About
TAMS Center Staff – Early Years
The first staff members of the TAMS Center included: Leroy Williams, ITEP Co-Director, Greg Budd, EPA Co-Director,
Loretta Yazzie, Admin Assistant, Doug Evans EPA Technology Specialist. Mr. Williams served in the position for four
months and then moved on. Annabelle Allison then replaced Leroy Williams in the ITEP TAMS Co-Director position for
almost two years. Greg Budd left his position as the EPA TAMS Co-Director in late 2002 and was replaced by George
Dilbeck in early 2003. Loretta Yazzie left the TAMS Center in 2001 and Lee Rose was hired in late 2001 as the TAMS
Administrative Assistant.
Since 2000, the TAMS Center has been a source of technical assistance and training for tribal environmental professionals
across Indian Country. In the early and formative years, the focus of the TAMS Center was particulate matter sampling.
Filter-based particulate monitoring was used widely by tribal air quality programs across the country, but the complex and
technical nature of this work required training and other support services. For this reason, the TAMS Center began
offering technical training courses on operation, maintenance, troubleshooting, and calibration of various particulate
samplers, such as Mini-Vols, High-Vols, and Federal Reference Method (FRM) PM2.5 samplers.
Over the years, the TAMS Center began introducing new training courses to meet the ever increasing demand of tribal air
programs in areas such as continuous monitoring, meteorological monitoring, indoor air quality, and monitoring criteria
pollutants other than particulate matter, such as ozone and NOx.
As the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began placing more emphasis on documents such as Quality Assurance Project
Plans (QAPPs) and Data Quality Objectives (DQOs), and requiring them to be included in the grant proposals from eligible
tribes, the TAMS Center began addressing the need by offering courses in data management, QAPP, and Air Quality System (AQS).
In addition to training courses, the TAMS Center has continually provided individualized training and technical
support to tribal professionals through its Professional Assistance program. This program allows TAMS Center staff
to respond to requests from tribes by providing direct on-site assistance as well as responding to numerous telephone
and email inquiries. Frequency of such requests also helps TAMS staff to identify possible classroom training course
topics.
The TAMS Center also offers other services to assist tribes with their air monitoring projects. A gravimetric laboratory
provides filters and service to tribes at no cost to the tribes. This service began in 2002 and was active through 2014
which offered the Gravimetric services on site (at the TAMS Center). This service is no longer provided to the tribes
through the TAMS Gravimetric Laboratory since it closed down in September 2014. A commercial Gravimetric Laboratory was
contracted to continue service to the tribes. During this transition, the continuous filter weighing service to the tribes
never suffered.
An equipment loan service is another service that is available to the tribes at no cost. The equipment loan program
contains monitoring equipment for both Indoor and ambient efforts. After receiving the equipment request, the EPA TAMS
Co-Director will execute a simple loan agreement between the tribe and the agency for the duration of the loan. Equipment
is always accompanied by calibration standards as they are needed for installation and calibration of the instruments at
the tribal sites. TAMS Technical Specialist will be available for in person assistance if needed.
For more information about TAMS Center, please contact:
TAMS Center
702/784-8264
Darlene.Santos@nau.edu