Meeting convened at 10:30 am.

Members present:

1) Officers elected:

• Scotty Dossett, Chair
• John Gordon,Vice-chair
• Jane Rothert, Secretary

2) Minutes of previous meeting distributed by John Gordon.

Susan Smith had an amendment to the minutes of the previous meeting. Page 6, item 3, a sentence/line was left out. Scotty Dossett made the motion to add "Discussion ensued and motion withdrawn" to the minutes. Joel Frisch seconded the motion. Amendment to minutes approved. Joel Frisch presented a question to the chairman; what is the status of the revision/review of the Field Operators Manual. This topic was postponed as it was an agenda item later in the meeting.

3) Report of spring executive meeting:

There were 18 motions presented to the executive subcommittee from the joint meeting of the Network Operation, Data Management, and Effects Subcommittees. Three of these motions required approval of the Executive subcommittee. The three requiring approval are:

• a) elimination of the "dry-add" samples
  Action taken by the Executive Committee: A motion was made to eliminate analysis of "dry added" samples, effective October
  
  1. These samples will continue to be collected and shipped to the CAL, but will no longer be analyzed. MOTION PASSED.
  
  
• b) elimination of hardcopy NADP/NTN annual data report as a cost saving measure amendment
  Action taken by the Executive Committee: This motion was amended as follows:
  
  • Amendment #1:
    A cover page and explanatory text that is date independent will be added to the current on-line annual summary. The explanatory text will include a description of the program and ~8 pages of text to explain all of the fields in the annual summary.
  • Amendment #2:
    A limited number of printed copies of the finished on-line report will be provided to the Executive Committee so that they can have something tangible to give to managers and senior staff as needed.
• c) raingage refurbishment once every 5 years
  Action taken by the Executive Committee: Decision on the rate at which rain gages are replaced was deferred to the Budget Advisory Committee.
  
  
  

4) Jane Rothert gave the CAL report (see Attachment C).

Highlights included the following:

• Changes in personnel at the CAL
• Interlaboratory Comparison Studies results - the CAL looks excellent
• Network Equipment Depot (NED) - Scotty Dossett will discuss more fully
• AIRMoN update
  Gelman filters (polyethersulfone filters) will be replacing the Millipore filters (cellulose acetate filters) now in use at the CAL for sample filtration as of January 1, 1998.
• New new-bucket cleaning procedures to be introduced at the CAL

5) Gary Lear reported on the new site audit contract put out for bid by the EPA Office of Research and Development, with Tom Lumpkin as the contract supervisor. Advanced Technology Systems, Inc., ATS, in Pittsburgh, PA was awarded the new contract. The contract has been signed and begins Oct. 1, 1997. There is a three-month base period for ATS to learn about NADP and the audit program. The contract will soon be moving into the EPA Office of Acid Rain and Rosemary Wolfe will then be the contract supervisor. Contract is for $880K over four years. The auditors must visit 100 sites per year with audit results entered electronically in the field. Quarterly reports are to be sent to EPA all other reports to be sent to the Program Office (PO). There will be a one-week special training course with Scotty Dossett at the PO included in the three-month base time. At this time, no one in NADP has seen the actual contract.

6) Scotty Dossett talked about the Network Equipment Depot (NED). The NED has replaced the Coordination Office Equipment Depot (COED). Transfer of material from COED to NED began on 1 June. As of 1 September all replacement components are being sent to sites from the NED. The CAL is working with AeroChem Metrics and 2 local electronic repair companies to provide repaired parts. Stocks are sufficient at this time. Special packing material is being purchased by the PO to expedite shipping of supplies. They will go out when possible in the regular black boxes and inside clean buckets. The packing material and how it would be put together was demonstrated by Scott. Bar coding of all equipment is also on the agenda for the NED. The NED will be coordinated by Scotty Dossett.

7) Mark Nilles - Reported on the request to replace raingages in 2000-2001. He has received permission to put together a package to take to the Chief Hydrologist of the USGS to try to sell the budget requirements for the raingage replacement. Getting a budget approved involves several steps and he is progressing in these steps and feels that he is well within time limits to still see this budget approved.

Mon. meeting adjourned at 12 noon.

Tuesday NOS meeting, Oct. 7, 1997, 10 am

1) Report of the NADP Executive Committee meeting that was held on Mon., Oct. 6 was given by John Gordon.

• a) A sub-sampling policy for NADP and AIRMoN samples was discussed. There will be a one-year prohibition for active archived samples. There will be a 3-person committee to decide who gets available samples when there is more than one request for a single set of samples. This committee will be approved annually by the Executive Committee.
• b) The coordinator for the MDN will continue to be Molly Welker until Jan. 1, 1998. At that time the MDN coordination will move to the PO and a new coordinator will be hired.

2) Scotty Dossett continued his report. He discussed equipment retrieval from the Air Resource Services in Fort Collins, CO. According to Jim Wagner of the ARS, the PO has everything and that the PO owes them for three raingage repairs.

3) Winterization Notification update:

• a) Eight sites stay winterized all year long
• b) Five sites never winterize
• c) Eleven sites winterize in Dec. not Oct.
• d) All other sites winterize in Oct.

4) Mark Mesarch has weather statistics at the Univ. of Nebraska. Looking at weather changes in the last 60-80 year record.

5) The Site Operator Manual Revision Project was discussed. The current manual was written in 1988 with revisions for the bucket/bottle protocols in 1993. The personnel and equipment information is outdated. The new version will be in digital format so that it can be put on the World Wide Web and accessed through the NADP homepage. Nick Field has agreed to do a style review for Section 3. A new committee is needed for the overall review.

6) The Raingage Rebuild Project was discussed. Jim Osborne has refurbished one raingage at the PO. He can refurbish about one raingage per week. Currently there is a 25%-50% loss of refurbished raingages in shipping. It is currently premature to get monies for electronic raingages as none have been demonstrated to give measurements comparable to the Belfort gage. Other raingage options need to be looked into.

7) Dossett notes that there is a need to discuss the current siting manual and questionnaire sent out to new sites.

8) Cari Furiness asked why the sites are still doing field measurements. Some Reasons to keep

• 1) useful QA tool. Rothert noted that the CAL relies on the field measurements as an important QA check when verifying and finalizing the data. It is often a very helpful troubleshooting tool when discrepancies are found that need to be resolved.
• 2) because the network is not measuring organic acids pH is subject to change from the time it is collected to the time it arrives at the CAL for analysis.
• 3) site operator interest- Lee Maull, a site operator at FL99, expressed his support for field measurements. Lee said that if site operation was reduced to weekly bucket changing, his interest in the program would be lost, and he felt that many other site operators would feel this way also. There was discussion that the field measurements also provide real-time information to site operators, which is an important incentive to many sites for their continued participation.
• 4) valuable long-term record - Gordon pointed out that the field measurement database is the only long-term pH database for the network not effected by bias and specifically not effected by the step change resulting from the 1994 protocol change.

Mark Nilles moved to make field measurements optional at NADP/NTN sites as of 1 Jan 1998. Scotty Dossett seconded. 4 affirmative, 3 negative, 2 abstained. Passed. (Did not pass at the Technical Meeting on Thurs. night.)

NOS joined by Data Management Subcommittee at 11:30:

Luther Smith expressed concern over the transition period when the CO shifted the data to the PO. Bob Gilpin will be employed at the CO until March. Bob Larson has been hired by the PO to be in charge of the data at the PO. There will be several trips between the CO and the PO for both Bob L. and Bob G. to expedite the transition. Data should in no way be compromised. Luther said he was satisfied.

Joint meeting adjourned at 12 noon.

Minutes submitted by Jane Rothert