School air toxic monitoring project: Church Rock Elementary School

United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) had identified and recommended air quality monitoring to take place at 63 schools throughout the country. Unfortunately, tribal schools were not considered during the time USEPA conducted the analysis. The importance of identifying any air toxic pollutants affecting school children needs to be analyzed. Conducting an air monitoring toxic analysis on the Navajo Nation at Church Rock Elementary School, Church Rock, New Mexico (CRNM) was carried out. The current school location posed a concern, in regards to the surrounding stationary, mobile, and natural emissions emitted all types of toxic pollutants. USEPA sponsors various air monitoring program, which Tribal Air Monitoring Support (TAMS) program undertook, and offered tribal programs, organizations or agencies to utilized air monitoring equipment's. The air monitoring setup was conducted with the contract Eastern Research Group, Inc. (ERG) laboratory, where collection of 24-hour ambient air samples for 60 days on a 6-day sampling interval were performed. The analysis for volatile organic compounds (VOCs)were collected from canister samples using USEPA Compendium Method TO-15, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from polyurethane foam (PUF) and XAD-2 resin samples using USEPA Compendium Method TO-13A. Carbonyl compounds were collected by sorbent cartridge samples using USEPA Compendium Method TO-11A, and trace of metals from filters were sampled using USEPA Compendium Method IO-3.5 and FEM EQL-0512-202. A total of 53 VOC concentrations were greater than 1 μg/m3, where dichlorodifluoromethane, trichlorofluoromethane, chloromethane, dichloromethane, propylene, toluene, acrolein and acetylene were detected. A total of 23 carbonyl compound concentrations were greater than 1 μg/m3, where acetone and formaldehyde were measured. Naphthalene average with the highest average for PAHs, where phenanthrene and retene were the second and third highest averages. As for the metals the highest averages resulted from manganese, chromium and lead. Overall, the air toxic pollutants resulted from CRNM surrounding monitoring site were detected. Identifying the potential emitter source or sources cannot be assessed.