Date of Award

2014-01-01

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Civil Engineering

Advisor(s)

Wen-Whai Li

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine whether increasing ozone concentrations in 2012 and 2013 at the Santa Teresa air quality monitor in Doña Ana County, New Mexico were due to a local point source impacting this monitor only or part of a regional phenomenon that affects all the monitors within the Paso del Norte Region. In addition, the study focused on identifying local and regional/long-range source areas contributing transport ozone to the study area (southern Doña Ana County).

The study showed that increasing ozone levels were not unique to the Santa Teresa monitor due to the fact that all the monitors showed similar ozone peaks on high ozone days. This indicated ozone increases measured at the stations are a regional phenomenon experienced by all the stations. In addition, no point source was located upwind of the Santa Teresa monitor that showed a facility was contributing to the ozone concentration measured for 2012 and 2013.

Wind rose plots from 2006 to 2013 for the air quality monitors (6ZG-Sunland Park, 6ZM-Desert View, 6ZN-Santa Teresa and C12-UTEP) for high ozone days ( > 0.06 ppm) showed that the prevailing winds were from the east-southeast (ESE) direction, followed by an east (E) or southeast (SE) direction, which indicated local transport ozone is from the El Paso-Ciudad Juarez area approximately 20 percent to 50 percent of the time, depending on the year and monitor. In addition, the poorest air quality, ozone concentrations greater than 75 ppb, for these same years were observed when prevailing winds also arrived from an ESE, SE or E direction.

The HSYPLIT model utilized to develop a 72-hour trajectory cluster analysis for high ozone days for 2006, 2012 and 2013 showed that transport ozone arrived to the study area from a number of geographic regions. These regions were the Lower Rio Grande Valley and northern Mexican Border States (southeast); Baja California and Sonora (west), southern California and Southern Arizona (west), and central-northeast Texas (Dallas, Austin and San Antonio) and Oklahoma.

Language

en

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Size

148 pages

File Format

application/pdf

Rights Holder

Maria Aurelia Sisneros

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