Problems in Air Quality Monitoring System Affect Data Reliability

The Clean Air Act requires the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish a nationwide air quality monitoring network, and each year EPA makes decisions, based on the data received from this network, which have significant impacts on the health and economic well-being of the nation's citizens. Accurate and reliable air quality data are essential in formulating many of these decisions, evaluating their impact, and determining future strategies. EPA has experienced serious difficulties in obtaining these data. GAO undertook this review to identify these problems and offer recommendations for corrective action.

GAO found that EPA progress in implementing the mandate of the act has been slow and costly and has not resulted in a reliable air monitoring network. Accurate air quality data are also essential for EPA enforcement of the Act and as a basis for establishing and revising the ambient air quality standards, which set the maximum allowable air pollutant levels. The first phase of this air monitoring effort was the establishment of the National Air Monitoring Stations network to provide air quality data to EPA. As of June 1982, 70 percent of the monitors required for the network were acceptable. However, even with full implementation of the network, EPA will not have fulfilled its air quality monitoring responsibilities; a state and local air monitoring stations network also is required to provide annual air quality data for the states' use in developing pollution control strategies. The air monitoring networks have not been completely implemented primarily because of a lack of approved quality assurance controls. To ensure data reliability, EPA has established requirements for collecting, processing, and reporting air quality data. However, EPA and the states did not follow these requirements and did not establish procedures needed to correct data handling problems. EPA is trying to determine the causes of data handling problems; however, its efforts are limited by a lack of procedures designed to identify those monitors which are not reporting air quality.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: Hugh J. Wessinger Team: General Accounting Office: Community and Economic Development Division Phone: (202) 275-5489