Atmospheric Mercury Initiative

A New NADP Initiative

A special meeting to consider a proposed new NADP initiative was held on May 1, 2006, in advance of the NADP spring meetings in Riverside, CA. The initiative was presented by the Mercury Dry Deposition Working Group (David Gay - NADP/Asst. Coordinator for Toxics, Eric Prestbo - MDN science advisor, Martin Risch - NADP/Network Operations Subcommittee, David Schmeltz - USEPA Office of Air and Radiation) and would complement the existing MDN, which measures wet-only mercury deposition.

The initiative seeks to measure event-based mercury wet deposition, air concentrations of mercury in its gaseous and particulate forms, and meteorological and land-cover variables needed for estimating dry deposition fluxes. The goals are:

  • facilitate the calculation of wet, dry, and total deposition;
  • provide data for evaluating predictive and diagnostic models and for assessing source-receptor relationships; and
  • build a data set for analyzing spatial and temporal trends.

The initiative proposes a national network of monitoring stations with a broad range of classifications, including: rural, suburban, and urban; near-source/high-emission; sensitive ecosystem; and regionally representative. Stations would follow standard operational procedures, based on methods developed from USEPA and other research efforts. Data would be quality-assured and accessible online from the NADP Web page.

On June 27, 2006, a second meeting was held in Chicago, IL. The focus of this meeting was development of guiding principles for monitoring atmospheric mercury. Please see the minutes and notes from this meeting, along with the current draft of the guiding principles for monitoring atmospheric mercury.

On April 9-10, 2007, a third meeting was held in Burlington, Vermont. The focus of this meeting was integration of experiences from states, universities, and consultants on operation of atmospheric mercury monitoring. A summary and minutes are available for this meeting.

On October 3 - 4, 2007, a second meeting was held in Chicago, IL. The focus of this meeting was development of the field SOP for monitoring atmospheric mercury. Please see the minutes and notes from this meeting. A draft of the field SOP for monitoring atmospheric mercury will be posted soon.

How NADP Handles Initiatives

The NADP Quality Management Plan includes a guide (Appendix D) for the presentation of new initiatives. This guide requires a plan that addresses 12 specific points covering purpose, operations, staffing needs and costs, funding, appropriateness to the NADP mission, etc. The NADP Executive Committee evaluates these plans and approves or rejects initiatives. A 12-point plan has been drafted for the mercury initiative. The plan has not been finalized and comments and suggestions are welcome (contact David Gay: dgay@uiuc.edu or 217-244-0462).