On April 3, 2024, the Bay Area Air District’s (Air District) Board of Directors approved the implementation of a new community particulate matter sampling program in areas surrounding the Bay Area’s five refineries. This program aims to better understand the impacts of unplanned industrial incidents on nearby communities by measuring and characterizing larger particles associated with unplanned incidents.
The program fills a gap in the Air District’s ambient air monitoring program by sampling large particles that are not measured by other monitoring methods (e.g., PM2.5 and PM10 monitors).
As part of the program, the Air District maintains a network of fixed, continuously available, sampling locations that allow for the timely collection and laboratory analysis of deposited material following an incident. The map shows the locations of all fixed sampling sites in the refinery community.