City to get new toxin monitor City to get new toxin monitor (February 27, 2004)

Air quality instrument is likely to be placed at Whisman School

By Grace Rauh

To better monitor the city's current air quality and test for toxins, Mountain View is considering having a new instrument installed.

The air monitor will be able to test for the cancer-causing solvent tricholoroethene (TCE) and other toxins. And if it receives the necessary local approval, the monitor could be up and running within the next few months, taking air samples over a 24-hour period, every 12 days, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official said.

"For Mountain View proper, this is the state of the art (technology) for examining population exposure," said Catherine Brown, a scientist in the EPA's air division.

Members of the Northeast Mountain View Advisory Council, who track the cleanup of TCE-contaminated sites in the northeast region of the city, voted last week to have the monitor installed at the park at Whisman School, where two private schools are now located. Fire Station No. 4 on Whisman Road and Slater School were also considered as potential sites for the monitor.

"We will, of course, take into account the community's wishes, as long as the site they choose meets all the criteria," said Eric Stevenson, air-monitoring manager for the air district. Stevenson planned to speak with city officials earlier this week about the monitor and was optimistic that he had their support for the project.

"It appears, based on my previous conversations with the city, that it is going to be fairly easy to get the permission," he said.

For nearly a quarter of a century, an air monitor operated by the Bay Air Quality Management District was located at Mountain View Fire Station No. 2 on Cuesta Drive. The system was moved to Sunnyvale in 1999 when the fire station was renovated.

Now, almost five years later, Mountain View stands to gain another monitoring device, and residents who closely follow the TCE-cleanup in the city's affected areas are eagerly anticipating the additional resource.

Despite broad support for the air monitor among advisory council board members, there is a debate over how to best use the new testing device. Some members want the monitor to operate in close proximity to TCE-contaminated areas in northeast Mountain View. Others believe air samples from TCE-contaminated areas could yield misleading data about the city's air quality. Mountain View City Council member Greg Perry, who also sits on the advisory council board, wrestled with the pros and cons of where to locate the air monitor.

"I want a number saying what are people breathing at Cuesta. I want another number saying what are people breathing at Slater School," Perry said. He is concerned that situating the monitor too far from known contaminated areas will deflect attention from the real problem -- TCE contamination.

"If we ignore all the hotspots, we are ignoring the problem," he said.

Mountain View is only slated to receive one monitor, said EPA official Brown.

Board member Jane Horton was concerned that the monitor could "point out a negative feeling in a community" if it were placed at a school. According to Brown, many of the district's air monitors are located on school and park grounds.

The air district operates 31 air-monitoring stations throughout the Bay Area. It will select a site within Mountain View, most likely one of the three already chosen, and then seek approval from the city or Mountain View-Whisman School District, depending on which location the district selects. The air district will pay for the air monitor and lab testing, but a local public agency may have to foot the electricity bill, which should not be prohibitively expensive.

Monthly electrical bills for air monitors that operate 24 hours a day for seven days a week are roughly $20 to $25, Stevenson said. Mountain View's monitor will only operate for 24 hours every 12 days.

The monitor will resemble a box, roughly the size of a microwave oven, with shiny stainless steel orbs attached to the outside. "You might notice it, but it's very small and very unobtrusive," Stevenson said.

Currently it can take several weeks for air results to be published on the EPA's Web site, but "we'll work with the EPA to make them somehow more accessible than they are right now," he said.

E-mail Grace Rauh at grauh@mv-voice.com

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