Chicago O’Hare Airport Air Toxic Monitoring June – December, 2000

1. Chicago O’Hare Airport Air Toxic Monitoring June – December, 2000 Illinois Environmental Protection Agency

2. Full Report Can Be Found At URL: www.epa.state.il.us/air/ohare/index.html

3. Monitoring Objectives • Determine ambient concentrations of specific compounds of concern • Describe pollutant levels at various locations across the area, assess their geographic variability and perform a comparison of the levels of air toxics found at O’Hare Airport to other sites in the Chicago area • Provide monitoring results consistent with nationally available air toxics information that would allow for a comparison of Chicago area results to data collected for other large U.S. cities • 4. Determine if the target compound emissions from O’Hare Airport have a measurable impact on air quality in the surrounding communities.

4. 18 Core Toxic Pollutants VOC Metals Carbonyls Benzene Arsenic Acetaldehyde 1,3 Butadiene Beryllium Formaldehyde Carbon Tetrachloride Cadmium Choroform Chromium 1,2 dichloropropane Lead Methyl chloride Manganese Tetrachloroethylene Nickel Trichloroethylene Semi-volatile Polycyclic Organic Matter, Total PaH(s)

6. Laboratory Methods and Quality Assurance • 1. volatile organics (53 compounds) - TO-15, gas chromatography with mass • spectroscopy (confirmation) • 2. carbonyls (14 compounds) - TO-11a, high pressure liquid • chromatography • 3. semi-volatile organics (18 cmpds) - TO-13a gas chromotagraphy and mass • spectroscopy analysis • 4. particulate metals (8 compounds) - atomic absorption

9. Comparison of Results by Site Site Listing B – Bensenville S – Schiller Park C – Chicago Washington N – Northbrook L - Lemont

10. Comparison of Results by Site Site Listing B – Bensenville S – Schiller Park C – Chicago Washington N – Northbrook L - Lemont

13. Comparison of Results to Other U.S. Cities

16. Conclusions • The levels of air toxic compounds found near O’Hare Airport and at other sites in the Chicago metropolitan area are “typical” or lower that those levels found in other large U.S. cities. • Of the Chicago area sites, the highest levels of acetaldehyde and formaldehyde were found at the O’Hare Airport sites. However, the concentrations found were at levels comparable or lower than those found in other large U.S. cities. • Of the Chicago area sites, the highest levels of most air toxic compounds was not found near O’Hare Airport, but in industrialized Southeast Chicago. • An analysis of data from the sites near O’Hare Airport found that emissions from the airport have an impact on air quality in the areas adjacent to the airport. However, the airport’s impact did not result in levels higher than those found in a typical urban environment.