around the Waterfront South neighborhood. The samples were then sent to a laboratory to be analyzed for various air toxics. A detailed description of the Camden Bucket Brigade can be found in section 2.4.2 of the Camden Waterfront South Air Toxics Pilot Project final report. It is available at https://njdepwptest.net/ej/camden/ or at http://njedl.rutgers.edu/ftp/PDFs/4559.pdf.
Results for benzene and chloroform measurements taken before 7/21/2005 are discussed in the report. The chemical-specific graphs presented here include data up to the last sampling date of 8/25/2005. Data for all of the chemicals that we were able to measure is compiled into one summary table below. Some of the compounds we were looking for were not detected in any of the samples, such as the reduced sulfur compounds, and a number of volatile organic compounds.
Summary Table of Bucket Brigade Sampling Results
Graphs of Sampling Results
Click on a chemical listed below to see a graph of the sampling results (all in pdf):
Chemical Information
For information about the sources and health effects of the chemicals that were measured, go to www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaq.html. For MEK, look under “2-butanone.”
WHAT DO THE NUMBERS MEAN?
Many of the graphs contain information for comparing the bucket sample data to other concentrations. Not all of the chemicals have this information available.
Long-term health benchmark – an air concentration below which there is expected to be no significant harm to human health; that is, less than a one in a million risk of cancer or noncancer health effect. Information on the sources of these numbers can be found at www.nj.gov/dep/aqpp/risk.html
1999 NATA background – annual average background concentration for Camden County as estimated by USEPA for its 1999 National Air Toxics Assessment (www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/nata1999/). This is a concentration that USEPA estimated would be found at a location even if there had been no recent manmade emissions. It is a contribution to outdoor air toxics concentrations resulting from natural sources, persistence in the environment of past years’ emissions, and long-range transport from distant sources.
2003 Camden annual average – Annual average concentration measured for 2003 at the permanent NJDEP Camden air toxics monitoring site (at Copewood & Davis Streets).
2003 Chester annual average – Annual average concentration measured for 2003 at the permanent NJDEP Chester air toxics monitoring site (in Chester Township, Morris County). This site is considered to be a “background” site for New Jersey, because it is in a rural area located away from most sources of air pollution.
Air toxics monitoring data is collected routinely at four permanent monitoring sites around the state. Results are given in the annual Air Quality Report (look under “Air Toxics Summary”). These can be found at https://www.state.nj.us/dep/airmon/index.html under “Reports” (in the column on the left).
If you have questions, contact bamweb@njdepwptest.net.
CHEMICALS BELOW DETECTION LIMITS
The following volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were below the detection limits. That is, the concentrations in the air were too low to be measured with existing methods.
VOCs
- 1,3-Butadiene
- Chlorobenzene
- Propylene
- 1,1,1-Trichloroethane
Reduced Sulfur Compounds
The sulfur compounds that we hoped to measure were also below the detection limits, or they were found in the test blanks in the same concentrations as the samples. Therefore, no measurable sulfur compound data was collected.
- Carbon disulfide
- Carbonyl sulfide
- Dimethyl disulfide
- Dimethyl sulfide
- Hydrogen sulfide
- Methyl mercaptan