Despite tremendous efforts toward regulating and controlling tropospheric ozone (O{sub}3) formation, a large portion of the U.S. population presently lives in environments where air quality exceeds both 1- and 8-h National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) set for O{sub}3. High O{sub}3 concentrations annually cost the United States billions of dollars in excessive human health costs, reduced crop yields, and ecological damage. This paper describes a regional networking of O{sub}3 monitoring sites, operated by the public, that used simplified passive sampling devices (PSDs). In collaboration with EPA Region 6, a lay network (i.e., Passive Ozone Network of Dallas, acronym POND), consisting of 30 PSD sites in the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) Metroplex, a region representing 16 counties, successfully measured daily ozone during 8 weeks of the 1998 high ozone season. It was demonstrated that the concerned public, when properly trained, could successfully operate a large PSO network that requires daily sample handling and weekly mailing procedures, even from remote sites. Data treatment of the 2880 POND measurements included (i) high correlations with collocated continuous monitoring data p range = 0.95-0.97, (ii) daily O{sub}3 contour mapping of the 24 000 km{sup}2 area, and(iii) a ranking of O{sub}3 severity in 12 periurban counties for guidance in siting additional monitors. With a new 8-h NAAQS standard now in place, a cost-effective network such as POND could aid regional airshed models in generating meaningful guidance for O{sub}3 state implementation plans (SIPs) by providing input that is representative of both rural and urban sites.
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