Title 1
Aeronautics

Chapter 7
The Permanent Air Quality Monitoring Act

§ 1-7-1. Long-term air-quality-monitoring program.

(a) The Rhode Island airport corporation (RIAC) shall design, acquire, install, operate, and maintain a long-term air-quality-monitoring program in the vicinity of Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport. The corporation may hire a consultant to perform these tasks.

(b) The monitoring program shall provide for the monitoring of all of the following:

(1) Particulate matter, including only particles less than 0.1 microns, and black carbon.

(2) [Deleted by P.L. 2017, ch. 220, § 1 and P.L. 2017, ch. 320, § 1.]

(3) [Deleted by P.L. 2017, ch. 220, § 1 and P.L. 2017, ch. 320, § 1.]

(c)(1) The design of the monitoring program shall:

(i) Include an implementation schedule for the components of the monitoring program set forth in subsection (b); and

(ii) Assure the quality and meaningfulness of the monitoring data; and

(iii) Be set forth in a draft work plan developed, in consultation with the department of environmental management and the department of health.

(2) The consultation with the department of environmental management and the department of health shall include, but not be limited to:

(i) Ensuring that peer review is employed in the development of an air-quality-monitoring strategy;

(ii) Providing the corporation with unbiased reviews of current, validated scientific knowledge relevant to air-quality monitoring and public health impacts;

(iii) Assisting with the review of work plans and reports;

(iv) Evaluating and comparing the corporation’s proposed methodologies, quality assurance procedures and monitoring criteria, with other relevant monitoring efforts mandated by either state or federal law in order to ensure consistency and comparability among the methodologies and criteria.

(d) The draft work plan and the final work plan shall describe and justify with reasonable specificity all significant aspects of the monitoring program, including, but not limited to: quality assurance procedures and a description and justification of the number, type, and location of the ambient air-quality monitors to be installed as part of the long-term monitoring program. The ambient air-quality monitors shall be set up in a network that shall include at least four (4) monitoring sites and shall be designed to measure air-quality impacts from airport operations, including those associated with planes operating on the extended runway and on neighborhoods adjacent to the airport facility, as well as at the Winslow Park playing fields.

(e) Notwithstanding the consultation requirement, the draft work plan shall be submitted to the department of environmental management and the department of health within thirty (30) days of the effective date of this section for review and comment, pursuant to chapter 35 of title 42. The departments shall provide comments within thirty (30) days of receipt of the draft work plan. Following the departments’ review and comment period, the draft work plan shall be made available for review and comment by members of the general public, and the air-quality-monitoring public advisory committee, established by this chapter, pursuant to chapter 35 of title 42. Adoption of the final work plan by the corporation shall be in accordance with chapter 35 of title 42. The final work plan shall be submitted to the governor, the speaker of the house of representatives, and the president of the senate by the corporation no later than October 30, 2007.

(f) The final work plan and all revised final work plans shall include a reasonable evaluation of funding sources, such as federal grants, that may be available to the corporation to cover some or all of the costs of the air-quality monitoring.

(g) Amendments to the final work plan may be proposed by the corporation in consultation with the department of environmental management and the department of health on or before March 30, 2009, and every March 30, thereafter. Amendments to the final work plan may also be proposed by the department of environmental management, the department of health, and/or the air-quality-monitoring public advisory committee on or before January 31, 2009, and every January 31, thereafter. Any proposed amendments to the final work plan shall be available for review and comment by members of the general public, and the air-quality-monitoring public advisory committee established by this chapter, pursuant to chapter 35 of title 42. The purposes of proposed amendments to the final work plan are: (1) To allow the corporation, in consultation with the department of environmental management and the department of health, to consider any adaptations that may be indicated by the data collected from the previous year, including whether new monitoring technologies, methodologies, or criteria are necessary; and (2) To make necessary adjustments to the program based on changes to state or federal regulations, or both. Any proposed amendments to the final work plan shall be incorporated into a “revised [as of this date] final work plan” document, upon approval of the corporation, and shall be submitted to the governor, the speaker of the house of representatives, and the president of the senate by the corporation no later than January 1 of each year.

(h) Long-term air-quality monitors will be procured and in effect by December 30, 2007. Interim monitoring shall be performed until such time as the long-term monitoring program is in place, and the use of all data generated therefrom shall conform with the reporting requirements set forth in § 1-7-6(b).