New York, NY, United States, 09/29/2021
Scientists are working to find out why some air pollutants rose in Austin even though traffic decreased as fewer cars were on the roads of Austin in the spring of 2020. An analysis of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s data conducted by the Capital Area Council of Governments or CAPCOG found that concentrations of nitrogen dioxide and ground-level ozone were lower in the last 2 weeks of March 2020 than the same weeks of March 2017, March 2018, and March 2019.
CAPCOG director of regional planning and services Andrew Hoekzema says that nitrogen dioxide and ground-level ozone are pollutants that are heavily affected by transportation. Hoekzema was surprised as of all the pollutants generally carbon monoxide was the one that’s most affected by transportation emissions.
Hoekzema explained that although CAPCOG was “most surprised”, but “least concerned” with its discovery about increased levels of carbon monoxide in the environment despite the fact that nitrogen dioxide and ground-level ozone levels decreased in the same time period. Hoekzema further added that “even with an increase the levels (of CO) are very low compared to what would cause health concerns.”
The City of Austin has contracted with CAPCOG to conduct a study to determine why levels of carbon monoxide and particulate matter increased in March 2020 despite the decline in traffic.
Phoebe Romero, of CAPCOG’s March report, said that “It really points to the fact that we need to expand the way that we think about air quality.” According to Hoekzema, there can be a number of reasons behind the spike in levels of these pollutants. He says that vehicle speed impacts emissions, along with vehicle type. He further added that “We saw large decreases in traffic volumes on the road but most of those traffic volumes are from personal vehicles, and those are much smaller and have much fewer emissions per mile than say an 18-wheeler-truck.”
Increased delivery services putting more trucks on the road is one of the many theories that will be investigated during the course of the study. The impact of changing work patterns on power consumption will also be examined. Romero added that “Any opportunity that we have to examine air quality and to further isolate variables that we know typically affect it is an opportunity that we’re going to take.”
Source: https://aircentraltexas.org/en/news/study-to-examine-why-some-air-pollutants-rose-in-austin-as-traffic-decreased
Source 2: https://www.fox7austin.com/news/study-to-examine-why-some-air-pollutants-rose-in-austin-as-traffic-decreased
Source: Story.KISSPR.com
